Neon tetras

[Clearwater]

G'day.
Newbie here.
Today I purchased my very first set of fish, Tetras. Red and blue neons
All seem happy and readily ate the meal I provided earlier tonight.
My question is this. One of the blues seems to have already chosen his patch of the aquarium and tends to bully the others away from it.
But then will gather in the main school at times. Is this normal behaviour for this fascinating breed. Also what are some other safe species I can add to my brood. Slightly larger if possible as I am finding difficult to locate the little beggars at time due to their small stature. TIA for any and all advice. Regards Ian.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Im not really sure what a red and blue neon tetra is. Can you post clear photos of each type?

Im going to assume the blues are standard neon tetras. The only reference I can find to red neons are actually referring to cardinal tetras which are a different species. Maybe its just a colour variation of neons that im not aware of though. Cardinal tetras grow a little larger than neons and have more of a red underside.

Assuming you have 2 species though and not 2 colour variants of a single species.

Tetras are social fish and prefer to be kept in groups of their own species. When not kept in groups, these fish get stressed and this stress can manifest in different ways. Maybe one fish gets overly aggressive and bullies another fish or all your other fish. Maybe they hide away and dont eat. Stressed fish are more likely to get sick and dont live as long as they should. A bullied fish can easily be killed by the aggressor. You ask if what you are seeing is normal behaviour, but you wont see normal behaviour when only keeping 2 of a species.

6 fish is often cited as the number of social fish you should keep for them to be comfortable but more is better.

Thats not to say you should go out immediately and get more fish.

Can you give some more details on your tank and understanding?

How big is your tank? We need to know if its big enough to support 2 groups of different tetras.

What do you understand about the nitrogen cycle? Did you cycle the tank before getting your fish? If so, how? Or are you cycling the tank now with fish in it? If so, do you know how to do this? Or is this the first you are hearing about cycling a tank?

Adding more fish into an uncycled tank would be worse for their wellbeing than bring kept in small numbers and adding more over an extended period of time as the tank cycles.

 

[Colin_T]

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

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If the fish are neon tetras, males will set up small territories and chase other males away from it. This is seen more when there are only a few fish in the tank and is rarely seen when the fish are kept in large groups (20 or more).

A picture of the fish (as requested by Aiken) will help us identify the fish and give us more to go on.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Im not really sure what a red and blue neon tetra is. Can you post clear photos of each type?

I think i misunderstood what you said. I thought you meant you had bought some red neon tetras and some blue neon tetras. Reading it correctly you bought some neon tetras that are red and blue. These would be standard neon tetras.

Anyway, everything i said about keeping social fish in too small groups is still relevant.

Would be nice to get a photo of your fish to make sure though.