Bad Tetras Bad!

[omega59]

after setting up my new tank i moved the red eye tetras and cardinals in and later on in the evening put two platies in with them. I thought these fish were compatible??? boy was i wrong!

within minutes the red eye tetras started chasing and niping the hell out of the platy lol
i had to remove them asap!

i got 4 red eyes tetras
5 cardinal tetras

and the tank is very well planted so they are very secured in their space.
so what gives?

 

[Colin_T]

tetras are schooling fish and need to be kept in groups. In the wild they live in schools of thousands so even 4 in a tank is very un-natural for them. Red-eyes are known fin nippers and will have a go at many fish, especially when there are only a few of them. Either increase their number or get rid of them.
Other fin nipping tetras include: black widow or black skirt, serpae, columbian & beunos aires.

 

[Duck and Dive]

Agreed. Tetras need to be kept in groups of a fair size 10 or more.

 

[omega59]

so does that mean i have to buy more of the red eyes and cardinals??

 

[Madam Macaw]

I have red eyed tetras and black widows. When I placed seven of my large molly fry in the tank, the black widows were fine, it was the red-eyed tetras that went after them. I think it has to do with the smaller size. I put them in the 55 gallon tank with the full size mollies and they are fine.

 

[omega59]

oh, well in a few weeks i have to go pickup my new tank lid i ordered, i'll grab a few red eyes and maybe cardinals.. depends how much they are. so you think a total of 6 is enough for them, i'll grab 2 more if so.

 

[Colin_T]

it depends on how big the tank is. If the tank is big enough I would recommend trying to get their numbers up to 8 or 10.

 

[emmsy]

I've had redeye tetras and they are nasty. Anything smaller than them they eat. Not popular with me.

Emma

 

[omega59]

it's a long 20gal tank. 30x12x18 i believe are the dimentions.

 

[Colin_T]

in that size tank you could have a couple of schools of 10 tetras but I wouldn't put any more platies in the tank. If you want to keep platies then get rid of the red-eyes and just have platies and cardinals.

 

[omega59]

yeah i'm thining of removing the red eyes. i'll give it to my lfs when i go to pickup my tank lid.

 

[Colin_T]

trade them in for some store credit if you can. At least then you will get something back for them. It won't be as much as you paid but some is better than none

 

[omega59]

yeah i was thinking of that LOL
thanks!