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The Betta boy

The Betta boy

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I know I'm in no position to talk about this (see earlier thread), but I'm interested in mixing tetra species to make one big, colorful, school. My favorites are emperors (especially the blue ones) long fin neon tetras, and embers, but I'm open to other suggestions. I have currently 6 neons, and 1 glowlight in a 50 gal with ghost shrimp and a clown pleco, and I plan to add guppies.
 
What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website (Water Analysis Report) or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.

Angelfish, discus, most tetras, most barbs, Bettas, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm) and a pH below 7.0.

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), rainbowfish and goldfish occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids, or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.

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Emperor, neon and ember tetras won't school together because they are different sizes and colours. The only exception to this is if you have 1 ember or neon tetra on its own and it will try to hang out with other fish for its own safety.

If you want groups of tetras, get 10 or more of each species. If you have room, get 20-30 of each species and they tend to stay in a group more than if you have 4 or 5. Larger numbers are better for the fish. These fish naturally occur in groups consisting of thousands of individuals and they feel safe and act more naturally when in larger groups. If you only have a few of each kind in a tank, they tend to spread out and you have one here and one there.
 
I missed your other thread, so I may be off base. I just took a look for it and didn't find it.

Here's my take on what you wrote for this one. It's a mistake to look at most tetras as individuals. They are fish that live in groups, and need to be with their own species. We can debate what a group is - there is research suggesting 10 is a minimum number, but aquarium traditions of keeping them in groups of 5 or 6. Newcomers to the hobby, or people whose fish have partly died off often have smaller groups, which may not be fair to the fish.
This may make me sound passive aggressive, but the issue is if you care about the well being of the fish. Most fishkeepers don't, and will always choose their own convenience over the easily ignored needs of the fish they buy.
A compromise could be the number 6. Let's say that can be a base number for how many of each species you keep. Then, if you have a large enough tank, you can have as many groups as it will hold. In my 120 gallon, 6 foot tank, I have 10 black neons, 13 cardinals, 20 Pristellas, 6 peugotti, 3 blue blacks (I ordered 6 and 3 arrived), 7 sweglesi, 10 risei - a nice colourful mix as long as you accept one tetra should be six to ten fish.

If you put together one of each in a tank, you won't have a shoal. You;ll just have a bunch of lost individuals looking for their own groups. Put me in a tank with a chimp, a bonobo, a howler and a mountain gorilla and I won't be happy because we're all primates. The other primates wouldn't be good company to talk fish with.

Lone tetras generally (not always) dial down their colours and become behaviorally strange. Some become nippy when they can't communicate with their shoal, some hide.
 
well... I keep a large mixed school, made up of minimal shoals of various Tetras, ( actually 2 tanks, one of African Tetras, one of South American Tetras...

1st off, the word Tetra, encompasses many fish, some of which are absolutely not compatible with each other...
2nd... while the right ones will school up, it's probably best to keep at least a minimal shoal of each species... and as mentioned above, that minimum will be highly debatable, but in general should be as many as possible

since tanks of African Tetras are more rare, and by your examples, I assume you are talking about South American Tetras... my rule of thumb, has been a minimum of 6 individual of a species...

of the ones you listed, I'd expect problems with the Emperors and the long fins... my mature Emperor's run the school, and I'd expect the loudest colored, smallest fish, with long fins, would become small fish with no fins, hiding or stressed to death ( I use Cardinals, rather than neon, so all the tetra species are closer in size...

this is a list of what I keep in a 55 gallon, with double filtration, and extra air stones...

 
Magnum Man said:
well... I keep a large mixed school, made up of minimal shoals of various Tetras, ( actually 2 tanks, one of African Tetras, one of South American Tetras...

1st off, the word Tetra, encompasses many fish, some of which are absolutely not compatible with each other...
2nd... while the right ones will school up, it's probably best to keep at least a minimal shoal of each species... and as mentioned above, that minimum will be highly debatable, but in general should be as many as possible

since tanks of African Tetras are more rare, and by your examples, I assume you are talking about South American Tetras... my rule of thumb, has been a minimum of 6 individual of a species...

of the ones you listed, I'd expect problems with the Emperors and the long fins... my mature Emperor's run the school, and I'd expect the loudest colored, smallest fish, with long fins, would become small fish with no fins, hiding or stressed to death ( I use Cardinals, rather than neon, so all the tetra species are closer in size...

this is a list of what I keep in a 55 gallon, with double filtration, and extra air stones...

Click to expand...
That’s a very fully stocked tank!!! Awesome fish tho.
plebian said:
It's unfortunate that forums like this are dependent on viewership. People like the OP should simply be banned. They either are too lazy to do any research, or they simply don't care. And for what it's worth I'm not a "purist". I don't do sand, nor almond leaves e.g. On the other hand, treating living creatures like they're christmas (lack of capitalization intentional) tree ornaments is simply immoral.
Click to expand...
The point of this forum is to give advice. I think it’s better to give advice to a newbie rather than let them do things that shouldn’t happen. If any of you read my entering post I realised what an awful member I was but most of you put up with me:). If you don’t give advice then the person who’s OP it is wont learn anything. I personally find reading through old thread on forums the most effective way of learning about fishkeeping and there’s a limited places to find information so people should be able to ask what may seem like obvious questions.
 
The first step to research is asking questions. If members offer opinions and say why we say what we do, we participate in healthy discussions. If we're dismissive of questions, then we're missing the point entirely.

I'm glad I was never 'banned' by the older aquarists who tried to help me at the start of my journey. Questions are always more potentially valuable than answers. if you convince yourself you know it all already, then you need to ask yourself questions.
 
Dimensions: 36 inch x 12 inch x23 inch
Just calling it as I see it, it seems we're divided on this subject but from what I gather if I want different types of tetras I'm going to need a school for each species. Is that a safe conclusion?
 
Yes, that's my opinion. The size differences between embers & emperors is probably too large to make for a peaceful tank. It's not a combo I've tried...for that reason. I think several more glowlights would work well. Long fin neons are not a fish I've seen or would keep. Those long fins make them slow swimmers & all tetras may be tempted to nip them. But since you already have them...well, you can try it. Skip the embers if that wasn't clear. Make a plan for if the neons get nipped a lot, they might. Rehome them or (ahem) set up another tank? That partly why some of us have several tanks.

Have live or fake plants to break up the sight lines. 6 is a minimum of schoolers, more is much better!
 
GaryE said:
The first step to research is asking questions.
Click to expand...
The first step to research is actually looking for the information that's readily available. You ask questions if you can't find the information you're looking for, or if the information you find is contradictory or unclear. If you can't type "tetras" in the search bar in your browser, you shouldn't be wasting anyone else's time. That you defend this behavior is almost as bad as the behavior itself.
 
GaryE said:
The first step to research is asking questions. If members offer opinions and say why we say what we do, we participate in healthy discussions. If we're dismissive of questions, then we're missing the point entirely.

I'm glad I was never 'banned' by the older aquarists who tried to help me at the start of my journey. Questions are always more potentially valuable than answers. if you convince yourself you know it all already, then you need to ask yourself questions.
Click to expand...
Asking questions is IMHO the first step in research. To discourage questions from a beginner would eventually squeeze from the hobby many who eventually become able to offer information because they were no longer beginners. Sometimes people simply do not know where to start.

Of course, there is always the option to ignore questions deemed below one's level. That pretty much solves the issue.
 
plebian said:
The first step to research is actually looking for the information that's readily available. You ask questions if you can't find the information you're looking for, or if the information you find is contradictory or unclear. If you can't type "tetras" in the search bar in your browser, you shouldn't be wasting anyone else's time. That you defend this behavior is almost as bad as the behavior itself.
Click to expand...
I would rather ask questions to people who have real wisdom in their own experience than get confused over conflicting information found all over the internet. You are not forced to come here and 'waste your time'.
 
GaryE said:
The first step to research is asking questions. If members offer opinions and say why we say what we do, we participate in healthy discussions. If we're dismissive of questions, then we're missing the point entirely.

I'm glad I was never 'banned' by the older aquarists who tried to help me at the start of my journey. Questions are always more potentially valuable than answers. if you convince yourself you know it all already, then you need to ask yourself questions.
Click to expand...

plebian said:
The first step to research is actually looking for the information that's readily available. You ask questions if you can't find the information you're looking for, or if the information you find is contradictory or unclear. If you can't type "tetras" in the search bar in your browser, you shouldn't be wasting anyone else's time. That you defend this behavior is almost as bad as the behavior itself.
Click to expand...
I 1000% agree with plebian. First do your own independent research. This should lead to two things, first having some base knowledge on the subject to be able to understand the basic concepts involved, second this should then progress to asking questions that delve deeper into the subject for more specific answers.
Many many many times the answer we seek can be found by using the @+!$& search function.
 
I actually do not have long fin neons. I currently have 6 run-of-the-mill neons. (Yesterday I discovered that one of them may be pregnant, it would be my first time having fry in the hobby)
 
Please consider though - the search function can return this site, and forums are made to ask questions on. Research can bring you here.

What I said about tetras not being viewed as individuals, way back when this started, is not a mainstream opinion. The mainstream sells fish as disposable objects and commodities, and unless you have enough experience to be able to decide what's reasonable and grounded, and what's useless lore, you have a problem. Here at least, you can hope someone will say why they think as they do, given that it's interactive.

There's no call to be insulting or constantly dismissive. Suggest some research sites, but don't treat posters badly.

I would rather see a member here float an idea that might be outside the box, might be innovative or might be dead wrong and have it debated by polite reasonable people who attack ideas they think wrong, and don't attack other posters. Part of what I think the value of a forum is is when we avoid cut and paste answers and deal with each question as it's posed.

The Betta boy said:
I actually do not have long fin neons. I currently have 6 run-of-the-mill neons. (Yesterday I discovered that one of them may be pregnant, it would be my first time having fry in the hobby)
Click to expand...

Here we go - neons never get pregnant, as egg scatterers who need a specialized set up to have young. If you want to know how to set up for that, let me know. You would need to give me an analysis of your water conditions though - neons aren't easy.
 
Sorry, I don't really know the proper term. But does this look egg-laden?
 

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