Hi,

I have recently bought my first fish - Flame Tetra's and they have been in my tank for almost a day now. I was expecting them to school/shoal/group but they are all spread out individually around the tank and a few chase the others around when they get close.

As I'm a total Newbie I'm not sure if they are being aggressive / territorial or if this is normal in the early stages of acclimatizing to a new environment?

They were all huddled together in the bag they were supplied in when I was acclimatizing them to my tank.

I have also bought some Corydoras Sterbai and they are constantly together.

Is this behavior concerning or normal?

As always your feedback and advice will be much appreciated.


Andy

This post has been edited by Aqua Andy: Aug 19 2005, 02:54 PM

I haven't kept these ones specifically, but many tetra's show some aggression and get 'nippy' toward each other, so I wouldn't worry. That they are spread out is also a good sign, it means they're comfortable.

Thanks freddyk.

Thats reasuring to know.


Andy

Schooling/shoaling is a defensive behaviour. It is rarely observed in small crowded tanks. Large tanks with a lot of open water will often be better to see schooling as the fish feel more threatened.

A group of tetras, (many fish in fact), when moved to a new environment will chase each other about to establish the "pecking order" in the new quarters. It rarely causes any damage. I assume you have a reasonable sized group, say 6 fish or more. Less can become problematic where the least dominant fish gets picked on and can be damaged or killed.

Otherwise, what you have described is quite normal.

My girlfriend and I saw these labeled as Orange Von Rio tetras at the local Petsmart. She liked them. I wanted to dig up more information on them before bringing them home. After googling for about an hour I think these fish would do well in my 55 gallon community tank.

What I have observed so far is that one of the Tetra has assumed an Alpha status in the tank and a couple of the tetra are not only being aggressive to other Tetra but also to my juvenile Cory.

I have 6 of these in my 29 gallon tank and theyre almost never schooling around the tank like my neons. They do get a bit rowdy with eachother but i wouldn't worry about it, they dont seem to do any damage. Their beauty easily makes up for all this IMO.

I have 6 of these in my 29 gallon tank and theyre almost never schooling around the tank like my neons. They do get a bit rowdy with eachother but i wouldn't worry about it, they dont seem to do any damage. Their beauty easily makes up for all this IMO.

One of my Flame Tetra has very sadly died.