Canadian Newbie...

[Fishyfanatic]

Most Tetra's prefer to be in schools because they feel more comfortable with their own kind. It can look pretty cool having two sets of schools and a few centerpiece fish. I have two schools of Tetras in my 55 gal tank along with 4 Angels and a school of cories. Watching 6 Serpae's scurry around together looks pretty cool. You may want to give it some thought.

I would love to see pics of your tank!

[kansei]

Agree, I have 7 Black Skirts schooling together then 4 Bronze Cory and now 3 Skunk Cory also 3 Bala shark - it looks very nice to see them grouped together swimming around .

[flyjawn]

i agree that having your fish schooling is a wonderful thing to watch. i have 6 cardinals and 5 phantoms and i'm planning on getting a couple more of each. they actually school together which is even more entertaining.

it's also nicer for the fish...



welcome!

[courtnee]

Welcome! I am a serpae owner and it sounds like that is what you have. http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_serpae.php Photo of one there. I currently have 8 of them and love them. They are a little aggressive but that makes them fun. They are with 8 white skirt tetras and now that I have 8 and 8 they are getting along much better. Also have more hiding spots for them. I have a 55gl.

I am not sure what kind of catfish you have but I would suggest finding out. Many catfishes love to eat fish and it is important to know what kind, what they eat, and how big their mouth with get. I own pictus cats and four-line pictus cats. I had to go with the serpaes and white skirts so they will *cross fingers* hopefully be to big for them to eat. Serpaes are pushing it as one of my four-lines is already 5inches and they can get larger.

The columbian shark..... I tried to keep these until I learned about them. DO NOT GET ONE again unless you plan to have a VERY LARGE tank. Most places like to say they get 6", that is so not true. Many people say they get theirs over 8 inches in the first year alone. Evetually in order to keep them healthy and thrive you will have to have a large tank that is brackfish tank on top of that and eventually they are treated as marine because they grow so large and their needs change.

It was great people on this forum I believe that talked me out of that shar

k when I learned that. I was in shock. Beautiful, stunning fish but a lot of work. http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile63.html A good profile on the fish with nice pictures on just how large they get and how much work it is to keep them once they mature.

Good luck and look forward to your posts on our forum.

[bill_guess]

Thank you all for your comments. It appears that I need to
(1) take some photos and find out what fish I have
(2) school them....this means getting rid of some...most likely Mollies..not an issue
I have also added 1 guppy and 1 blue male tetra is last few days. But they are now gone !!
I woke up Christmas eve to find the guppy gone. Completely. Nada. What happened ? Who ate him???????????? They wont tell ...lol
I woke up today..boxing day... to find the Beta a foot from my tank dried up on the floor.
My tank is 20gal tank is pretty well full to the top as per recommendation of LFS.
I guess he simply jumped. Is this common with Betas? Should I take out a few inches of water? The gap in the cover is where I trimmed it to allow the flow from the power filter.

[Fishyfanatic]

I'd lower the water level to just above the start of the black trim. I don't know how high you have it at the moment. Once we ID the fish, we may be able to help determine who could have eaten the guppy.

[flyjawn]

i had a betta to a suicide jump from his tank once too... my poor cats took the blame for months until i read online that it's not uncommon for them to jump.