Bought wrong tetras - Now What????

So, I bought a hemigrammus rodwayi (gold tetra, also called brass tetra) from the LFS because I was looking for some new small tetras and this one little guy was all alone. Quick research showed he should like my tank, and the LFS said they would have more coming in the new order, so I bought the lone fella and added him to the tank. Went back tonight (about a week later) and got all 4 of what were labeled as Gold Tetras. Put them in the tank and quickly realized they were not the same as the first fish. After consulting the internet, I realized I just bought 4 hemigrammus ocellifer aka head and taillight tetras. Good news is that according to Seriously Fish, they are very peaceful and should also be a good fit for my water parameters.

My preference is to keep everyone, add a few more of the ocellifer (head & taillights) to total maybe 7-10 AND add more rodwayi (golds) to total 7-10. Whether or not this is advisable is something I am hoping you guys can help me with. Things you will need to know to help me with this decision:

• Tank stats: 55 gallon / 208 liter (long); water temp kept around 78 degrees F / 25.5 C; Ammonia 0; Nitrites 0; Nitrates 0; pH 6.0 - 6.5; planted.
  
• Current other inhabitants: 3 cories (last survivors of larger group - probably not interested in getting more); 5 Stiphodon atropurpureus (LOVE these guys - favorite fish ever); 1 angelfish (very peaceful but I will NOT get another as I have read that more than one increases aggression); 1 cardinal tetra (lone survivor of larger group. I'm trying to find more, but haven't seen any for sale lately.); 2 hemigrammus erythrozonus (glowlight tetras - last survivors of larger group - not getting any more); 2 harlequin rasboras (last 2 from larger group); 4 espe rasboras; 1 bamboo shrimp.
• Various plants (as seen in the pic below). I plan to add more water sprite as the one I had died.

Also, if I ever find more cardinal tetras, I would like a group of about 10 or so as well. I have only one survivor from a larger group. If at all possible, I would dearly love to get more, but haven't seen any for sale lately. I would also love to add about the same number of bloodfin tetras, but I think this might be really pushing it.

I feel the need to explain the presence of the angelfish in this tank. Ordinarily, I would not have risked putting him in with the smaller fish, but last year I had to consolidate 3 tanks into this 1 due to health reasons (cancer). I'm getting better now, but not quite enough to set up another tank, so for now, I am thankful that the angelfish has lived peacefully with his tank mates for almost a full year. If he starts eating the others, I'll re-home him, but I don't think it will come to that. Like I said, it's been almost a year and all is well.

So, in summary (thank you for reading this far!), the questions are:
1. Should I get more H. ocellifer (taillights) and if so, how many?
2. Should I get more H. rodwayi (golds) and if so, how many?
3. Should I get more Cardinal tetras and if so, how many?
4. Should I get more harlequin rasboras or are they okay with the espes? They hang out together.
5. Should I get bloodfin tetras (currently zero in tank), and if so, how many?

Thank you!

And I should say, just for anyone concerned, that before I ever got any pets at all, I had "what if" plans for them. My husband will take care of the pets (fish included) if it ever comes down to that. Fortunately, the cancer is now gone and I just have to recover and heal. I still have to take care of this tank, whether there are 5 fish or 50, and like I said, I have been feeling better, so am able to take care of this tank.

All tetras do best in groups of at least 6 and preferably 10 or more. If you do get more try to keep them in decent sized groups and quarantine new fish for a month before adding them to the main display tank.

Any idea why the other fish died?

Other fish died at around 3-5 years of age, so I'm assuming age. An exception is the cardinals, who all died within days of being introduced to the tank. Only this little guy made it. The water was fine and the other fish were fine as well, but the cardinals were delicate and didn't do well during shipping. The store I got them from said all theirs from that shipment died as well. Super sad. I was going to get survivor some friends but then I got sick and that put everything on hold. Now that I'm getting better, I want to increase the tetras. I usually do weekly water changes of about 25 percent.

What are your thoughts on the numbers I mentioned of each? Can a 55 gallon handle that many fish do you think? If I got everything I mentioned above, it would be 1 angelfish and approximately 60 small fish. Probably too many. If I don't get any bloodfins, it would be approximately 50 small fish. Still too many or okay?

The cardinals were sick when they were sent to the shop, they got a bad batch.

Just increase the numbers of the fish you currently have to 10 of each species, so no bloodfins.
The harlequins and espes will hang out together so just get 10 total.

Increase the size of the water changes to 75% each week. The bigger water change will dilute nutrients and disease organisms more effectively than small water changes.

congrats for fighting off the big C, fingers and fins crossed it stays gone.

I agree, forget the bloodfins--for one thing, they do tend to nip fins and the angelfish is a prime target for such fish. The Head & Tail Light Tetras should be OK for this, but keep an eye on them. I totally agree on larger weekly (at one time) water changes, this is so important.

The harlequin and espei rasboras will shoal together, they are closely related species, Trigonostigma heteromorpha and T. espei. They should normally not be together, but not for any behavioural or similar problems, so I needn't get into that.

On the "Gold" Tetra...its golden colouring, giving the impression of having been dusted with gold powder, is actually guanin secreted by the fish as a protection against a parasite that occurs in its habitat waters, and only wild-caught fish have this colouration. Tank-raised fish do not develop the golden colouring but are a grey-silver. The accompanying photos illustrate the wild golden fish (first photo) and the grey-silver colouration of tank raised fish (second photo).

Cardinal tetras especially (but the other tetras and rasbora too) will settle better with more floating plants, so as they spread you should see better colouration. Cardinals are very delicate fish, and need care when acclimating. One of my local fish stores guarantees their fish and will replace--but not cardinal tetras.

I understand about the cancer, I have been dealing with a cancer for 12 years now, and once or twice feared I might have to give up my fish but fortunately it went into remission. Let's hope we both stay free.

Thank you for your input, Byron and Colin. I will do as you suggest and increase numbers of H. ocellifer (taillights) and H. rodwayi (golds). Also, I'll bump the espes and harlequins to 5 each, so will be 10 total of them to hopefully make them happier. Do you think I should also try to increase the cardinals either by adding more cardinals or perhaps adding neons? Or should I just let the remaining cardinal live out his life as the only one? Are the other tetras company enough? Can my tank hold more cardinals after the other numbers are increased?

Byron said:

I agree, forget the bloodfins--for one thing, they do tend to nip fins and the angelfish is a prime target for such fish.

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That is good to know about bloodfins. I didn't know they were fin nippers. I've been keeping a close eye on everyone since I had to move the angelfish. I actually kept his tank up and running for a month just to make sure he wasn't eating anyone or that he wasn't getting fin-nipped. But so far, everyone has been very peaceful, thank goodness. Eventually, I really would love to set up my other larger tank, but not just yet.

I'm sorry that you have had to deal with cancer as well, but very glad to hear that it is in remission! It's a real doozy of a thing to have come at you. Certainly puts everything into perspective. Here's to being and staying cancer-free!

BeckyCats said:

Thank you for your input, Byron and Colin. I will do as you suggest and increase numbers of H. ocellifer (taillights) and H. rodwayi (golds). Also, I'll bump the espes and harlequins to 5 each, so will be 10 total of them to hopefully make them happier. Do you think I should also try to increase the cardinals either by adding more cardinals or perhaps adding neons? Or should I just let the remaining cardinal live out his life as the only one? Are the other tetras company enough? Can my tank hold more cardinals after the other numbers are increased?

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Tetras of other species will not generally be "company" as will more of the same species. However, as a group of fish ages and begin dying off, one is often left with two or then one. If I am unable to get more along the way, or don't want more down the road, I leave the last survivor(s) where they are. By this time in life they tend not to become aggressive from stress of being without their own, though different fish can deal with this differently.

You mentioned cardinals or neons earlier...neons need cooler temperatures than cardinals, so keep this in mind.

On the rasboras, I would suggest only one species should be increased if you want them. I prefer T. espei over T. heteromorpha, though my real favourite in this genus is T. hengeli. Normally these three species should not be together, but as I said earlier it will not be a problem.

Oh, that's right. I forgot about neons needing cooler water.

I also prefer the espei to heterormorpha, which is why I increased the espei numbers when I saw the 3 in the store. I see hets all the time but not often espei. So, since you mentioned hengeli, I did an internet image search and I'm now wondering if I my new "espei" rasboras may actually be hengeli. They were labelled as espei rasbora, but when I put them in, I noticed that they weren't as red as my original espei. I figured they were maybe taking a while to acclimate (you know how lots of fish don't show their colors fully right away). I'll have to look closely when I get home. I'll let you know...

Well, this is certainly a valuable lesson. When looking at a fish in the store, don't just look up its care needs but also look CLOSELY to make sure the dang thing is labelled correctly! So many fish look so much alike that one has to be careful and can't necessarily trust the store.

BeckyCats said:

Oh, that's right. I forgot about neons needing cooler water.

I also prefer the espei to heterormorpha, which is why I increased the espei numbers when I saw the 3 in the store. I see hets all the time but not often espei. So, since you mentioned hengeli, I did an internet image search and I'm now wondering if I my new "espei" rasboras may actually be hengeli. They were labelled as espei rasbora, but when I put them in, I noticed that they weren't as red as my original espei. I figured they were maybe taking a while to acclimate (you know how lots of fish don't show their colors fully right away). I'll have to look closely when I get home. I'll let you know...

Well, this is certainly a valuable lesson. When looking at a fish in the store, don't just look up its care needs but also look CLOSELY to make sure the dang thing is labelled correctly! So many fish look so much alike that one has to be careful and can't necessarily trust the store.

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Side by side it is fairly easy to tell the two rasboras apart. See photos below. The hengeli has that brilliant copper-coloured comma.

Fish stores, even fairly good ones, can get names wrong. I never trust "common" names regardless. I ask to see the invoice which usually has the scientific name. The chain stores like PetSmart might not bother with this, but I will never buy fish from them anyway. I recall one local store a few years ago that got in some Gold Tetra, and because they looked Silver (I explained the difference previously) the owner labelled them "Silver Tetra." Made up the name to suit the appearance. And that was one of the best local stores.

Hmmm. 2 of the new ones might be hengeli but I can't quite tell. They might just be espei that are still pale. None of the new ones are anywhere near as red as the original espei. The new ones in question have a copper stripe around the black stripe, but there is a little extra smudge of copper color under part of the stripe as well. I tried to take pictures but I stupidly fed them first so just got a bunch of blurry shots of them zipping around chasing food and each other.

I'll try again tomorrow.

My lone "gold" tetra is silver. I read about the gold/silver difference on seriously fish so I wasn't worried. That's so strange that the store person just made up a new name. I really wish my lfs person would have known the difference between gold tetras and head and taillight tetras. I would have preferred a larger group of just one rather than 2 smaller groups. Oh well. Too late now and I learned a lesson about how similar some fish species can look, and that I can't always trust the store for accurate species identification. Plus, silver lining, it kept me from getting bloodfin tetras which I thought were very peaceful and not fin nippers. My angelfish would not have been happy.

BeckyCats said:

Hmmm. 2 of the new ones might be hengeli but I can't quite tell. They might just be espei that are still pale. None of the new ones are anywhere near as red as the original espei. The new ones in question have a copper stripe around the black stripe, but there is a little extra smudge of copper color under part of the stripe as well. I tried to take pictures but I stupidly fed them first so just got a bunch of blurry shots of them zipping around chasing food and each other.

I'll try again tomorrow.

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As I'm sure you know, fish in stores are usually much paler due to the severe stress of transport and the inappropriate tank conditions in stores. So colour is not generally reliable as identification, and often not pattern either. So far as I know, the two smaller species in this genus (being hengeli and espei) will be wild caught, and thus unlikely to be mixed. However, that does not rule out the store mixing them together either through not knowing or to use one tank instead of two and thinking no one will care which. And I have seen hengeli labelled espei in local stores, so it is also likely the fish are being misnamed by importers.