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Smallish schooling tetra? for color and behavior? I want to know opinions and why you feel that way!

If you want a small, colourful, and very easy to look after I would not go past a good sized school of Cardinal Tetras.

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Keith

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hmm, I like cardinals a lot! they have the best color of any of the tetras that I have ever seen!

Rummynose.

There is something completely designer-ish about red, black and white, and they look stunning schooling in a planted tank.

Of course, you do have to deal with the 'randomly drop dead' thing, but all fish species have their quirks (they don't actually randomly drop dead, they are just a bit finnicky about water quality)

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

hmmm a bit like Discus then?

id have to go for good ol neon tetras,simply because they are easy to keep,look great in a school,and never bother any tank mates

They werent the best shoalers, but I found keeping flame tetras seriously easy and quite fun.Nice colour when in good form and a bit less like 80'S wallpaper than neons and cardinals. Probably a better chance of finding decent stock with a good longevity too.

I just found a new tetra at the LFS called DonRio like VonRio only more of a darker red and great looking vert stripes and a body shape and grown size like the Serpae Tetra ,I don't know anything about them as i just got them but so far they are great and I would love more info but havn't found any on them

In my experience Rummy-Noses aren't all that delicate, ONCE YOU GET THEM SAFELY INTO THE TANK. (See note below.) Indeed, they have a virtually unique fail-safe mechanism for aquarium fish: when the water quality isn't to their liking, their bright red face coloring fades dramatically, and so you can actually use them as "miners' canaries" to monitor the tank's water quality for your other fish.

The catch is that they can be hard to get home safely. The reason for that is that, like a lot of other Tetras, when they're frightened they emit an "alarm chemical" that warns the other members of the school that one of its members may be under attack -- but Rummy-Noses emit so much of this stuff that if you transfer them home in a small container together and they're jostled or frightened, they can release such a high concentration of the stuff that they throw each other into a state of shock and literally frighten each other to death! Exactly this happened to me once. So make sure that not too many of them are crowded together in the transfer container, and if possible keep it shrouded in an opaque bag until you get them home safely. Other than that, they're quite nice little fish.

Bruce, would you recommend transporting them in seperate bags as well or do you think that would stress them too much as well? I like the idea of a water quality alarm! I love water changes but would love to have fish that tell me if I am doing htem often enough!

Hmm soo many choices no wonder so many hobbiest have "tetra" tanks

I like my glowlight tetras. They are the hardiest tetras I ever had, look nice and bother nobody else in the tank. I wouldn't get them if I looked for something exciting, though .

I had flame tetras, but they harassed everyone else in the tank. I also had serpae tetras, which were a nice contrast to the glowlights and very interesting in their behavior (they defended small territories, like the flame tetras). Unfortunately, they were just wiped out by some mysterious disease that left the glowlights untouched.

I am with Bruce... Rummies are my fave tetra and mine have done well. I bought some several months ago and they have done very well in my 20g. I also have some gold pristella tetras in there, very nice looking. In my 55g I have a small shoal of neons, awesome little fellows there as well.

But for my money, the Rummies are best! I thought about moving them to the 55g and building up their numbers but I dont want to put them through the stress of me chasing them around the 20g, catching them and moving them into a different tank.

Let us know what you decide! Good luck!

There's no need to put them in individual bags (by which I presume you mean one Rummy-Nose per bag). Just make sure they have a bag with a moderate amount of room, and cover it with another bag so they don't see any sudden movements outside during transport.

Actually, the mistake I made was putting 3 Rummy-Noses into a gallon jar with a crowd of about 7 or 8 other fish of similar (or slightly larger) size during a move of just a just a few minutes by car from one aquarium to another. After no more than 5-10 minutes of driving, the other fish were all in perfect shape, but the Rummies had all gone into shock and died within minutes of being put into the new tank, having presumably been frightened by being crowded in with all those other fish. After that experience (which I wasn't expecting at all), I made inquiries and found out more about this quirk of theirs.

I should add that I had transported 3 or 4 Rummies home from pet shops in a single bag on two previous occasions without losing any of them, which confirms that a modest level of precaution is adequate.

What are some of the other well known tetras in addition to the cardinal tetras?

Hobbyists

hmm some other well known ones include, but are not limited to:

neon
serpae
black neon
glowlite
blackskirt(black widdow)
"PAINTED"
pristella
ember
pacu
rummy nose
black phantom
head and tail light
bleeding heart
hatchet fish
pirahana
congo
emperor
fire (green fire)
diamond
silver tip
comumbian
red eye
lemon
panda
blind cave fish
blood fin
Buenos Aires
Rosy
Red Phantom
penguin
and
etc...

all or most of these are bred for different strains and variations in color... also many of these are not fit for your tank... such as pacu and pirahana as well as congos and a few others, but there is a good list of most of the common tetras.



\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

wow thank you! I will certainly let you know which way I go, adn thanks for all teh pointers on rummy noses! i think haveing a water quality gaurd will be great!