Endlers hurt by Floating Plant?

[moondancer]

Hi all,

I recently (about 3 weeks ago?) bought some endlers livebearers to go in my 240L tank. At the same time, I also bought a couple of new plants and some Amazonian Frogbit, as I'd heard they like some surface cover.

A couple of days ago I saw that 2 endlers had gotten tangled in the frogbit roots and couldn't get out. I scooped them into a jug to try and see what was going on; it seemed like they'd somehow gotten stuck to the hairs on the roots and each other. I tried to separate them, but they became stressed so I put them back in the main tank to see if they could free themselves. They seemed to be trying to saw the strand off on the leaf of an anubias. A while later I couldn't see them attached anymore and presumed they'd gotten free, and I took out all the frogbit from the tank.

Today, one of the endlers that was attached, and no longer is, was sat on the sand at the bottom of the tank and flapping his fins a lot. I have seen him swimming but his dorsal fin was sad and low and his anal fin seemed straggly? It had sort of strands on it?

I really don't know what to do - all water parameters are normal and all other fish seem fine. I've never heard of floating plants hurting little fish before. If anyone has any idea what might have happened and is wrong with my little guy I would greatly appreciate any help (I'm not new to fishkeeping, but I am to floating plants and endlers). I just want to help him get better.

Thanks.

[Martinspuddle]

Greetings & welcome to

That really would be a first but highly unlikely. Male Endlers are somewhat small and can be bullied by larger fish, what else are you keeping in your aquarium?

A course of API Melafix should help him heal.

[moondancer]

They’re in with black neon tetras, Pygmy corydoras and Amano shrimp who had been living together for 3 years with no issues. When I added the endlers at first the tetras were a bit scared and stayed in a big group on one side of the tank, but now they don’t mind feeding together and are very chilled out generally - no signs of bullying from what I can see (they’re the daftest fish I’ve ever had).

Thank you for the recommendation of the medicine - I’ll order some now!

[Martinspuddle]

My Endlers do end up in some strange places and also I have to be careful during water changes as I found them stuck inside my Eheim StreamOn pumps before now.