mean red eye tetra

[Crissyloach]

my r.e. tetra has been chasing my other fish and nipping their fins. i currently have him in a breeding trap and i am thinking of checking if the pet store will take him from me. i am not sure what to do. Any opinions?

Thx

:)

[chefkeith]

I'd just start a new tank specifically for the red eye tetra's. As with any schooling fish, they do better in large groups with their own kind. They are highly active mid-dwellers and you shouldn't mix them with less active mid or top dwelling fish.

[Crissyloach]

I am not sure what I am going to do with this little guy. He took a chunk out of my dwarf neon rainbow`s fin. The problem with this fish is he is 2x the size of the other FULL GROWN r.e.'s

[Diana]

Some individual fish are simply more aggressive/nippy/pushy or whatever than average for their species. Your mean Red Eye might be this way. He is just at the more aggressive end of the bell curve, and there is not much you can do.

Yes, most schooling fish will do better in a school. Schooling fish kept as a single do seem more likely to harass the other fish in the tank, and long fins make attractive targets.
Yes, even schooling fish have a range of behavior that is normal for the species, and some fish fall at an extreme end of this range. Most are pretty much average, that is what a bell curve is. But there are always some fish at the far ends. You do not run into them too often, but when you do the meaner ones can cause a lot of problems.

If this fish is causing such problems then the best thing to do is to isolate him. Either in a tank at your house or in a tank at the store.