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A school of silver dollars, bleedgin hearts, and cardys would make for one heckuva stunning tank. Plus, it's a good habitat tank (Amazon).

that is wierd, jase

I think that congo tetras are nice. You can buy them small and it only costs 3-4 in canadian dollars. They will grow quickly to a large size.

You could also add about 6 black tetras with diamonde or columbian tetras.

hey dev-man, can i tell you a sad story?

about 3 years ago my boyfriend heard me talking about hatchets and thoughtfully went to the lfs that weekend and bought me 6 - gorgeous!! i had a mostly south american tank at the time (6 footer, lots of tetras) with a few gouramis (asia) and a school of 8 impressive congos (african). not thinking anything of it, i put the hatchets in and within minutes three of them were attacked, pulled to bits and eaten by the congos - they were REALLY attracted to the surface-swimming nature of the hatchets, and i only managed to save two of the remaining three - they were badly shocked. i would strenuously advise against congos with surface swimmers. this is of course only my experience, but i would hate for u to lose the hatchets to the congos. never gotten over it - love the congo look, but hate them as a tankmate...

When they start to get comfortable in their enviornment they will come down from the top of the tank and school with the other schooling fish you have.

This should really only happen when you have schooling/schoaling fish in groups of less than 6, and they are lonely

I have and love black widow tetras

Don't lose the hatchets just get both i have both hatchets ( marbled ) and pencils and they all school together in mine. But i've never heard of that from any body else. I guess mine are just wierd. Anyway get both it's woth it.

my fish do what u are explaining. they will swim foreward and then suddenly stop with fins spread out. then will swim again. sometime they swim smoothely but mostly i see them doing the start stop thing

Yeah, pencilfish look like they are hovering
pretty cool, iMO

I guess what I meant with "stop and start" is that pencils move in a very choppy manner, hovering at a standstill between each burst of movement, while most tetras tend to dart around continously...heehee, I don't think that really helped with the description any, I need a video of them swimming to show what I mean!!

Glad to hear you're considering them, Dev_Man!

a lot of tetras swim in a start and stop kinda way. my cardinals do it all the time as do my black phantoms and my glowlights. pencilfish are kool though. good luck with ur tank. dont know much about pencilfish but do they need a school? if not then definately try to go for 6 congo tetras. and a large school of hatchet fish would look pretty neat. though i probably wouldnt keep them in my tank(i just like other tetras better) good luck with ur tank and if u have any room left over...add some cory cats

thanks for all the replies folks!, i'm going to my lfs today i'm going to find out if they can get me some pencil fish, i was thinking of replacing the hatchetfish with these guys seeing as i already have marbleds in another tank

ok i would put in 10 of each fish u want and then 5 neon tetras but im fairly new at this so i may be over stocking

I'm partial to black neons and emperor tetras. Never had a chance to keep either kind yet, unfortunately, but I would certainly add them to a 90G if I had one!

Pencilfish are really interesting to have if you can find them for sale. They swim in stops and starts, and hover around the top half of the tank, especially around plants. They make for quite a contrast with smooth-swimming tetras. I think they do better in a smallish school, so you could keep 6 or 7 along with two larger schools of tetras. 90G...so envious...room for all!

I will agree about congos.The guy at one of the fish stores i go to has a 6 year old congo tetra that he measured at 6.35 inches. They get very large.
Should stop you from getting a school of them , but I would probably opt for a larger school of them and less of the others, or keep the school small, like say 6 or so of em.
I would go for Buenos Aires Tetras myself. They are great, medium sized, and once they pass their juvi stage they dont nip anymore. Great great fish.
Penguin tetras are also very neat, as are emperor tetras.


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I have Congo's and my largest is clost to six inches right now, they are incredible, the males anyway, I keep three males in my 90. I also keep seven blue silver tip tetras, neat fish. I know their not tetras but Resbora Hets remind me of tetra's and I like them for a schooling type fish, very impressive in large schools, as they grow their colors get more intense magenta.

I have a new 90 gal set up and cycling at the moment(fishless)..i already have a good idea what i'm stocking it with. a trio of apistos, marbled hatchetfish, 2 britslenoses...now is when i turn to you tetra lovers, i was thinking of 2 schools, bleeding hearts and black neons...how many of each should i put, i want large shoals, also if you have any other comments on these species or even other suggestions i'm all ears..thanks a bunch

If you like active swimmers I would fully recommend cochu's blue tetra. They should be with fish that dont mind the action. Mine have never nipped, but they play a game of tag, it seems. They also do not bother the very docile tankmates(glass catfish). They stay in the upper levels of the tank mainly, but do explore also. If your water quality is good, they will likely be significantly more blue than at the fish store.

They eat every type of food that I use, cichlid flakes, spirulina flakes, daphnia, occasional brine shrimp, occasional blood worms, very occasional chopped earthworm.

Just have fun with your tank, though, whatever your informed choice is.

Black phantom tetras are a very nice looking fish. You'd want to get some males as well as females though for more interesting behavior - the males have larger dorsal and anal fins that they display to females and competing males. (although I'd be surprised if this was unique amongst tetras?)

No tetra tank is complete without cardys. X)

Yeah get emporers ( blue if you can ) But keep the marbled hatchets they are and awsome and interesting fish. When they start to get comfortable in their enviornment they will come down from the top of the tank and school with the other schooling fish you have.
Good Luck