Looking For A Group Of 12/15 Tetras Or Small Barbs

[mattlee]

as title says i am having a change around and moving some fish from my com tank to make space for a nice group of small tetras or barbs. whatever i go for cant be nippy as i will have 4 angels in the tank and dont want them stressed out!
from checking out lfs i like the look of -
lemon tetras
flame tetras
xray tetras
rosy barbs
black neon tetras
cardinal or neon tetras

i also saw some tetras that looked the same as flame tetras but were pink and white..... labelled salmon flame tetras! never heard of them but they looked great. has anyone got/had or know about these?

any other suggestions etc are welcomed

i dont want anything too small as they may become angel lunch but nothing too large so i can have a bigger group.

 

[mattlee]

sorry forgot to add my pH is 7.4, the tank has been running for about 3 months using all media from my old tank that was about 5 months old so is estblished. ammonia = 0 nitrite = 0 nitrate = 20 ish.

not planted just silk and plastic plants except some java moss, moss balls and frogbit. although i will be planting it out after xmas.

other tank mates are - 4 angels, 3 polkadot loach, 1 hillstream loach, 1 false sae, 2 platys and possibly 3/4 corys.

thanks

 

[onebto]

I have 11 cardinal tetra and I have never seen them cause any sort of trouble in my Tank and they do look stunning in my humble opinion.

 

[mattlee]

I have 11 cardinal tetra and I have never seen them cause any sort of trouble in my Tank and they do look stunning in my humble opinion.

my only issue with cardinals, neons and black tetras are my angels. i think it would be a bit of a gamble as to whether they survive or not...... im sure my angels killed a single guppy i had, although not fully grown but found him dead with his stomach missing not so long back. this makes me think against the 3 tetras above...
without trying it i suppose i will never find out but dont want fish to be killed as a trial thing i dont think its fair on them. so if any 1 has had these tetras with angels please let me know how they got on

 

[coldcazzie]

I have kept neons with angels, but the angels were tiny so no risk to the neons health, and as far as I can remember your angels are bigger aren't they?

I'd be interested in people's replies though as I'm considering a small shoal of somethings as part of my community but am unsure what I could add with my angels...I'm thinking anything smaller than 2 inches is a no-no, but that then reduces the number that I could fit in there.

 

[reeeedfish]

What about bleeding hearts? In a petstore I saw a 150 gallon bowfront display tank with 5-7 full grown angels and a HUGE school of bleeding hearts.

 

[mattlee]

I have kept neons with angels, but the angels were tiny so no risk to the neons health, and as far as I can remember your angels are bigger aren't they?

I'd be interested in people's replies though as I'm considering a small shoal of somethings as part of my community but am unsure what I could add with my angels...I'm thinking anything smaller than 2 inches is a no-no, but that then reduces the number that I could fit in there.

my angels are about 4 inch mouth to tail x2 and 3 inch x3 roughly. i was told that something like a lemon/flame tetras shape would prevent it from getting eaten as it differs from the neon as its not so torpedo shaped....... i think 2 inch would be the smallest but like you say nothing too large as i would reduce the numbers!

 

[mattlee]

What about bleeding hearts? In a petstore I saw a 150 gallon bowfront display tank with 5-7 full grown angels and a HUGE school of bleeding hearts.

hmmmmmm! i have a 240L not a 682 though!!!!!!!
i think bleeding hearts would get too big and would reduce the numbers quite a lot. i also want something to add a big flash of colour, arent bleeding hearts just silver with a red dot? although i am tempted with pristellas or diamonds and they are silvery.....

 

[coldcazzie]

I was wondering about rosy barbs myself.

I was going to go for buenos aires/congo tetras, but with my other stocking I'd only be able to have a v.small number...

I really like rummy noses, but not sure on how hardy they would be - I dont want fish that might keel over if I forget a weekly water change (with a baby due in 3 weeks its quite likely the fish will miss a couple of water changes in the next couple of months!)

You have a good point about the shape Matt...I hadn;t thought of it like that.

 

[mattlee]

I was wondering about rosy barbs myself.

I was going to go for buenos aires/congo tetras, but with my other stocking I'd only be able to have a v.small number...

I really like rummy noses, but not sure on how hardy they would be - I dont want fish that might keel over if I forget a weekly water change (with a baby due in 3 weeks its quite likely the fish will miss a couple of water changes in the next couple of months!)

You have a good point about the shape Matt...I hadn;t thought of it like that.

rummy noses are really nice but are supposed to be quite fragile....

i had 2 albino buenos aires tetras that were fine but small, apparently they are really bad for nipping and grow quite large too and my lfs has congo tetras that are easilly 3 inches+

 

[coldcazzie]

I was wondering about rosy barbs myself.

I was going to go for buenos aires/congo tetras, but with my other stocking I'd only be able to have a v.small number...

I really like rummy noses, but not sure on how hardy they would be - I dont want fish that might keel over if I forget a weekly water change (with a baby due in 3 weeks its quite likely the fish will miss a couple of water changes in the next couple of months!)

You have a good point about the shape Matt...I hadn;t thought of it like that.

rummy noses are really nice but are supposed to be quite fragile....

i had 2 albino buenos aires tetras that were fine but small, apparently they are really bad for nipping and grow quite large too and my lfs has congo tetras that are easilly 3 inches+

Yeh, for all of those reasons I'm not going for any of those lol, but I was wondering about the rosy barbs... I want colour! At the moment the only colour I have is the angels (and one of them is black!) Pearl gouramis and bolivian rams aint exactly splashes of colour so I'd quite like some rly colourful shoaling fish, just dunno what yet!

 

[mattlee]

I was wondering about rosy barbs myself.

I was going to go for buenos aires/congo tetras, but with my other stocking I'd only be able to have a v.small number...

I really like rummy noses, but not sure on how hardy they would be - I dont want fish that might keel over if I forget a weekly water change (with a baby due in 3 weeks its quite likely the fish will miss a couple of water changes in the next couple of months!)

You have a good point about the shape Matt...I hadn;t thought of it like that.

rummy noses are really nice but are supposed to be quite fragile....

i had 2 albino buenos aires tetras that were fine but small, apparently they are really bad for nipping and grow quite large too and my lfs has congo tetras that are easilly 3 inches+

Yeh, for all of those reasons I'm not going for any of those lol, but I was wondering about the rosy barbs... I want colour! At the moment the only colour I have is the angels (and one of them is black!) Pearl gouramis and bolivian rams aint exactly splashes of colour so I'd quite like some rly colourful shoaling fish, just dunno what yet!

let me know what you decide on when you choose, its hard looking at pics on the net as they dont show the fishes true glory.... ive got next week off work so im gonna go have a good look round, might even make a trip to pinxton to wharf aquatics as i hear is dam good. although theres a shop in stratfod thats got green laser corys in at the mo so i dont know which way to head north or south? rosy barbs are looking favourite at the mo tho.
my colour is pretty limited too as i have 3 polkadot loaches, 8 corys when they decide to make an apperance, hillstream loach, false sae which are all quite dark fish. my angels and platys are the only colour..... how did that happen.........?

 

[mattlee]

oooooooh, how about dwarf neon rainbows......? nice colours, 2-2.5 inch apparently, nice com fish, shoal of 8/9 would look good........

 

[Amberleaf]

Just to add, that the rummy nose tetras can get *really* quite large; like, 2 or 3 inches in size. ^^; My friend has three, and they are really quite big.

 

[coldcazzie]

Well in the lfs today I saw midnight emperor tetras (mostly black, but with blue eyes - quite cool), silvertip tetras, serpae tetras and they also had albino tiger barbs which were quite pretty, but I'm not 100% convinced by any of them...

I guess I'll have to wait until I have everything else in there and then see what's available. Can't add fish til next wk at earliest and then it will be gouramis assuming I can find some by then. Probably no point in deciding now because I'll only change my mind!