Black Skirt Tetras

jcabs100 · Nov 29, 2011

Do black skirt tetras stay more to the middle-top section of the tank as I have corys neons and a bolivian who stay close to the bottom and I'd like some middle-top section fish and fish suggestions other then black skirt tetras

comocrayfish5 · Nov 29, 2011

i dont have any but i think tetras are middle tank swimmers. the only thing i've had were neon tetras and they swam in the middle.

jcabs100 · Nov 29, 2011

Really I have 9 right now and they're just camping around the bottom a lot I have no clue why I've seen people who also have neons and they stay fairly to the middle but mine just wanna be different I guess...maybe in a larger pact they'll stay around the middle

eaglesaquarium · Nov 29, 2011

Is your tank planted? Are there hiding places? Believe it or not, you will see your fish more, when they have more hiding places.

jcabs100 · Nov 29, 2011

I have about 3 pieces of wood that take up most of my tank and I have no plants because I wouldn't know how to take care of them..I have ornaments there not plastic and there's plenty of hiding places and its not that I don't see them enough because I see them I just want more fish toward the middle-top section

eaglesaquarium · Nov 29, 2011

Are all the hiding places low? Are there any elevated ones? If not, then the neons aren't going to move out away from them too much. If I were you, I would get some easy to care for plants (there are a bunch, but probably the easiest is anacharis/elodea, aka waterweed). Put these thickly in the back of your tank. Make sure that the light is on for 4-6 hours a day and voila, you have a planted tank. They don't need anything special. They will "melt" a little early on, but once they are used to your tank, they will put out new leaves and you are good to go. :good:

If you really need fish at the top, hatchets are a true top dweller and maybe their presence at the very top of the water will draw the neons out more.

jcabs100 · Nov 29, 2011

Okay yeah ill try the plants question wouldn't I need co2 to take care of plants I really don't know anything about taking care of plants and the hiding places are to the middle bottom I wanted to try out plants but I didn't want to waste money on something that wasn't going to last me very long

jcabs100 · Nov 29, 2011

I have a 20 gallon tank the dimensions are 30 x 12 x 12 and since its not very tall my driftwood is middle to bottow I have nothing toward the top...I'm upgrading to a 55 gallon dimensions 48 x 13 x 21 so I'm gonna need some ornaments that are somewhat tall ill probably get another driftwood but Ill definitely tall

Man of fish · Nov 29, 2011

as long as your bulb is 15 watts and over some plants that would be fine in your tank without ferts or co2 would be anacharis, anubias, java fern, java moss, and maybe amazon or argentine swords. I'm going to try swords for my first planted but my light is a 20 watt. If your light is more than that all the plants I suggested will be fine. If only 15 I'd stick with the first 4. I'm doing all 6 of those in my first planted tank. I've wanted to give it a go for 4 months now and I finally have an excuse to. I'm also restocking my tank with black skirts and they are supposed to be middle swimmers as most tetras but I've only ever had cardinals and 3 neons that died after a month. (Th cardinals are dead now too

sama: thank you ich and true fungus(and osama)grr)

eaglesaquarium · Nov 30, 2011

If you choose the proper plants, you don't need to dose ferts or anything else. The key is to have everything in balance. Low light, low ferts, low CO2 and plants that can handle that (the ones mentioned above should be fine). If you have high light with low CO2 or low ferts, that is a problem. Conversely too much CO2, compared to the light. If any of the things are out of whack you will find out by the type of algae the tank develops. Then you can adjust accordingly. It really isn't that hard to get right. Just pay attention and look for algae to signal an imbalance. The sooner you deal with it, the better off you will be.

jcabs100 · Nov 30, 2011

The watts my light has is 17w I'm gonna try the plants I've seen some tanks that are planted and they look beautiful but I'm scared that its either gonna kill my fish or the plants are gonna die off which I don't want but ill try it can I get a list of the plants I could get please and thank you if any tall plants I could get as well that would be great

Man of fish · Nov 30, 2011

Look at my list above but I'll relist anyway:

Anacharis
Anubias
Java fern
Java moss
Amazon sword-maybe it's a risk but I say go for it
Argentine sword-also risk but I'd go for it.

eaglesaquarium · Nov 30, 2011

Man of fish said:
Look at my list above but I'll relist anyway:

Anacharis
Anubias
Java fern
Java moss
Amazon sword-maybe it's a risk but I say go for it
Argentine sword-also risk but I'd go for it.

Anacharis will grow as big as you allow it. Ultimately, you will have to trim it. Just put the trimmings into the substrate and they will grow too.

Anubias are a slow growing, much smaller plan normally. There are varying sized anubias species. These should be tied to something in the tank, but the rhizome can't be placed into the substrate.

Java fern - ditto the planting method above.

Java Moss - tied to anything or allowed to freely float around works as well.

Amazon swords - these can get HUGE! In that lighting it probably won't get that big, but it will grow slowly.

With any of these plants remove dead or dying leaves. They will regrow new leaves, but don't leave the dying ones as these will lead to ammonia spikes.