Cardinal tetra hiding from my silver tip tetras?

S

smELLE

Registered Member
Jun 29, 2016
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Strange cardinal tetra behaviour
I am a new aquarium owner. I have a 125 litre fish tank that I have had set up since the beginning of May. I have only had fish in it since Saturday though.

On saturday day I went and bought 5 Serpea tetra, 6 Cardinal Tetra and a male Siamese fighter all at the recommendation of the shop keeper. Although I think one of the cardinals may be a Neon Tetra. The two fish I really wanted was the cardinals and the Betta. I came home from work on Monday to see my betta and cardinals hiding in the plants. When they did come out I saw chunks had been taken out all of their fins to the point on of my cardinals struggles to swim now.

i took the Serpea tetra out and got 10 silver tip tetra and added them in on Monday. All my fish were happy and swimming around fine. Came home today though to not find any cardinals. My betta is swimming around fine and the silver tips are chasing each other round like crazy! Every time the silver tips go near the plants that the cardinals are hiding in the cardinals retreat further in...

I fed them today and the silver tips ate most of the food and when the cardinals came out to get some food and a silver tip came near it left the food and swam away... I can't check the cardinal tails as they already were damaged and they won't come out of hiding.

are my silver tips bullying the cardinals? Do I need to buy more cardinals?



my cardinals are hiding down the back by the filter

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Yep, that's natural Silver tip behaviour. I have been warned and decided against buying them, because they are fin nippers. More cardinals might help, because more of them is harder to chase, like divided attention. Your tank is beautiful, but more hiding places might help.
 
Sorry, but Serpae and Silver-Tip tetras are know fin nippers.
 
Silvertips are also very hyperactive, and that is likely stressing the cardinals. Much as I personally love them, I'd recommend taking them back in the best interest of your cardinals. Black neons would be a good fit. They aren't as colorful, but they are peaceful.
 
Hmmm, yes. Taking them back is an option you could consider.
 
Kannan Fodder said:
Silvertips are also very hyperactive, and that is likely stressing the cardinals. Much as I personally love them, I'd recommend taking them back in the best interest of your cardinals. Black neons would be a good fit. They aren't as colorful, but they are peaceful.
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Yes, that's precisely the problem, along with the Silvertips also being nippers - 2 bad traits that stress peaceful, shyer fish like Cardinals. You can't compatibly keep Silvertips nor Serpaes with Cardinals.
Buying more Cardinals won't help at all. You'll just have more of them hiding all the time.
 
I agree with that, Paul. I think if you are going to keep hyperactive species that you should also keep other species with similar behaviour to match. That way, there won't be one species on the bottom of the pecking order. I would return them.
 
THIS IS WHY I HATE DANIOS................................gods, they suck, man. Cardinals and neons won't be able to hold up to the silver tips, and will eventually give into the stress created in the tank by them.
 
Another thing to help is to create more hiding places until you get rid of your silvertips. ( If you do. ) Terra cotta pots work well.
 
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