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hola
i bought 3 emperor tetras a month ago and they are super healthy and all but i had to remove the females to a 10gsince the male always goes after them both. (horny maybe?) then one female beats up on the other in the 10g. what can i do?my though was maybe buy another female and another male and get them all together. im pretty clueless about this so help!!!

Boost your shoal to a minimum of 6, preferably more.

First of all, Emperor Tetras, like most other small Characins, are shoaling fishes. If the numbers are too low, the 'aggression' you're seeing is actually a manifestation of psychological insecurity. Increase the shoal size to 6 or more and they'll probably behave better because they'll feel more secure. From that point on, any chasing you see will (particularly if they've been well conditioned on live foods beforehand) be a prelude to spawning.

Also, I'd look out for the following behaviour. I've seen it in Lemons, Black Phantoms, Silver Tips and a range of other Tetras even when the shoal size has been fairly decent.

Male Tetras in particular will, if they're happy with their surroundings, adopt 'landmarks' in the aquarium as vantage points from which to display to each other. Species with high-contrast markings in the dorsal and anal fins are particularly noted for this (again, Lemons, Silver Tips, Black Phantoms and the like). I've also seen it happen in Beckford's Pencil fishes. What then happens is that males will square up to each other and make ritual 'jousting' passes at each other. To the untrained eye, it looks aggressive, but if you look more closely, and spend time observing them, you'll notice that they ALWAYS pull their punches at the last moment - it's ritualised combat. It's nothing more than the males establishing a pecking order and engaging in the usual macho show-off business in front of the females. All to do with fitness for breeding. Sounds familiar? Right. Watch your Emperors once you boost your shoal size, and see if the same thing occurs. If it does, then you've probably got the beginnings of the patter of tiny fins once they've grown up enough to breed.

Again, and I cannot emphasise this enough, sitting and watching your fishes over a long period of time is one of the keys to success. Treat your aquarium and its inmates like an unexplored world, and put yourself in the shoes of Jacques Cousteau doing the exploring. Always ask yourself, "what are these fish doing?". Keep close tabs on their movements, watch their behaviour in detail, and if you think you'll need to, take notes. Dig out the video camera and film them even - then watch the replays and see if you can spot anything interesting. Because by doing this, you'll learn what signs to look for when the fishes are engaging in their day to day business - what behaviours correspond to what eventual outcome. That's why the old hands spent time sitting in front of their tanks gazing wistfully for hours on end - they weren't just enjoying the view, they were studying the fishes!

Remember that your typical fish is a good deal smarter than he's generally given credit for, even a supposedly 'sheep-like' Characin in a shoal. Watch them long enough and they start to show distinct personalities. For example, with my Lemons, when the males were engaging in macho 'jousting', they would approach each other adopting a head-upward posture, fins flared and expanded to make themselves look as big as possible. On the other hand, a male courting a female would adopt a head-DOWN posture, and 'flick' his fins for all the world like a corny chat up line - it was SO tempting to mentally insert the words "Come on baby, you KNOW I'm the man ..." at this point because it was so obvious what he was after ... humour aside, details like this count.

Boost your shoat to 6 or more, then start watching them in earnest. Treat it as your "Cousteau mission" for the time being and see if you can discover the little quirks and idiosyncrasies that act as pointers to such things as possible future spawning ... it'll serve you in good stead in years to come when you try being the first person to spawn Elephant Nose Fishes in captivity!


Last edited by Calilasseia at 15-Dec-2005 22:24

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

what is a good male-female ratio?how about 4 females and 2 males?

Sounds good to me. You'll also have the advantage that when it comes to spawning, you'll have a nice choice of potential parents. Of course, if you've room in your aquarium for 12 of them, even better (and if you source them from two different sources, you'll have some gene pool diversity too).



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Emperor tetras do not actually prefer large groups. They prefer a small group or will hang out by themselves. They will not swim together in an aquarium and I've been told they do not school in the wild. However I've never seen any real agression between them. A bit of chasing maybe but no nipped fins or damage. Mine generally picked an area behind the plants by themselves or in a pair especially male/female. The biggest group I've seen hanging out together without them arguing over mates was 4 but usually no more than a trio. Maybe they are too cramped in your tank. What other fish do you have? Mine have always been in a large tank(55g and then 90g) except 1 m/f pair I put in a 5g by themselves for breeding and the young ones I had in my 20g. I don't know what adults would be like in a small area.

Last edited by sham at 16-Dec-2005 00:08

well righ now the male i in a 20g and the 2 females are in the 10. maybe i sohuld go down to 5?. the tank will be super planted shortly soo.

Emperors are fairly large tetras so I definitely wouldn't put them in less than a 20g and I'm not sure more than 4-5 would fit happily. Planting it will really help. They seem to prefer staking out little areas for each group even though they won't take over the same area everyday or even throughout the day but the small groups or pairs do not like seeing each other constantly. They aren't as antisocial as the cochu's blue tetra can be but they are definitely not a schooling fish and like their space. More tetras though might allow them to pick better pairings and groups. It may just be one of your individuals is causing problems and would be happier if it could get away from the others behind some plants for awhile.

Emperors in my experience are definitely not schoolers -- but they're also not hostile to each other (as Cochu's Blues frequently are). In my experience, they simply ignore each other. It's possible that yours are overcrowded.