Tetras in new tank

[Paccula]

I am wondering if anyone can give me some advice on my Black Skirt Tetras. I have six of them in my 10gallon tank, and water quality is as follows: Ph 7-7.5; Hardness about 150; temperature 78F. The water where I live is extreamly hard, about 200 normaly, so I think I will double the dose of "Blackwater Extract" which I have added to the water to make it softer. I haven't been able to find much information about these Tetras online or in any of my books.

I was thinking that later I might add 3 Corydoras and some Cherry Barbs to the tank with the tetras. As far as my reserch shows, they have the same prefrence to water quality and should all get along. I have heard mixed information about cherry barbs though.. would it be better to keep them in pairs (a male and a female), or in a group? Because of my tank size I hope they like being a pair.

I won't add those fish for quite a while though, as this is a new tank setup and I'm having some troubles with it. I have added Cycle and iron rich fertilizer for the plants (half of which are doing fine, Java fern I believe, and a "palm", but my Rosette plants have lost most of their leaves, but I think the new leaves opening up look fine. I do not know their name exactly, my pet store doesn't lable plants very well. I did have to take them out of the pots they were in, as it contained awful material, so that may have weakened them some.)

anyway, thanks for any help, it is greatly appreaciated!

 

[nickbuter]

I also have very hard water where I live, when starting the tank I used about 50% R/O water and 50% tap water. When I do my water changes I only use R/O water. The R/O water where I live is only $.39 a gallon. I'm not by any means an expert on this subject, but my fish seem to be doing very well. The black skirts are easily one of the hardiest fish I have ever kept, and they are a very wonderful community fish also.

I also try and use as few chemicals in my tank as I possibly can, especially chemicals to control water quality.

I would probably add the cories, and skip on the barbs in a ten gallon. six tetras and 3 cories is good for a ten gallon.

What problems are you having?

 

[sky.eyes.woman]

I would probably add the cories, and skip on the barbs in a ten gallon. six tetras and 3 cories is good for a ten gallon.

I'm going to echo nickbuter on this one. Adding the 3 corys will pretty much fill a 10 gallon to capacity with them and the 6 black skirts. Another reason you might want to pass on the cherry barbs is because they can be fin nippers and if you've got long finned black skirts the barbs might make life a lot less happy for them. Black (and gold) skirt tetras are a great choice for a new tank and just cool fish in general...let them be happy and have another tank of cherry barbs.
Psst...hey! A great excuse to have yet another tank! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge!

 

[Blinky]

I agree adding corys and barbs would probably be too much, and you're making a good decision to wait until things even out with the tank before you add any new fish.
I've got cherrys and absolutely adore them - three males in my 65g and a group of seven females in my 10g. They're actually known to be one of the least nippy barbs, but it never hurts to be careful - I've never had a problem with them nipping other fish, but they absolutely attack my arm when I do maintenance, so I don't doubt the potential for fin-nipping is there! They're unusual - they're happy in pairs or groups, whereas most other barbs prefer to live in groups.
s.e.w. - careful, encouraging MTS is dangerous!