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just got a small school of 5 ember tetras yesterday! very fun little guys to watch. sadly, one of them did not make it through the night. even though i was very carefull to acclimate them, one seemed very sickly and shy, was not schooling with the others.

The good news is that even though I had one loss, the others have adapted beautifully! my ph is slightly high for them, I put some driftwood in to bring it down. it is currently at 7.2, supposedly these do best at 6.9.

They must come from a river with a strong current, as their favorite hang out now is right by the main two filters. they spent the whole day today swimming against the strong current of water and air bubbles put out by the powerjet.

My dwarf sunset male gourami doesn't even care that they are in there, and these little .5" guys go up and swim and play around him.

very entertaining fish to watch...I have been monitering them closely, because even though they get to 1", the ones I have are still little and half that size, I am worried that my south american bumblebee catfish will mistake them for lunch.

These fish are more fun to watch than my lemon tetras and cherry barbs in my community tank, and really liven up my ten gallon!

anyone else have any experience with these little guys?

Calillasseia knows a lot about them. My own experience is limited to one that I bought years ago (the first I had ever seen; he came in with a shipment of Glowlights), and he held on very nicely for over a year in a tank of considerably bigger fish until I had one of my then-periodic bacterial-infection wipeouts (now mercifully ended).

I'd be uneasy about those Bumblebee Catfish, though -- I'm not sure, but they may be one of the more voracious species of catfish, in which case their temptation to chow down on your Embers will be overwhelming. Better do some research.

By the way, how bright is their color? That first one I bought was fairly attractive -- he looked like moderately bright orange glass -- but (as with so many Glowlights and Red Phantoms in the stores), most of the others I've seen since then are disappointingly washed-out-looking and pale.

SA Bumble-cats are much smaller than asian bumblebee catfish, they get HUGE! my SA Bumble-cat stays 2.25", and his mouth isn't currently big enough to eat them I do not think, nor will his mouth get any bigger. I will agree though, most catfishes will eat anything and everything that will fit in their hungry mouths. He isn't by any means agressive, although I have been told he will eat fry readily, that I do not doubt. I suppose I will know if one of these days one shows up missing,lol.

They have very nice color now, translucent copper in color, and with some conditioning they should fill out nicely.

By the way, how bright is their color? That first one I bought was fairly attractive -- he looked like moderately bright orange glass -- but (as with so many Glowlights and Red Phantoms in the stores), most of the others I've seen since then are disappointingly washed-out-looking and pale.

Perhaps the ones you saw were captive-bred specimens? I've read several places that the gold coloration is due to a skin parasite they have, and that only wild-caught fish have it for some reason. Captive-bred fish are supposed to a dull silver/pewter color due to them not having the parasite. I don't know how widely these tetras have been bred in captivity, however.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

You've got Gold (or "Brass" Tetras (Hemigrammus rodwayi or armstrongi -- there seems to be a dispute -- both discovered early in the century) mixed up with Ember Tetras (H. amandae; discovered in southern Brazil in the 1980s). The Gold ones are the ones with that skin disease; I've heard it doesn't cause them any discomfort, but I would feel uneasy about buying them. (I mean, how do WE know they don't feel discomfort?)

The Ember Tetras are much smaller -- the smallest Tetras I'm aware of in the aquarium trade right now -- and their bodies are transparent orange (like those of Red Phantoms and, to some extent, Serpaes). They have no skin diseases associated with their color. (They're also rarer in the trade, although I'm seeing them more often.)

It's possible that either inbreeding or poor nutrition causes a lot of them to lose their color; these seem to be major factors in causing Glowlights and Red Phantoms to very often lose their color, too.

Ahh... That's what I get for not spending hours around tetras everyday like I used to.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.