Help! My Serpae Have Turned Violent!

[Wary]

Let's just start out with the part where I'm a big dummy & don't have a second tank.

Now that we've gotten that cleared up, It turns out that my serpae have gone from being a bit of a nuisance to being dangerous. They've always been a bit territorial, but today I discovered that they've injured my dwarf gourami.

Here's the big issue: I don't have a second tank or a divider, so that I can isolate them. I've put an ad on CraigsList, explaining my predicament, and begging for someone to throw mercy upon me, but I'm not placing any bets on that working out. I want them out of there tonight, but I'm strapped for cash & I can't think of any reasonable surrogate storage for them until I work out something better.

I really don't want to get rid of the serpae (one is beginning to develop its mature fins), but I cannot abide this behavioral shift in an otherwise peaceful tank.

Not to get all Mafioso about it, but I'll ice those two before I let them hurt anyone else.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a temporary solution?

Thank you all, so much.

 

[mom2reds]

How many do you have? My red sarpae tetras don't pick on others just each other but I have 6 of them, they do better in larger groups from what I have been told.

 

[Coleallensmom]

Serpae can be a bit aggressive but often make good community fish if kept with fish that are the same size or bigger. I think that most likely the real issue here is that serpae are schooling fish and are most comfortable when kept in numbers of five or more. Agressiveness in tetra is very often caused by fish who feel threatened.

Your corys and your danio are also schooling fish.

 

[Wary]

It may well be that I have only two.

Someone on CraigsList did give me a rather clever bit of advice.

He suggested I use a tupperware container, with holes poked throughout, as a temporary isolation floater.

 

[Coleallensmom]

Glad you could figure out a temporary solution! Can you try to add to the group? I have heard some say Black Skirt tetra are also agressive, but I have 7 in my community tank and they are one of the most peaceful groups of fish in my tank.

 

[Wary]

In theory I could. I'm going to see about setting up a new tank, and a temporary new habitat for them first (I've been slowly planning a new tank anyway, and transferring them to that new tank had always been a part of that plan), but if I can't make that happen today then I will probably head over to my LFS & pick up a few more (assuming they have any -like all great LFS, their stock is inconsistent).

What worries me about this plan is that it's not a sure thing, whereas simply separating them will 100% get the job done.

Ideally I'd move the serpae to a new tank & put new dwarf gourami in this one (I'm really fond of them). The again, ideally I would have set up this second tank a long time ago.

Thanks to everyone for helping me think this through.

 

[Coleallensmom]

Sounds like a plan! Although you'll probably be better off adding to the group even if you do end up transferring them to another tank.

Just a thought- Maybe pick up a few more if you can and keep them in the sperated part of your tank for a day or so just to get everyone aquainted and then do a trial release? I have birds and I've always been told to remove everyone from the cage/rearrange their perches before adding a new bird to decrease the chances of territorial behavior. Might be worth a try with fish too, especially since you already have some seperated!

 

[HN1]

If you add, QT.

 

[Wary]

...you'll probably be better off adding to the group even if you do end up transferring them to another tank.

I absolutely agree, and that is part of the revised plan.

Thanks again to everyone for their advice.