why is one of my minnow( feeder fish) chasing other minnows? are they agressive?? do they kill each other?

Question

are they agressive?? do they kill each other? it keep chasing other feeder fishes. i dont know anything about them ... did some research but there wasnt many good infos

Answer 1

More than likely it's a males chasing females really. They aren't generally aggressive and don;t usually chase each other except for breeding.

MM

Answer 2

Most of the minnows sold as feeders as rosy reds. They are not usually aggressive unless the male has determined it's "cave". I did have one that seemed to declare the entire tank his cave and attacked everything in there so he had to move. Once a male has defined it's territory (it chooses a cave like structure) then it will attack almost anything that gets close except for females. They have been known to attack fish 10 times their size while protecting their territory. Personally, I've only seen them go after fish 5 times their size.

It's possible it's trying to encourage females into it's cave, but from the sounds of it, it's just warning other males away. They are probably still determining dominance. If you put some items in there that will serve as secondary caves for the other males, it might help relieve some of the aggression.

Answer 3

We have a few minnows, the biggest one picks on every fish in the tank, but no one has killed anyone yet, and it's been about 2 weeks.
They can be territorial, but the fish should be OK.
Unfortunatly without knowing what type of minnow, I can't say much more.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Maybe it's the alpha male? I don't know. Maybe even minnows like to dominate each other.

Answer 5

possibly because of breeding... don't worry too much on it...=) its the males that usually do this. they are not that aggressive but its their instincts to do this...=)