Serpae Tetra's

[minnnt]

Considering having a shoal of these as the only top dwellers in the tank.

How do they shoal?

Do they jump?

I know they're nippy, but will be in with a pair of juvenile firemouths so shouldn't come into too much contact with them really... Should they?

 

[MBOU]

They loosely shoal together but not great... more a kind of a 'loose huddle' as they troop up and down the tank murdering everything in their path

I got sick of being told they werent 'too bad' at work and was looking for some colour in my tiger barb tank... 260L with 18 Tiger Barbs and **very** heavily planted.

So i added 15 juvenile Serpae tetras.. they settled in after a few days and shoaled loosely... i noticed they were being a bit nippy but saw my Tigers give them a good seeing off!! So didnt think much of it until i cam in the next day and had 15 tiger barbs... then 12..... 10..... 7....

And then during the day a customer came running up to tell me my fish had gone mad! The Serpaes had pinned down my last 7 Tigers and were hell bent of murdering the loto f them!

Wont touch serpaes with a barge pole now! Those were huge fat adult tiger barbs that had killed their own share of fish in their time!

Mental...

 

[thereverendturtle]

My concern is you want a fish for the upper half, once comfortable they tend to stay in the lower half of the aquarium. If you want a school closer to the surface penguin tetras would be a better choice.

 

[minnnt]

Thanks for the info, will give them a wide birth then. Lol. May just go with my glowlights, but they tend to stay low aswell.

Do harlequins jump?

 

[afremont]

Considering having a shoal of these as the only top dwellers in the tank.

How do they shoal?

Do they jump?

I know they're nippy, but will be in with a pair of juvenile firemouths so shouldn't come into too much contact with them really... Should they?

I have five in a 37 gallon tank along with several zebra danios and a dwarf gourami. I think they stick together pretty tightly, at least compared to danios or cherry barbs. I love watching them eat, they go nuts zipping around really fast. They nip at each other some, but nothing too serious so far. It's my understanding that as long as you keep them in in groups they'll turn their aggression towards each other and spend their time sorting out their own pecking order rather than tormenting other tankmates. Having one or two will result in them terrorizing the other fish.

At first they stayed out of his way, but lately I've seen them nipping at the gourami; he's got some raggedy bits on his tail. If I could find a healthy female DG I'd put her in with them. I imagine that would turn the tables on the serpaes once the gouramis decided to mate. DGs are pretty docile alone, but they can get pretty aggressive when put in groups or are mating.

Kinda funny when I put that gourami in the tank. The serpaes showed up in force to try and intimidate him I guess. The gourami just ignored them. I have a danio that seems to marshal those serpaes around like he's really king of the hill. Too funny, they all run from him when he chases them. Maybe that's why they don't pick on the gourami more than they do. Too funny watching those tetras run from a danio.

 

[KISSfn]

Mine don't shoal much nor jump. I have never witnessed any aggressive behavior against tankmates. But I have seen amazing behavior. When one of them was ill and my Tigers began to pick on him, all the Serpaes came to his defense and ran the Tigers off until I moved the patient to my hospital tank. Mine also are mid to bottom dwellers. So, since mine are docile and MBOU's were killers it reinforces my belief that all fish have very differrent personalities and they can't be labeled as aggressive or docile as many variables are involved. My Danios are top dwellers.