Serpae Tetra question

[Shooter]

Over this past weekend my wife and I got the urge to do a pet store sweep in our general area and see what we could find to "round out" our aquarium population. At one place we came upon some fish my wife had had her eye on ever since she saw a picture of one on the internet...the Hi Fin Serpae Tetras. There were at least 2 very nice specimens in the tank and so I told her we'd go ahead and try them. I've had experience with serpaes in the past and knew they could be nippers and liked to be in groups, but I hoped that perhaps they would hang with my 3 flame tetras and be ok just as a pair of them with the others. Well, 24 hours later, no deal. The poor flames have had their tails chewed up, one almost has no tail at all. And 5 out of my 6 neons have various levels of tail damage. My wife's really bummed because she just loves these fish. They are currently segregated off from the general population while i figure out what to do with them.

So, my question is, obviously, what do i do with them?

- one option is to simply take them back to the lfs

- another option would be to go back to the lfs and buy a few more, as is recommended by some so that they can have a school and in that situation they're supposed to be less "nippy" of others

- I have a 5 gal bowfront I haven't set up yet and I could get it going and put them in there, maybe add another to them or some other fish that could go with them?

- I could set up the 5 gal, put the flames in there (who are quite small), add more serpaes for their school and leave in the larger tank?

Thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Xcric]

probably better off keeping them seperated in their own tank or taking them back...
i had two, they were really nippy, so i got 3 more to try and make them less aggressive...
didn't work, they were just as nippy, if not more so, because now there were more of them...