Silvertip Tetra

[Biulu]

Recently my attention was caught by this beautiful fish in an lfs. I went onto the net to research it a bit, but I am getting conflicting info. Some sites are saying it is a rather agressive/nippy fish whereas others say it should be kept with other peaceful fish. Then some sites say it is a blackwater fish and should be kept in acidic waters whereas others say it can stand a wide variety of water conditions including with nitrate!

With regard to breeding some say it is nearly impossible to breed them in the aquarium whereas others give a detailled explanation or even say it can be bred as most tetras...

Can anybody tell me the truth about these fish? Preferably from personal experience?

Thanks!

 

[karawr]

I don't have any personal experience myself but I was about to buy some the other day at my lfs. She said they are very nippy and aggressive fish and killed a lot of her own fish.

Like with most nippy tetras it's best if you keep them in larger groups to spread it out. I can't trust my lfs as they are all young girls who seem to know nothing... so maybe she just kept them in a bad setup or in a small group. So personally I would get 10 of them (or more).

From looking up people's experiences with them, most say they bully and are territorial-- but this was from people who only kept 2~3. Those who had aggressive ones in small groups said it went down once they bought more.

They are originally from blackwater rivers that are acidic. However, like most tank bred tetras, they will most often be able to adapt to a wide range of water conditions.

That's what I came up with at least. The general consensus is they're nippy and aggressive so I would take that as true. As for keeping them with other peaceful fish I would say that would be true. Just make sure they're in a large enough school so that they'll keep to themselves.

I didn't really look up the breeding... hope this helps.

 

[alan3513]

I had six of these but they harassed my other Tetras so much that i got rid of them after two weeks. The worst fish i have ever had and would never have them again.

 

[Biulu]

Thanks Kara! Looks as if we're pretty close together: I am in Montreal, QC. If I do get this fish, I intend to keep it in a group of about 10 - 12 at least. I like larger shoals. However, I will want to keep rams and my 2 angels with them and I don't want any nipping. In group agression is fine, but no nipping at other fish!

 

[karawr]

Oh, another Canadian! Is it just me, or are we few and far between on these fish forums?

I'm not sure about the rams but I might be worried about the angels. Their long flowy fins might be something of an "attraction" to the tetras. Not only that but they are a smaller tetra so they might become food for angels... I think they grow to about 1", the same as neon tetras which are a general nono to mix with angels.

 

[Caprichoso]

Oh, another Canadian! Is it just me, or are we few and far between on these fish forums?

I'm not sure about the rams but I might be worried about the angels. Their long flowy fins might be something of an "attraction" to the tetras. Not only that but they are a smaller tetra so they might become food for angels... I think they grow to about 1", the same as neon tetras which are a general nono to mix with angels.

Yes, we are few and far between(Canadians), mostly UK and US on the forum I think. As far as silver tip's go, they are one of the worst IME for nippiness, aggression and extreme territorial behaviour. It doesn't matter if they are in a school or if there are only 1 or two, they spread their wrath wherever they go lol. They will terrorize mountain minnows, rummynose, cardinals and shrimp. They probably terrorize other fish too but those are just the ones I've experienced with silver tip's. I've tried them twice, both with the same result. Both times it was in a 30 gallon tank. The first time I had 2 males, 3 females, the second time I had 4 males, 5 females. It really didn't seem to matter if they were male or female, they were all aggressive, which I found very weird. After they had incessantly chased my minnows to death, they started getting aggressive with each other. The 2 dominant fish, (male and female) killed off (by chasing) all the other silver tip's then the last female killed off the male and was left all alone. Pretty messed up IMO. The crazy thing was I couldn't for the life of me catch any of them because they were dashing wildly over the tank! I finally caught her after over 2 HOURS and took her to the LFS. What a hoopla! Evil fish IMO and would never recommend them to anyone I liked.

 

[fluttermoth]

I really like silvertips, but you do have to be very careful with what you put with them. I tried a shoal of 18, which I thought would be large enough, with an angel and they were nipping him; I keep them just with some panda cories now.

 

[Harlequins]

I had 6 silvertip tetras for about a year,and they were fine,very placid,no nipping seen and schooled with the harlequins a fair bit,only sold them has i wanted more corys

And they were spawning quite happily,although no eggs or fry spotted...

 

[Biulu]

Thanks for the replies guys! It seems that the risk is too high; what a pity as these fish seem very nice....

 

[coldcazzie]

I have 22 silvertips. I wouldn't call them aggressive, but they are definitely high energy! Very active, constantly swimming up and down, spawning every week, the bigger males display to each other for the best section of substrate they don't chase the other fish though, they're kept with harlequins and black neons.

 

[stu40]

Told you they had a bad rep on here Caz.

For the record, i too find them highly active.I've got 2 males to 8 females, they don't overly harrass any of the fish in the tank (see sig below).

The only trouble i had was when took in an extra (rescue) male.Fighting between the 3 males started despite having moved the decor around.Everything settled back down when the 3rd male was removed.

I keep them in hard water with PH 7.6.I don't think the males could be any more orange.Never seen any spawning.

 

[coldcazzie]

Told you they had a bad rep on here Caz.

For the record, i too find them highly active.I've got 2 males to 8 females, they don't overly harrass any of the fish in the tank (see sig below).

The only trouble i had was when took in an extra (rescue) male.Fighting between the 3 males started despite having moved the decor around.Everything settled back down when the 3rd male was removed.

I keep them in hard water with PH 7.6.I don't think the males could be any more orange.Never seen any spawning.

Yeh I see what you mean!
I like them. They really contrast the low energy fish I had before. I think I've got a fairly even split between males and females, possibly slightly more females but they never stay still long enough to count! I wanted Blue Tetras to keep with them, because Blues are supposed to be the same - very high energy - but I can't find them anywhere locally so I've got the black neons instead. If I found some Blues I'd trade the black neons in in a second! I have such low fish loyalty lol

 

[Biulu]

I will be having a 50 gallon tank with live plants and enough decor (wood mainly) so I thought these fish would be great. I like active fish, another choice would be pearl danios, also very active. I was in an lfs yesterday and looked at them. They were definitively squarreling between each other, whereas the other ones I had seen seemed very docile.

 

[littlegreentiger]

...would never recommend them to anyone I liked.

Probably shouldn't have done, but that made me laugh.

--------------------

I had just 4 in a small tank for a while and, in my experience only, I would describe them as "feisty" rather than "aggressive". The one male in particular was the first in my community to stand up and be counted as the gaffer. I had 2 Buenos Aires Tetra (bad advice and they went back when I learnt!) and the larger of these was trying to bully everything else. The Silvertip was having none of it though and would stand his ground and point blank refuse to swim away at times. It was kinda funny to see sometimes. Although they have energy to burn and will chase a lot I didn't witness any nipping. They would probably be fine with larger tank mates that are also lively and fast moving so they can escape any aggression that may become apparent. Thinking as I type I wonder whether they would be suited to and look good with a group of Tigers? Just my experience of them though.

 

[Louiseness]

Probably shouldn't have done, but that made me laugh.

Me too

I would definitely say mine were aggressive - I had them in a shoal of six, though, so that probably wouldn't have helped. They were relentless when they started chasing and wouldn't stop for ages. Plenty of body slamming, nipping and general tearing around, both between themselves and with everything else.

I think they could be great fish in a big shoal in a big, fast-moving tank, although interestingly the fish they chased most out of all the tankmates they ever had were the danios and the rainbows - maybe because they chased them back? Anyway, I gave them away