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Ok so my serpae tetras are half swimming sideways sometimes.. I dont think its a swimming bladder problem but maybe.. or maybe my filter current is too strong for them...

what do you think??

thank you.. oh ps... is it possible to have too much oxygen in the water.. i dont think soo.. but maybe im wrong about this too......

thank you

Sometimes tetras are just plain wierd and will swim sideways, sometimes to "spar" with another male, sometimes to impress a female. I dont think your current would be too strong, as they are great swimmers. See if the fish do this "motion" when they are close to the other Serpaes... I hope this may help...

72 gallon bowfront:Tanganyikan Lake set up
75 gallon: A. Baenschi trio,Cyanotilapia Afra Cobwe(4), copadichromis trewavase, protomelas sp. tangerine tiger(breeding pair)

thanks for the suggestion Tanya81. Your suggestion is very possible cause my tetras seem to like to hang around the opposite gender. This is very possible and i hope that this is the case. maybe i will get some baby serpae tetra fry here soon.

Thank you for your help

tetraguy3

I have a school of serpae tetras and sometimes they swim oddly after eating. Probably from the intake of air along with the food. They are fine after a minute of two. Does this sideways behavior happen after they eat?

-Eric
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

sometimes.. but i also find them swimming sideways a few hours after... its interesting cause ive never had this problem before with other fish..

That's weird. I've never observed mine swimming sideways. I'm sure they'll be okay though.

-Eric
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

This one intrigues me. Not least because of the way in which you describe it as 'swimming sideways' ...

First of all, a little introductory preamble. If you observe Characins closely over time, you'll find out that they're some way removed from the 'identikit' shoaling fishes that the textbooks have described for ages. You'll discover that, for example, male Characins can (and in some species do) exhibit territorial claims on 'landmarks' in the aquarium as tenaciously as some Cichlids - Silver Tip Tetras are a prime example of a species in which this can be seen. Moreover, when establishing a hierarchy to see which males are the dominant ones, and more likely to mate with the females, you'll see some interesting 'jousting' behaviour going on. I've described this in the past at length in Lemon Tetras, which adopt a characteristic head-up posture with erect fins when issuing challenges to rival males. All in all, more complex behaviour than the idea of 'identikit' shoaling fishes from the textbooks would have you believe. They may look alike at first glance, but even shoaling fishes have individual personalities!

Now, to your Serpaes. Watch them closely. The trouble here is that it's not easy to tell which are male and which are female - this is not a species that has obvious and reliable external colouration differences making your life easy. Usually, even in sexually mature adults, you're reduced to treating the fuller bodied fishes as females and the more slender ones as males. Even so, we can make a start here. Look at a fish that is swimming in an 'odd' manner next time you get chance to do this closely. Is this fish doing so in close proximity to another fish? Are both fishes relatively slender bodied, especially when seen from above? Do the fishes seem to be taking nips at each other immediately following the unusual swimming posture, yet at the same time, upon closer examination, stop just short of actually nipping each other and 'pull their punches', so to speak? Welcome to the male jousting behaviour of your Serpaes if this is the case.

Heh, I've even seen this kind of 'jousting' in Cardinals lately. Once again, pays to watch your fishes. Amazing the things they can teach you when you do!

Watch the posture adopted. Is it head up, head down, or even keel with respect to pitch angle? Is the fish tilted to one side, or again level with respect to roll angle? Look up 'pitch', 'roll' and 'yaw' as they apply to aircraft position and apply these terms to the orientation of your fishes in the water when adopting their peculiar behaviour, and let me know what you see. If the fishes swim in these unusual postures intermittently, and do so only when interacting in specific ways with others of their own species, you have, in all probability, hit upon the 'jousting' behaviour of your Serpaes when determining male dominance hierarchy in the shoal. Chances are, also, when the fishes mate and breed, you'll see something like it, but with subtle posture and fin signalling changes, between males and females, as I witnessed with my Lemons. Whereas in Lemons, two males 'joust' with a head-up posture, males courting females do so slightly head-down. Watch for similar differences occurring with your Serpaes ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

That was a really interesting post. Thanks Calilasseia, that has inspired me to watch my serpae tetras more closely. There is definitely a hierarchy in my tank. This pecking order behavior is really interesting.

-Eric
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

tetraguy3,

With all the great information the others provided so far, I may be way off, but I have been right with this observation once before:

The sideways swimming can be caused by the current created from the filter. This is the way for the fish to generate the least resistance to the water flow and to preserve energy. This would be the case if they are sidways to the current, mostly in the area of the tank where the water returns from the filter.

Just thinking,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club