Any purple emperor tetra experience?

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I rather impulsively purchased six purple emperor tetra yesterday... I know, I know! I'm on the hunt for more to bump them to 8-12, also considering attempting to spawn more myself, which would be a new challenge since I haven't spawned egg-scatterers before. Only bred livebearers and cories.

Seriously Fish thinks their rep as fin-nippers is undeserved, and usually as a result of not keeping enough of them... I realise that six isn't really enough and I'd be much happier with 12 or so, but they weren't cheap. I went for the 6 for £21 offer, couldn't afford to do 12 for £42 considering I also needed food and a new filter, but regretting now that I didn't just buy two more to get at least eight right away.

Appears to be 3 males and 3 females, but it's early days and I'm not 100% on that. Am I likely to have fin-nipping issues with a group of six? Any other advice or personal experience keeping or breeding this species? Would love to hear any thoughts!

 

[Wills]

I rather impulsively purchased six purple emperor tetra yesterday... I know, I know! I'm on the hunt for more to bump them to 8-12, also considering attempting to spawn more myself, which would be a new challenge since I haven't spawned egg-scatterers before. Only bred livebearers and cories.

Seriously Fish thinks their rep as fin-nippers is undeserved, and usually as a result of not keeping enough of them... I realise that six isn't really enough and I'd be much happier with 12 or so, but they weren't cheap. I went for the 6 for £21 offer, couldn't afford to do 12 for £42 considering I also needed food and a new filter, but regretting now that I didn't just buy two more to get at least eight right away.

Appears to be 3 males and 3 females, but it's early days and I'm not 100% on that. Am I likely to have fin-nipping issues with a group of six? Any other advice or personal experience keeping or breeding this species? Would love to hear any thoughts!

Not kept them before but they are stunning fish!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Not kept them before but they are stunning fish!

They are! Sadly they, along with most of the fish, weren't showing their best colouration in the store tanks, naturally, and the QT I have them in right now doesn't have great lighting, but I'm looking forward to getting the main tanks I have in mind set up, and hopefully enjoying some gorgeous colours from them like the photos and videos I've seen that made me want them!

I got four more male guppies too. I have a serious problem! lol

 

[Byron]

Assuming you mean the species Inpaichthys kerri... I had a group of around 12 some years ago and they are quite active swimmers but no problems. But that was a decent-sized group. If you want this fish, get another 6 ASAP so they settle down together.

Mine were proflific spawners, though being in a 5-foot tank with about 200 fish the eggs were eaten. Except the one time I had to move the fish out to solve a toxic wood issue, and when I moved them back, a couple weeks later some fry appeared in the tank they were in during the work.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello. I currently have Red Eyed, White Skirt and Black Skirt Tetras. Some are at least three years old. Some tanks have several Tetras, some have just a couple and another tank has just one. The older fish have just one other Tetra in the tank with it, so as near as I can figure the number isn't critical to the life of this type of fish. I do have them in large tanks with other fish, so they have plenty of company. The only thing fish really require is extremely clean tank water.

10 Tank (Now 11)

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Assuming you mean the species Inpaichthys kerri...

Yep, that's the one! Sorry, I should have included the latin name since emperor tetra get mixed up with them sometimes too.

I had a group of around 12 some years ago and they are quite active swimmers but no problems. But that was a decent-sized group. If you want this fish, get another 6 ASAP so they settle down together.

I called my nearest privately owned store that has them for a slightly more reasonable price, and while they don't have any in stock at the moment, they do get them in fairly often, so fully intend to get another batch of six when they do! Especially since I'll be able to trade some pygmy cory youngsters for store credit there.

Mine were proflific spawners, though being in a 5-foot tank with about 200 fish the eggs were eaten. Except the one time I had to move the fish out to solve a toxic wood issue, and when I moved them back, a couple weeks later some fry appeared in the tank they were in during the work.

That's good to know, thank you! I have several smaller tanks now that I can use for separating the sexes to condition them, then move them to a rainwater/tannin soaked set up to hopefully spawn using spawning mops. Just what I've gathered from Seriously Fish. Perhaps some water from the breeding colony of pygmies could help too, since they're pretty easy to induce spawning in, and I hear the hormones can help spur other species to spawn?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Congrats on the newbies...I know that with the "regular" emperor tetras (Nematobrycon palmeri), it's easy to sex them...males have blue eyes, females have green

When do we get to see some pics?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Congrats on the newbies...I know that with the "regular" emperor tetras (Nematobrycon palmeri), it's easy to sex them...males have blue eyes, females have green

When do we get to see some pics?

They're the Inpaichthys kerri, but it looks like males are generally brightly and slimmer?

I'm not sure when you'll see photos, honestly! I've been finding it really hard to take good pics even of my main tanks, and since the QT is pretty dim, has tannins, and fish only introduced yesterday, they're not showing much colour yet even to the naked eye, so photos wouldn't do them justice. But they look healthy so far, zipping about together, ate a meal yesterday even though they'd only been in the tank for a couple of hours, and they all survived the night and still seem bright and active today *touch wood* so fingers crossed they'll fly through QT.

I'm planning a big tank juggle and redesign, so I might have to keep you in suspense to see them!