Question about serpae tetras

holyherbiness

holyherbiness

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Apr 7, 2004
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Well, I've decided to add more serpae tetras (I only have two in my 110) to prevent aggression against my guppies

However, the ones I have have these long flowing fins that are whitish while the ones I am planning to get have short fins. Will this be a problem when I add them?

Any help will be appreciated.
 
serpaes

It will depend on how many you are planning on getting.

At the store we keep the long finnned with the regular finned. The long finned do tend to get ragged some times.

If there are enough fish in the school however the aggression gets spread among the entire group and they don't seem to get frayed as much. They will get some fraying however.

Plunk in a big group (8- 10) because you have the space with your bigger tank. It will help and schooling serpaes is quite cool to watch.
 
Okay thanks alot!
i'm just afraid that having lets say 5 times the number of serpaes will mean five times the amount of aggression towards my guppies, let's say.
 
I wouldn't think you'd have to worry about serpae aggression toward the guppies... is that already occurring?

In the last few months I've been helping my mom set up a 35g all tertra tank and her serpaes from what I have seen keep their aggression amongst themselves. She only keeps the short finned strand (that is only because there is only one store with the long finned guys and they always look very tattered--probably because the tank always has 5 times as many fish in it as it really ought). They do seem to be fin nippers, but don't usually spread that to other species around them.
 
Originally posted by Egyptdragon
They do seem to be fin nippers, but don't usually spread that to other species around them.
Click to expand...

ditto. I have only 2 serpae tetras and they barely nip fins. When they do it's just between themselves. One of our diamond tetras has really nice flowing fins, no nippage :).
 
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not with mine. They are docile, and then bam! they attack and my guppy gets badly shredded fins and dies several days later

I just bought a trio of short finned ones today, and they seem to be schooling fine, despite a major size difference.
 
depending on how crowded your serpae's feel is how nippy they will be, also feeding them a high protien diet will curtail some of the nipping ime.

some thing to consider, these tetras lay claim to an area of the bottom of the tank, and if another fish enters that area they might get nipped.

they are similar to paranhas in behavior in some ways, and any weakness seen in your guppys may also trigger those attacks.

I personally after expirience with them would not put them in with anything with flowing or long fins, slow moveing fish like gouramies, and any fish deemed peacefull.

I had some in a 20 gal and that was to small for the 5 I had in order to give them the territory needed to lower agression
 
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