I have a 15 gallon tank. I bought it for my young son when he inherited some goldfish (that had been thrown into a chlorinated swimming pool - poor things). Not long after that, we got six serpae tetras. The goldfish finally died (they never appeared to get nipped, so I assume they were traumatized by the pool experience).
Then I went about researching what kind of fish would go well with the serpaes. I ended up buying six tiger barbs. Although the fish guy at the pet store assured me that this was an acceptable number of fish for my tank, to me, it looks really busy in there now. I'm trying to grow some bulb plants, but otherwise, all we have are two plastic plants (one of which is tall and floats at the top), and a smallish barrel decoration where the pleco tends to hang out. I've also ordered a 6" piece of mopani wood, just for something interesting.
I've read that both of these fish behave best when there are at least six of them. So I'm not sure how to trim down the population - if this needs to be done. The fish appear to be getting along well...but this morning, I noticed one of the serpae had kind of a chewed up tail. I'm not sure when this happened; it may have already been that way and I just didn't notice. When I turned on the light this morning, most of the fish were hanging out at the bottom, which I thought was different than usual. (I read up on tank cleaning yesterday, and I'm sure that the gravel needs to be cleaned. I will do that ASAP as soon as my gravel vacuum gets here).
So - biggest question, I guess, is if you would remove some of these fish, and if so, how many? And what else can I do to keep them content and not chewing on each other?
Then I went about researching what kind of fish would go well with the serpaes. I ended up buying six tiger barbs. Although the fish guy at the pet store assured me that this was an acceptable number of fish for my tank, to me, it looks really busy in there now. I'm trying to grow some bulb plants, but otherwise, all we have are two plastic plants (one of which is tall and floats at the top), and a smallish barrel decoration where the pleco tends to hang out. I've also ordered a 6" piece of mopani wood, just for something interesting.
I've read that both of these fish behave best when there are at least six of them. So I'm not sure how to trim down the population - if this needs to be done. The fish appear to be getting along well...but this morning, I noticed one of the serpae had kind of a chewed up tail. I'm not sure when this happened; it may have already been that way and I just didn't notice. When I turned on the light this morning, most of the fish were hanging out at the bottom, which I thought was different than usual. (I read up on tank cleaning yesterday, and I'm sure that the gravel needs to be cleaned. I will do that ASAP as soon as my gravel vacuum gets here).
So - biggest question, I guess, is if you would remove some of these fish, and if so, how many? And what else can I do to keep them content and not chewing on each other?
