Blind Cave Fish

[freya]

I'm not a beginer but need some advice please.

I need to know What I can keep with blind cave fish. They are supposed to be good calm fish, but these 3 arent. They fin nip and attack. I gave them to my dad, but have now bought his tank off him and got them back . If I can't find anything to live with them, I am afraid I will have to sell them.

They are in a 50 gallon tank (uk) I really would like to keep them as they are so freaky looking (well UGLY)

cheers
Frey

 

[three-fingers]

Try red eye tetras, peacfull normally, but they dont take no sh#t, trust me B) . Also tiger barbs, but they get a bit bigger and will be more aggressive than the others if you dont keep like eight of them.

 

[robyngunston]

I'm not a beginer but need some advice please.

I need to know What I can keep with blind cave fish. They are supposed to be good calm fish, but these 3 arent. They fin nip and attack. I gave them to my dad, but have now bought his tank off him and got them back . If I can't find anything to live with them, I am afraid I will have to sell them.

They are in a 50 gallon tank (uk) I really would like to keep them as they are so freaky looking (well UGLY)

cheers
Frey

Hi there,

I had exactly the same problem! I inherited a tank of them (three) when I moved into my new flat and they were anything but calm and social. I tried to add some Cory Catfish into my tank and they would attack them! One person even told me they are known to hunt other fish in the dark? Who knows all I know was I never really saw them do anything other than follow my catfish around the tank but all my catfish were terrified of them? The fish that they seemed most comfortable with were the other tetra's that I had inherited in the tank at the same time (Beunos Aries Tetra and Pristella tetra). The best advice I could probably give is... to keep them in big groups and around fish of the same species (Tetra) I heard that is the best thing for them? And when I only had tetra they did all seem quite content.
Anyway, good luck and I hope this helps

 

[freya]

Hi there,

I had exactly the same problem! I inherited a tank of them (three) when I moved into my new flat and they were anything but calm and social. I tried to add some Cory Catfish into my tank and they would attack them! One person even told me they are known to hunt other fish in the dark? Who knows all I know was I never really saw them do anything other than follow my catfish around the tank but all my catfish were terrified of them? The fish that they seemed most comfortable with were the other tetra's that I had inherited in the tank at the same time (Beunos Aries Tetra and Pristella tetra). The best advice I could probably give is... to keep them in big groups and around fish of the same species (Tetra) I heard that is the best thing for them? And when I only had tetra they did all seem quite content.
Anyway, good luck and I hope this helps

Cheers for this, I knew it couldn't be just mine, everywhere says they are nice and calm.
I think I will be adopting them out, although I really don't know what I'm putting in my new tank
Yet.
THanks
Frey

 

[nmonks]

I'm not sure where you're your getting information on cave tetras. They're quite well known as potential fin-nippers. They can be kept in communities, but you need to pick tankmates carefully. Don't keep them with slow-moving species (like neons or gouramis) or with species that have long tails or fins (like angels or guppies).

Also, do bear in mind blind cave tetras enjoy hard, alkaline water, so robust livebearers, like swordtails, would be a good choice. The larger rainbowfish would work well too. Glassfish are quite plucky and might be another option (my glassfish do well with pufferfish, which have much the same temperament as blind cave tetras). In a big enough tank, they would be good companions for one of the less aggressive Rift Valley cichlids.

Otherwise, stick with larger tetras, like Buenos Aires tetras, silver dollars, Colombian tetras, and so on. Serpae tetras are not as big as blind cave tetras, but they have the same nippiness and should get along well. Obviously armoured catfish like plecs and Ancistrus will be fine with them, too.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[freya]

I'm not sure where you're your getting information on cave tetras. They're quite well known as potential fin-nippers. They can be kept in communities, but you need to pick tankmates carefully. Don't keep them with slow-moving species (like neons or gouramis) or with species that have long tails or fins (like angels or guppies).

Also, do bear in mind blind cave tetras enjoy hard, alkaline water, so robust livebearers, like swordtails, would be a good choice. The larger rainbowfish would work well too. Glassfish are quite plucky and might be another option (my glassfish do well with pufferfish, which have much the same temperament as blind cave tetras). In a big enough tank, they would be good companions for one of the less aggressive Rift Valley cichlids.

Otherwise, stick with larger tetras, like Buenos Aires tetras, silver dollars, Colombian tetras, and so on. Serpae tetras are not as big as blind cave tetras, but they have the same nippiness and should get along well. Obviously armoured catfish like plecs and Ancistrus will be fine with them, too.

Cheers,

Neale

Thanks for that, I have done a lot of reading up on them on the net, and most articles said they where ok as community. Although I know there not.
I am aware they like the water akaline and hard, which makes my life easy as that is the exact temprement of my tap water ph of 7.8 Ouch.
Thanks for al the info, I will go and look at some of the above and see if any grab my attention.
Frey

 

[robyngunston]

I'm not sure where you're your getting information on cave tetras. They're quite well known as potential fin-nippers. They can be kept in communities, but you need to pick tankmates carefully. Don't keep them with slow-moving species (like neons or gouramis) or with species that have long tails or fins (like angels or guppies).

Also, do bear in mind blind cave tetras enjoy hard, alkaline water, so robust livebearers, like swordtails, would be a good choice. The larger rainbowfish would work well too. Glassfish are quite plucky and might be another option (my glassfish do well with pufferfish, which have much the same temperament as blind cave tetras). In a big enough tank, they would be good companions for one of the less aggressive Rift Valley cichlids.

Otherwise, stick with larger tetras, like Buenos Aires tetras, silver dollars, Colombian tetras, and so on. Serpae tetras are not as big as blind cave tetras, but they have the same nippiness and should get along well. Obviously armoured catfish like plecs and Ancistrus will be fine with them, too.

Cheers,

Neale

Yeah I found all my information about them online as well and from local fish shops and they all seemed to say they were calm community fish? But of course I just figured mine were rebels or something

Hi there,

I had exactly the same problem! I inherited a tank of them (three) when I moved into my new flat and they were anything but calm and social. I tried to add some Cory Catfish into my tank and they would attack them! One person even told me they are known to hunt other fish in the dark? Who knows all I know was I never really saw them do anything other than follow my catfish around the tank but all my catfish were terrified of them? The fish that they seemed most comfortable with were the other tetra's that I had inherited in the tank at the same time (Beunos Aries Tetra and Pristella tetra). The best advice I could probably give is... to keep them in big groups and around fish of the same species (Tetra) I heard that is the best thing for them? And when I only had tetra they did all seem quite content.
Anyway, good luck and I hope this helps

Cheers for this, I knew it couldn't be just mine, everywhere says they are nice and calm.
I think I will be adopting them out, although I really don't know what I'm putting in my new tank
Yet.
THanks

I had to give mine away in the end as I wanted to keep Cory catfish and they didn't seem to mix well.
Good luck and hope you come right
Frey