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Just bought 6 Rummies. They school really well.
Will they be alright with an angelfish and 5 serpae tetras.
And advice? I know they are dedicate fish, so what should
i take into concern. Lots of advices pls.

The angels and serpae tetras should be fine with the rummynose tetras, as long as the rummies get through the acclimation process unscathed. Angelfish will usually not bother medium to large sized tetras, and rummies are in that group. Serpae tetras are often quite nippy, especially towards slower fish with large fins. I'm surprised that they are behaving so well with your angels. If it works though, no need to remove them.

The serpaes will also probably leave the rummynose tetras alone, especially since the body shapes of both species is so different. Rummies are like torpedoes, serpaes are just standard, "wide-bodied" tetras.

In case you didn't slog through all that, the rummies should be just fine. As long as you gave them a nice, slow acclimation, and are not putting them into many stressful situations (hands in the tank for more than ten seconds, moving things around, etc.), there shouldn't be any problems.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Lost 2

Last edited by sirbooks at 11-Apr-2005 21:30

I've had a school of rummynoses for over a year with 2 large angels, rams, cardinals and just recently lost one to an internal infection.

They are excellent schoolers and very hardy if you acclimated slowly (at least 2 hours) and change water weekly.

My Scapes

only 3 can be seen swimming around now

Rummies are quite delicate & I also had the same problem when i got mine. If they live for a week, they'll be fine, but the first days are crucial for them.



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yeah...rummies r one of those delicate tetras..so..hope the remaining will do better (and as for serpae,... i just dont like them, they're beautiful but just nippy)

The BIG problem with Rummies is that transport shock is an issue with this species.

When buying Rummies, the bag should be kept in total darkness during transportation, as this seems to ease the transport shock somewhat. When they arrive home, they should be gradually introduced to increasing light levels. The bag shoudl be floated in the tank for a minimum of 30 minutes with the lights off, preferably for an hour while tank water is exchanged for bag water piecemeal. If you have the ability to rig up a slow drip system for water switching, so much the better.

The lights should be left off for the first 2 hours of acclimatisation to make life easier for them. Once the lights go back on, it would be a good idea to have bought some live food when picking up the Rummies (if your LFS supplies live Daphnia and Bloodworm, excellent, though adult Brine Shrimp will be acceptable too) because feeding them live food during their first day in the aquarium will go a long way toward boosting their acclimatisation. In my experience, live food acts as a conditioner par excellence for newly introduced fishes. Live food also boost the immune system, meaning that they're better able to fend off diseases in the first place, and if they do get sick, feeding live food during treatment (this works for any fish, not just Rummies) has a massively beneficial effect - convalescence times can be halved in the case of fin rot.

The next point to bear in mind is this. Because Rummy fry grow at a painfully slow rate (sometimes, if reared by the home aquarist, they can need infusoria for a whopping twelve weeks ), some of the commercial producers, particularly in Singapore, have hit upon a method for speeding the development of the fry. This involves hot-housing them at 40°C and bubbling pure oxygen into the aquarium to keep oxygenation levels tolerable. The trouble is, some of the Rummies thus hot-housed are shipped straight from the hot-house and promptly dumped in wholesale or dealer aquaria at 25°C with precious little acclimatisation. After that kind of shock youd be delicate too.

If they're nursed carefully during acclimatisation, and you get them through the first week, then they become fairly hardy occupants of the aquarium. Mine lived between 6 and 7 years.

Also, Rummies tend to be a tad sensitive to the disturbance involved with water changes and deep gravel vacs. Their faces become pale during the disturbance, which is a sign that they tend to like peace and quiet. However, once the disturbance is over, they colour up again with about 2 hours once they realise that they have nice new clean water to frolic about in. Their return to full intense cherry-red colour can again be speeded up - feed live food about 30 minutes after the last disturbance associated with water changing is completed, and they'll soon turn intense cherry red again.

Oh, and breeding is difficult. Rummies need a sterilised breeding aquarium, because the eggs are particularly sensitive to bacterial attack. They would also benefit from peat filtration in the breeding aquarium, and soft, acidic water is the order of the day. It would not be overdoing things to use RO water for a Rummy breeding aquarium if you have an RO unit for fishes such as Discus or delicate marines, and then condition the RO water with Tetra's Blackwater Tonic or similar. Breeding aquarium should be under fairly subdued lighting, and free of shadows or passing traffic. The aquarium does not necessarily need to be darkened totally as for Neons or Cardinals, but for 24 hours it might help. Fry are difficult to raise: expect horrendous losses first time out. Even the commercial breeders exeprience trouble with this species sometimes. Not that difficult to keep once acclimatised to a new home, but breeding is a serious challenge for the experienced aquarist.

EDIT : Whoops, almost forgot. Rummies may not be listed in the books as acrobatic jumpers, but given that they're fast-swimming torpedo shaped fish, they can become airborne with surprising agility. Best keep them covered: I've had Rummies try carpet surfing in the past, but fortunately I was alsways on hand to pick them up and rescue them when they did. They might be more tempted to do this during water change /gravel vac operations and during the transition to lights on/lights off (and vice versa) than at other times, but watch them anyway.

Hope this little lot helps.


Last edited by Calilasseia at 12-Apr-2005 10:33

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks a lot to everyone especially Calilasseia, great information there. Bought 6, now two days past, I can only see 3 swimming around. Netted 2 out yesterday. The survived ones look healthy, nose is bloody red. I shall wait for a couple of weeks and maybe go and get some more. Wish me luck!

Yes, Goodluck for your next batch of Rummies. I have 10 at the moment & are from 3 different batches of 5. As you can see 5 died but the rest are looking really RED.


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Last edited by jasonpisani at 13-Apr-2005 07:58

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