Serpae's Nipping Each Other

[BobbyBray]

Ok, I know there's been a lot of discussions about serpae's and how they're notoriously nippy to other fish, and I realize that this is part of they're nature.

But here's my conundrum, my GF has a 10 gallon tank with 2 serpae's in it at the moment. They seem to be relatively nice to the other fish, and a lot of the time they're the most skittish and will flee from anything else in the tank. But the bigger one seems to be picking on the smaller one, and recently we've noticed the fins of the smaller one getting a little ragged.

So here's the two options that I see in order to help fix the tank:
1. Buy 2-3 more serpea's for the tank to help sort out the pecking order. My only concern then is that they may begin to bully all the other fish in the tank once they become the dominant force.
2. I've got a 29 gallon that is at the end stages of a fishless cycle (nitrates should drop soon... hopefully), so I could take the two and put them in my tank along with another 3. If I took the serpeas out I'd probably replace them with cherry barbs instead.

Some other background history on the two tanks.
The 10 gallon currently has 2 serpea's, 1 cory, 2 oto's, 2 rainbows and 1 cherry. The rainbows and cherry's are actually my fish, and are temporarily in her tank while mine cycles.
I was planning on stocking mine with 4 corys, 2 rainbows, 5 lemon tetras, 5 danios, a few otos and possibly 5 cherry barbs. So if I moved the serpeas over to mine later, I'd substitute them for the cherrys, would they go fine with the other fish I was planning on using?

Thanks guys!

 

[three-fingers]

Yep but you'll probably still want more than just 5.

I'd go for 8 to 12 in the 29gal to spread out aggression.

Ideally you want more than 2 rainbows as well, though I have 2 and they don't seem to mind.

Rainbows are very active decent sized fast fish, unless your going to go for a small should of the smaller species, leave them out, I personally think my 50gal doesn't give them enough swimming space (though it is an odd shaped corner tank).

 

[stang1]

Serpae Tetras are best kept in a bigger group of at leat 6 but ideally 8+ to keep the aggression down. They would also be more suited to the bigger tank as 10G is a bit on the small side.
I would personally take them back to the lfs as they may restrict your stocking.
What Raibows have you got?

 

[BobbyBray]

LFS had them listed as Aussie Rainbows, but by the advice they've been offering I can't be 100% on that. Here's some photo's I've got of them:

You guys think I should bring the Serpae's and Rainbows back eh? Would a small school of cherry barbs be ok in a 10 gallon then?

 

[three-fingers]

I would take the rainbows back yes, I like serpae tetras, so I would get more of them, but if you don't want lots, then yes, take them back too.

Cherry barbs don't really school, you can keep them in pairs if you want.

But you could get quite a few cherry barbs in a 10 gallon yes.

Not sure on rainbow species btw.

 

[BobbyBray]

I think mine might be this Rainbowfish They look a lot like the juvenile pictured at the bottom of the page.

Perhaps I'll just end up taking the serpae's back to the pet store, and getting some more cherry barbs, or a few lemon / bleeding heart tetras instead. In the end though, its up to my GF as its her tank, she's just worried about the one poor little serpea that's getting picked on by the bigger one.