FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Would a school of flame tetras be okay in a 20 gallon tank? I think I like those. The tank is in a sorta quiet location, only movement near it is when I walk past(on the wall next to my restroom) which isn't too often, especially compared to a store tank. I've heard that they are hardy and easygoing, any practical experiences here?

Or embers. I'm thinking about asking my local store if they can get those in. . .

[url=http://dragcave.ath.cx/viewdragon/bNFR][/url]

Yeah , flame tetras would be a sensible choice, theyre fairly hardy ,reasonably disease resistant, appreciate average values, smallish, and shoal numbers are easily do-able in a 20. They do like their cover though, but once acclimated spend most of the time in plain view, had a shoal myself for years. They get on quite well with other fish, and they are pretty. I would say though that they do need the shoal, even if they spread out once in an aquarium, so go for at least 8 if youre going to. A lot of the time they dont hang about in close shoals, but if the other fish arent there to give them that feeling of security, then they tend not to do so well.

The only downside they have really is that they can be e to overeating, so avoid putting them in with slow feeders, aside from that, a great little fish.

So the secret to them is light feeding and reasonable numbers. Easy peasy.

Alrightey then. The 20 WAS going to be a cardinal tank, but I'm shying away from them since they've never done well in my community tanks. Then I thought about white clouds(have some in there now for activity) but have heard they don't like to be in 80 degree water permanently, so I figured I'd look at other tetras again. They'll probably be the only fish in there. Does anyone know if they'll eat shrimp? I was going to house some of those with the cardinals, but was steered towards catfish. But now I am leaning towards shrimp again(even if only ghosties, been wanting some more of those lately. . .)

Edit: oh, also likely a couple of ottos later down the road.

[url=http://dragcave.ath.cx/viewdragon/bNFR][/url]

As long as the ghost shrimp or amano shrimp that go in are of a reasonable size ie, more than a third grown, flame tetras wont touch them, mine lived with amanos no probs.

I got a small school today. 6 of them to be exact. I'm going to watch the parameters closely for a while. The 6 I got are around 3/4" each for now. So cute! So now, how many should be in there? Just stick with the 6 I have, or should I get a couple more for a bigger school?

As I said, they're likely to be the only fish other than ottos possibly.

[url=http://dragcave.ath.cx/viewdragon/bNFR][/url]

You could bump it up to 8 , it shouldnt cause any probs. They are a pretty small fish, that should still leave enough room for ottos.