Tetra choice or.....

[Nocturnus]

So, I have 5 Von Rio Tetras in my 75 gallon along with 2 angels, 4 clown loaches and 5 ottos.

I've not been generally happy with the Von Rios. I was hoping they would be grouping better and swimming around the tank more, but they like to hang out at the bottom and hide in caves. They are all healthy an will come to the top for feeding.

What other Tetras should I look at for active swimming all over Tetras?

I was looking at adding either some Rainbowfish or Rams.

Or would incresing the group of Von Rios help? I was looking at getting 10 of them today.

 

[authmal]

I have Orange von Rios, and I agree that their behavior is disappointing. However, when I had 6 in a 20H years ago, they seemed to be a lot more active. Of course, my 20 was a cess pit of poor water quality, so they could have been looking for better water, or I could have just had some abnormal individuals then. In my tank, my cardinals and rummy nose tetras swim the length of my 55 in their schools, in the bottom 2/3 or so of the tank. My 2 remaining neons tag along with the cardinals. My glowlight tetras and von Rios are relatively stationary, and hide amongst the decor more than my rams do. I also have espei rasboras, and they're in near constant motion, typically in the top 2/3 of the tank.

 

[tanker]

In my 2 tanks, the only fish that stays together (or semi togeher) are my brass tetras.

 

[authmal]

In my 2 tanks, the only fish that stays together (or semi togeher) are my brass tetras.

Hm. I wonder why. My cardinals (and the 2 neons), at worst, split into two groups for random periods of time, then come back together. The black phantoms I had (man, I wish red phantoms were more readily available) were also pretty close knit. Referring back to my ignorant days, they (the black phantoms) were in poor water quality, but I don't know if that had any impact on their schooling behavior. I also had 3 bleeding hearts with the black phantoms, and they kinda hung around together.

 

[Nocturnus]

Well, I got 15 (I think they gave me more), but I paid for 15 Neons. They all kept together so far. Gonna see how they do over the next few days. I might get some more for the tank.

Setting up my 20 gallon again tomorrow. I think I'll have guppies and a few ottos in that one.