Hi all. I currently have a black skirt tetra, colombian tetra, & male guppy in my 15 gal. I now know the tetras are shoalers but at the time I didn't, & I've jsut had some kind of disease pass thru my tank killing 5 so I don't want to introduce any more at the moment. My problem is my colombian - he's the biggest of the lot, probably about 1 1/2 inch & he is an absolute psychopath. My guppy & esp. my black skirt have many rips in fins/tail from him chasing them endlessly, even though I do have a plastic plants & caves, etc. in there. He never stops, & sometimes corners my black skirt & I think he's gonna kill it but then it wriggles out & goes underneath or something & gets away. I really don't know what to do with him. Even when I'm sure there's no more disease in the tank, should I get my black skirts 2 friends even though he'd be bigger than them, just to give him a bit more security? I've read that colombians are "peaceful shoalers," but my guy's definitely not peaceful, & I'm not sure a shoal would survive if i gave him one!! So do u think I should give my colombian his own tank - & what kind of tank mates could he have?? I've inherited a 12(ish) gallon tank which I could put him in or else I could put the others in there & leave him in the bigger one - but still, what tankmates?? Argh!! Thanx heaps.

I would have to say that he will probably calm down if given some more of his own kind to live with. I currently have 3 and they are very peaceful, other than the occasional chase.

Thanx tsr. I'm currently treating for early stages of finrot, fairly successfully so far. When it's done, I'm going to buy a small tank just for him because my lfs now thinks him stressing everyone out is probly why everyone else's been up & dying (guppy died couple days ago, just black skirt left + colombian). I know they're meant to be peaceful in shoals but I wouldn't be game enough to put anything with him - he even attacks my apple snail, so he'll have to get his own little tank. What would be the smallest size tank I could put him in? Thanx.

If it is just him, he could be in a maybe 5 gallon tank. But like I said, he would be much happier in a shoal of at least 3 or more of his own type. Maybe a 10 gallon with 4 or 5 columbians would be a better choice.
I brought home some congo tetras yesterday, and my columbians seem to have taken to them, trying to shoal with them if you would.

We've got 7 of them - and they are the most scardy ones in there...

I once put a lettice leaf in for them to eat.... and the ran away and freeked out (we're talking jumping out the water and burrowing in the gravel!!) normally they are peacefull and shoal nicely. they never bite anything (unless your a plant - and then your days are numbered)

I dont like keeping single fish... if possible i always go for 4 or more....

Where abouts are you? we may be looking to re-home say 3 of ours...

hold on - i'm loosing it...

we've not got any

we've got buenos aires tetras - sorry

Thanx all. Smithrc - thanx for the offer but even if they were colombians, I'm in Australia so I don't think that would've worked well but thanx anyways.

I've done a backflip - finally found an lfs here that sells colombians & DANG I'VE FINALLY FOUND AN LFS THAT KNOWS ITS STUFF!!! Ok, so I'm going to finish treating for fin/tail rot (which is nearly cleared up), then I'm going to get 3 more colombians, + 2 more black widows for this tank (provided I can find a place that has them, hopefully this lfs will by then)....provided this black widow survives the next week or so (to finish treatment) - the lady at the lfs told me to majorly rearrange the tank to try to stop some of the aggression, which I'd tried before but did it again. Colombian's happy as larry but worried about my black widow now - has so many new nips out of his "skirt" & hardly comes out of his newly discovered cave, except for feeding. My only other alternative would be to give him to this lfs - even though I didn't buy him from there, she offered to take him if he doesn't settle down so I guess that's good, but will try the shoal thing first.

The other thing I wanted to ask is about my pH - it's absurdly high, at least 7.5 (test kit only reads up to there). Tap water tests at approx. 7.0, & even not long after water changes it's still high. As far as I know, I don't have limestone or anything else in there that could be doing this. I don't want to play with chemicals but I've read that tetras much prefer around 7.0 or less - any ideas? I was thinking maybe if I put a bit of bogwood (presoaked) in coz I've read that it would slowly leech acids into the water but I'm not real sure it'd be a great idea........

Also, I know this probably isn't really the place, but I've been reading a lot about blue rams (dwarf butterfly cichlids) & that they like being in with shoals of tetras & have similar water param. requirements. What do u guys think of this idea? Would I be too overcrowded if I had 1 ram, 3 black widows, & 4 colombians + my 1 small apple snail?

Thanx, sorry this got so long, hope it makes sense!!

Michelle.

Well I got me 3 more colombians today & they seem to have settled in fine. My formerly psychopathic guy is now happily shoaling with his new found friends, & even my black widow joins in the fun I'm going to get my black widow a shoal next week, the lfs is getting them in for me, so soon they'll all have friends YAY : Thanx heaps for all your help everyone, ur all champs!! Cyas.