Just wondered what kind you guys keep as most people with corys/plecs etc keep tetras of some kind....
At the moment I have Neons,black skirts and lemon tetras they all seem to be under the illusion that theyre cory cats lol

I currently have Hockey-Stick Tetras. But I've been eyeing off some Cochu's Blues for some time.



I had a lone Rummy-Nose once, that thought he was a Cory. Used to shoal with them, and sit on the bottom.

Ive got quite a few Lemons (which I LOVE), and some head and tail light tetras, and a black tetra for the most part. There might be some others, but I can't remember.

Hi! Most tetras do really well in my tank for some reason. I've given up on other mid-level fish such as angels and gouramis since they always die eventually.

Anyway, I have schools of neons, bloodfins, and a lone black neon. I'm planning on adding to my tetra schools after I've finished stocking up on my loaches. I also have about a half dozen long-finned serpae tetras, but they've been a little more delicate, so I'm not going to add anymore of them. I'd like to have a school of 4 to 6 redhook silver dollars, but I'll have to see if my lfs will special order them, since they only stock regular silver dollars.

Are you saying that you have fish that DON'T die eventually?

No, my fish NEVER die!! Muhahaha! No, actually, the gouramis and angels would die in a matter of weeks, if not days. A couple of them lasted about 3 months, but that was the longest. My serpae tetras are dying off one by one, but the other guys just last and last. Oh, I forgot to mention my two long-fin skirt tetras. I've had those since I started up the tropical tank two years ago. My black neon is also from the original batch.

Yeah, they'll last forever if you add Oxygen in liquid form!

A few weeks and months isn't long! I've always found Angels to be more hardy than Tetras. Do you worry about your water at all?

I've had my Hockey-Sticks above since 20Dec04. That's not too bad a run for Tetras in my tanks. Although I've had some Black-Widows that lasted quite some time.

Our pH is about 8.4, it's really high!! I don't want to chemically lower the pH, as that would be a constant uphill battle and I don't like to put chemicals in the water. I've put driftwood in the tank and experimented with peat in the filter, but the peat was a pain and didn't make much difference. So I guess I just have to stick with the fish that can acclimate to the pH. I really hope that I can keep redhook silver dollars.

Those hockey-sticks are pretty in schools like that! I haven't seen any here, but my black neon kind of resembles them.

I think the Hockey-Sticks are also known as Penguin Tetras in some parts of the world. It's funny you should mention how good they look in a group. I specifically bought them to school across my 4 ft tank. And they do that early in the morning, and late at night. But during the day, they won't have a bar of each other! They just spread out all over the tank and sit there. Very disappointing.

Something I take for granted is my water. It has worked out well for me, that I prefer South American fish, and our water supply is soft and nuetral. Sounds like you should try some African fish.

That's weird how they behave like that! Stilly little fish. My neons will spread out too, but my bloodfins like to school together.

Yes, it does sound like certain types of cichlids would do well with our water, but I've never really preferred them. I like smaller schooling fish over semi-aggressive or aggressive, especially with my babies, the loaches and cories. LOL We might be moving to Texas in the next few months, and if the water there is hard with high pH too, we might consider buying water softening equipment. I'm not sure if an RO/DI system is what we'd need or if that's for something completely different.

That's the sort of thing I refer to when I say I've taken my water for granted. All I did was buy a tank, fill it from the tap, plop in some fish, and without too much thought at all, I've had five species breed.

It's only in the last six weeks that I've been involved with Forums, and heard all this stuff about what people have to do (including buying prepared water!) to keep their fish happy, healthy, and pregnant.

As for RO, I understand the principles, but have no direct experiance. It is the thing you'd need. I understand it's not cheap tho'. You should ring the local (Texan) Water Authority, see if they'll tell you their water spec's.

Rain water is an option if you're not in a high pollution area. Oh - and not all Cichlids are aggressive.

You're lucky with your water! I'll never be able to breed fish with my high pH. They don't even try. I keep the tap water as natural as I can, but it's hard because the fish I buy are used to neutral pH because the all pet stores treat it. I refuse to chemically treat the pH! It would be expensive and probably not good for the fish on a long-term basis. Better to let them acclimate.

You're right, I should find out how the water in Texas is. My husband is all for getting an RO/DI system though, luckily he's pretty supportive of my hobbies.

[quote="Kana3"]I think the Hockey-Sticks are also known as Penguin Tetras in some parts of the world.
in the uk they are known as penguin tetras or penguin fish

...In those countries where Hockey is not played?

Fishypaw wrote:

shoaling is often a sign of stress so it's not always wanted in my opinion.

Wow! Big statement there! Good stress, or bad stress? It's obviously a survival technique, lessen the odds that you'd be lunch, from 1 in 1, to 1 in 20, or whatever. But how much stress is involved, in the environment we get to observe?

It may be like some Dwarf Cichlids, that like to have some 'dither' fish about. It may work the same with Tetras - as long as one or two are around, the Tetra feels safe.