# One tetra is always shunned, any ideas?



## alcimedes (Dec 7, 2014)

I've found in the past that when you have fish that really like to school in nice, tight groups, you'll sometimes have an outlier.

This fish is basically excluded from the school, and in my experience that fish is often times at the end of their life. (either through age, or sickness)

In almost every case, if I have say a single neon tetra that isn't allowed to school with the rest of the neon's, that loner will usually not last a week before passing on.

HOWEVER, I have *one* neon tetra that has been getting shunned by the rest of the school (20+ neons) since January. As far as I can tell, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this one neon. However, which ever side of the tank he/she is on, the rest of the school is on the other side.

What do I do with the odd fish out in this case? Should I remove him/her from the tank and see if they are better accepted elsewhere? Or is it better to keep it with a school of similar fish that exclude it.

I could move the neon to an endler tank I have, it wouldn't have anyone to school with, but right now this neon never schools with any other fish anyway.

Any ideas as to why it's being shunned, and/or ways to get this sad excluded fish included again?

(Originally the fish was shunned from the all Neon Tetra school. Then I picked up another 8 or so cardinal tetras from someone getting out of the hobby. The cardinals schooled right up with all the neons, leading to one giant school, but this originally excluded neon is being excluded from the combined group as well, going on 4+ months)


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

A flippant answer is 'There is one in every crowd' (or excluded from the crowd). 

A more serious answer, and this is just a possibility:
This fish would be the lowest ranking fish, and is getting tired of being pushed around. Would rather be apart from the school. 

As you have noticed, the isolated fish is often sick, or close to dying. This does not seem to be the case here, though. 

I would move this one in with the Endlers. 
Endlers are not such tight schoolers, so there ought to be a few that the Neon could hang around with.


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## BrynnaCC (Jan 5, 2014)

I have a tetra that hangs out on his own. Does your tetra school with the rest when frightened or is he alone then as well? I assume my loner just likes more space and he seems to be okay. Do you actually see him getting picked on? If not I'd just leave him in there.


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## C10H12N2O (Nov 13, 2014)

I've kept a lot of neons in the past and have some other tetras at the moment - and I often had that one tetra who marches to the beat of his own drum. The loner. The cool kid. He doesn't need anybody else. He was schooling before it was cool but now it's too cool and he's not into it. 

But to be serious - unless you see him being picked on, or the school actively excludes him (he tries to join them and they all swim away) I would just leave him in there, much like what Brynna said. If he is getting picked on and excluded, see how he does with the endlers. Hope this helps!


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## AdamTill (Jan 22, 2015)

I noticed one of my school of cardinals is always off exploring on its own, but it rejoins the school if frightened or during feeding time. The biggest one squabbles a bit with the others at times and pushes them off temporarily, but eventually gives up.

Never worried about it, but definitely noticeable. Most times I end up counting 6+1 (school + loner) when it comes time to do the "not dead" count.


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## alcimedes (Dec 7, 2014)

He's being excluded but not picked on.

If he/she swims over to the school, they'll swim someplace else, but the fish isn't being attacked by anyone.

Usually it's just sitting in a corner of the tank, hanging out inside the center of one of the sword plants.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

This is something that I've seen in a number of different animals as well as people. Seems to just be part of the selection process. Currently I have it going on with a single albino cory. I finally spotted the reason. Due to the skin of albino, I'm able to see that this fish has a crooked spine although it is able to swim and appears to be normal. This is not something that the natural process of selection would want to pass on so perhaps nature in it's own cruel way provides for the genes to be weeded out by the other fish not associating and therefore breeding with this one? 
I might infer that your fish has a defect of some type that the other fish know but we don't? In cattle it can be something as hard to spot as a loss of hearing.


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## BrynnaCC (Jan 5, 2014)

I think that's the point of biodiversity. In the wild, that one fish might be predated, but on the other hand, if the other fish got sick, he'd be the survivor and his loner genes might get passed on should he find another school.


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## alcimedes (Dec 7, 2014)

Sounds like as long as the fish isn't being directly harassed, it's fine to leave them in the tank. If it seems like it's becoming a problem, I can always rehome the fish.

Thanks!

My guess would be there's something genetically wrong with this fish as well, and it's just not obvious enough to see with the naked eye. I did see the fish swimming with a small school of 3 other neons this morning, so maybe it's not as bad as I'd thought.


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