why are my neon tetra fighting

Neon tetra chasing each other oh jeez not another neon tetras fish fight. Words we hear often as these amazing little fish are a bit feisty. Let us take a deeper look are neon tetra’s aggressive and their general persona.

Come with me as we go swimming with the neon tetra let’s find out more about our neon tetra behavior.

I’ll start by giving you a brief overview of neon tetras fighting and explain if your neon tetra acting aggressive is serious or is it a case of are my fish fighting or playing.

Why Are My Neon Tetras Fighting

Overstocking bad water conditions and not enough hiding places causing stress as well as not having enough tetras for schooling are the main reasons for fighting. Also, they could be aggressively playing/mating.

Neon Tetras Chasing Each Other 

Neon tetras are awesome but they can be by nature a little tetchy. These little fish have big personalities and sometimes they clash. Tetras will chase each other for a few reasons. One of the biggest reasons is simply dominance yes neons have a pack order.

Sometimes they’re just sorting out who the guvnor is. Another big problem is space they may be tiny tiny fish but they need a lot of room to swim. Overcrowding and or the tank being too small can course issues.

Next well if they’re anything like me this could be top of the list food yeah you heard me food. Having a place to eat and another fish takes your food that’s not on its fighting time.

It’s possible the fish are just stressed or being playful and of course last but not least they could be courting yes you know there may be some hanky panky I mean your fish are gonna mate.

Most of these problems are minor but please make sure they have enough room. You always need the right size tank for the size of fish. Remember 6 fish will need around a 20-gallon tank.

Are Tetras Aggressive?

Are tetras aggressive no more than any other fish. They get a bad rap because there kept in bigger groups and need a pack order in much the same way dogs do. Please don’t misunderstand they should be in big groups in fact the bigger the better I think.

It’s just them finding the order of the group. If we understock them they will get restless stressed and become ill neon tetras can even die if not in a group. Neon tetras are very playful fish feisty but not overly aggressive.

Are Neon Tetras Fin Nippers

Yep, they will nip other fishes’ fins. Neon tetras are peaceful fish but occasionally they can get nippy. This usually happens if a few tetras stray away from the group and get caught in another fish area.

Even though it’s the tetras that are scared and in trying to reengage with the group may nip a fin or two in order to escape strange but true.

On occasion other fish try to join the tetra collective and much like the borg they assimilate. Er no they don’t really like other fish joining they fin nip until the other fish gets the point and leaves.

Although I have had true neon tetras and cardinal tetras schooling together which is awesome.

Black Neon Tetra Aggressive

Neon tetra are all of the same levels of aggressiveness there’s no disenable difference between the types of neon tetras or tetras that I’ve seen.

We’ve had green neon and black neon tetras school together we’ve had true neon and cardinal tetra school together. One tank we had a few years back we had a group of true neon tetras that got decimated a couple died and there were only 4-5 left. I can’t remember the exact amount anyway believe it or not we ended up with those true neons a couple of cardinals and a rummy nose tetra all schooling together with no issues.

Amazing I know it’s enough to make your eyes water. To reiterate no black neon tetra are no more aggressive than any other neon tetra.

Neon Tetra Behavior 

Well-behaved calm chilled little fish with a huge personality but can get defensive if lost from the group sometimes a bit overly playful.

On the whole, the behavior is awesome they love schooling about looking cool. Have had many different groups of neon tetra and mostly all is good. It depends on the choice of tank mate and the overall conditions of the tank.

If the tank keeps having issues then you run the risk of stressing the fish causing illness and that goes for any species or type of fish. Again if you overcrowd your tank with fish it will cause infection and disease or other problems.

Always do good research and add fish slowly to check their behavior together things usually work out, especially with neons. Sometimes we have to see first hand even after doing the research. Some time ago we put neons in with some mollies seems normal. You would have thought yeah awesome nope world war three broke out they couldn’t live together.

To this day I don’t know why this happened just a bad molly or maybe a bit of both being bad but hay we’ve since tried again and it was indeed awesome.

Neon Tetra Mating Behavior

What can I say about neon tetra mating behavior and neon tetra breeding behavior in general? (.) When preparing to couple the female will release a scent to let the males know she is indeed ready for courting.

After she has let the boys know the most suitable male the one that is usually more dominant alpha. Let’s say the main man swims over and well he dances. Yeah, he dances around her showing his moves and his amazing colors. Then he just stops right in front of her now she either accepts and they swim off together or not it’s that simple.

Neon Tetra Breeding Leading To Fighting

The processes involved in breeding and mating can lead to fighting. As we know the female releases a scent and lets everyone know she’s ready. In turn, this alerts the males and they will start chasing her.

Until it gets to the point of two or more males fighting it out over who is going to be the one to get with her.

As you can see there’s a lot of chasing and a bit of fin nipping there may be other fish that get caught in the crossfire but on the whole things sort themselves out.

There’s an order to things in the group there’s a ranking system for both males and females so it usually works out pretty fast as to who is going to couple up.

Why Are My Neon Tetras Fighting Conclusion

In concluding this Neon tetras fish fight article by asking are your neon tetras fighting? Or are my fish fighting or playing? (.) The answer is all in neon tetra behavior are tetras aggressive no more than other fish really.

Neon tetras chasing each other is perfectly normal and as we have read here today it doesn’t always mean your neon tetra is acting aggressively. It could be that crazy neon breeding behavior when these fish couple there’s a specific mating behavior that takes place.

In no way does this mean neon tetras fighting again are they fin nippers yes sometimes but it’s more their personality. They are just letting you know something wrong. Neon tetras are amazing I love them they will sort most of their issues out themselves as they have a system a pack order so to speak.

All the neons will do this black neon tetra aggressive no more so than any other green neon tetras true neon tetras long fin neon tetras they are all similar tiny tiny fish with a big personality. 

Why are they fighting well pack order feeding areas to get back to the pack or they might not be fighting at all they could just be playing or indeed mating.

Hope you enjoyed the read and please feel free to look around our site for more interesting content. You can always search under the tags tetra and neon tetra for more on those subjects.