leopard danios and white cloud minos

Question
Hi there, first question is I have 5 white cloud minos and I
have noticed that one of them is very thin and small just
like when I first got them and the others have grown, I am
quite worried about it because it obviously isnt getting
food, will it be ok? How can I ensure it gets fed so it can
grow like the others?

Second question is that I also have 4 leopard danios, all in
a 14 litre tank, the leopard danios are very greedy and seem
to be eating all the food and are getting big tummies, is
this dangerous? What can I do??

Thank you

Answer
Hello Jenna,

Danios will overpower the White Clouds.  It is nature...they are faster and consume more food, but they usually don't pick on each other unless someone is wandering into their group.  I would  not worry too much, however if it gets really bad, you might separate the schools into different aquariums.

The Danios will eat more.  They are larger and require more food.  The White Clouds are going to be fine.  Supply the right amount of food (whatever they eat in a 2 minute time frame) once a day, and the fish should be fine.

The White Cloud who is having issues sounds like he's thin because he has something internal going on.  My guess is it's parasitic.  He needs to be removed from the school, and put into a hospital tank (a small aquarium with sufficient heating and filtration) and medicated with an anti-parasitic medication to get rid of this.  When he's done being medicated (say, a week from now) you can return him to the group.

Don't medicate the entire tank.  Instead, remove the one who isn't doing so good, medicate him and treat him and then return him to the tank.

Now, if in the future the rest of them start losing weight, then you might want to consider an entire tank treatment.

I would get him out of the school and hospitalize him, especially because of his symptoms.  Parasites are contagious in many cases, and can spread throughout the tank.  Poor little guy is also suffering.  He needs to maintain a healthy body weight in order to live his life appropriately.

I hope this is helpful.  Happy holidays and happy fish-keeping!

Renee