Neons with Serpaes ...OK in large schools?

[credenza]

I have a 55g, that I just restarted after my move. Have completed fishless cycling and started planting. I also incidentally picked up a few serpae tetras. In the past week that I have had them they are doing really well, and I love their active spirit.
My goal for this 55g was mainly to have a good size neon tetra /cardinal tetra school (depending on availability at my LFS) Having kept FW tanks for 2+ years and barely losing any fish (except the ones I got from Walmart and the odd one that jumped out) I venture to guess that my skills might help me to deal with neons.

Well here is my dilemma, typically most folks suggest that serpaes will harrass the more peaceful neons. However, once in a while I hear someone chime in who suggests that if serpaes are in a large enough school, they limit their aggression to within the species.

So can I keep neons with serpaes if I have sufficiently large schools? What would be a good size school for these species? I am only planning for 2 schools. I would not mind just one school, but this is my only good size tank (have an empty 10g and 2.5g - both of which I have started planting; 2.5 for betta. Yet to decide on my 10g)

I love the serpaes and look forward to neons.

Thanks!

 

[anonapersona]

serpae with cardinals

I have serpae tetras with cardinal tetras which are a lot like neons. With at least 6 serpae they will be so busy sparring among themselves they won't chase the neons too much. If you have a lot of neons, they all look alike and that makes it harder to chase any single one. So, keep the serpae group rather small but more than 6, and the neons much larger.

I suggest 8 serpae and 15 to 20 or 30 neons, depending on the fish load in the tank.

 

[TetraFreak]

I've had Serpaes & Neons together and NEVER had a problem between them!

 

[credenza]

:bowing: Thanks! Sounds good. I will stock my 55 with suggested school sizes of serpaes and neons. Do you think just having these 2 species in the 55g could pose any issues. Its going to be planted.

 

[Lobo.]

ive never had a problem, even after an ich disaster broght the serpae numbers to only 2 fish... they still just fought amungst themselves only!

 

[jazzbass]

I have serpaes and neons in the same tank. It is heavily planted, and the serpaes mostly just lurk at the bottom in the plants.

The worst problems I ever had with serpaes was when I had a pair of sunset platys in the same tank. The male platy and the serpaes were constantly chasing.

 

[Gomisan]

My new tank has both neons & Serpaes. The 4 Serpaes spend all day darting about chasing each other, and only occasionally jump into the school of neons and scatter them a bit.

4 Serpae & 7 neons ( I thought I only had 6 neons but after 4 or 5 days of counting 6 only, today there's definately 7!)

Interestingly, the neons weren't schooling at all a couple of days ago, but I added a Dwarf Gourami to the tank and now the neons are all sticking together liek they did when i first put them in th etank.

Makes me wonder if the schooling is a response to the presence of a larger fish.

 

[Flowerhorn916]

I have 6 Serpaes tetras and 6 lemon tetras neither of them school at all anymore I think I am gonna trade them in anyone know how to fix this?

 

[SnakeIce]

In some cases serpaes are not compatible with most fish, but that is usually in tanks smaller than 30 gallons and with some crowding. In my experience with larger tanks and less competition for the lower level of the tank they are fine with most fish. I still would not put them in with fish that are slow moveing or have flowing or long fins.

 

[evster]

I know this is an old thread, but I was thinking about mixing some Serpaes with some neon tetras.

I currently have a 20G tank with 3 Serpae Tetras, 3 Lemon Tetras, 3 Black Phantom Tetras, and 2 Otos. Sometimes the Serpaes nip the fins of the black phantoms, but never anything worse than that.

I would love to mix in a school of 6 neon or cardinal tetras. Do you think this would work out ok? Should I be concerned about overstocking? If so, would a school of only 4 neons be acceptable?
Thanks!