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I'm a newbie at this and I started with 4 bloodfin tetras then last weekend I got 3 painted tetras (which by the way I didn't realize with actually painted fish and not naturally those colors, I feel like a for buying them) anyway, my concern is that I noticed this evening when I got home from work that one of the painted tetras is hiding behind a plant and since I got them 5 days ago, all three of them have been swimming around with no problems. When I went near the tank it swam out and that's when I noticed another painted tetra swimming at it and showing aggressive behavior, towards it as well as the other one. Each time I take a look at the tank the one is hiding behind the plant. Any thoughts??? Thanks is advance.

Shauna

the same thing happened with my 4 painted tetras. i believe that the aggressiveness is the result of not being in a large enough shoal, and so the more dominant tetra will be aggressive to the least dominant tetra. if i were you i would either increase the amount of tetras to at least six or i would let them settle into their new surroundings and create territories, just as mine did. it may also be possible that they dont recognize each other as the same species since they are both albino and painted.

Usually painted tetras are white skirt tetras which are somewhat nippy as far as tetras go. Having more of them to make a proper school could help but you should buy the non dyed version. Color doesn't make that much difference to the skirt tetras and they will usually also school with black skirts without problems so I doubt the fact they are dyed is the problem.

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I will buy a couple more and see how they do.

I am guilty of buying some of the "coloured" tetra's when I first started in the hobby.

I've had mine for almost a year now and the colour does eventually fade leaving them white so you might as well just get them non-dyed.

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Those who say they cant, Never will !!!