Tetra Fin Nipping Issue

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StevenCumming

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I currently have a 10 gallon aquarium that has been up and running since December last year.
 
It is currently stocked with:
- 1 Bristle nose catfish
- 5 Silvertip Tetras
- 3 Serpae Tetras
 
I have had 2 deaths over the months, one Silvertip, and one Serpae. My problem is when I was looking at my smallest Silvertip, as 3 out of the five are about 5 months younger, it's caudel fin (tail fin) is almost completely gone! The biggest Silvertip swims around and herds all of the smaller ones (not the Serpae's for some reason) into corners and behind plants, and if one swims out it will get instantly chased back, so I'm assuming that it was the biggest one that did the damage. After giving it much thought, I have come up with the following options:
 
1. Buy more fish. I would probably get 2 more Silvertips to make 7 in total, and also 3 more Serpae tetras to make 6 total
 
2. Isolate the biggest Silvertip doing the damage, in a floating guppy hatching tank that I have covered the sides of so it can't see through. (It floats at the top of the same tank)
 
3. Isolate it in a 5 gallon tank that's unheated (I can buy a heater if necessary, but I don't really want to) and fill it with water from the existing tank and use a powerhead filter/pump
 
4. Isolate the tetra that's being fin nipped in the guppy tank, or the 5 gallon tank.
 
5. Put down the bullying Silvertip tetra (I know it sounds cruel, but this fish has caused the death of another Silvertip, and contributed to the death of my Serpae tetra.)
 
I am completely open to suggestions, and would love to hear your thoughts!
 
Having kept the serpae tetras before, I would want a bigger thank for both of those species. If this were my tank, I would restock from scratch with more appropriately sized fish, see http://natureaquarium.co.uk/?page_id=278#sa for a list of South American fish that I can recommend for your tank, assuming it's 60 cm long.
 
Both tetras need to be in much larger groups, or nipping will continue to happen. I recommend that you replace all of your serpae tetras with silvertips and increase the total number of silvertips to 10. IME, serpae tetras really need to be in groups of at least 15 to be happy.
 
I also strongly urge you to consider replacing your bristlenose with two pitbull plecos as they grow only to 2" instead of 4-6".
 

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