Which ones are "hardier"?

[NanoTankGuy]

From your experience, which ones are hardier - Serpas or Black Phantoms?
Thx.

[cocoa_pleco]

ive had the best luck with serpaes personally

[NanoTankGuy]

If I get 2 serpas and three phantoms, will they school together?

[cocoa_pleco]

they might, its not a guarantee. they like their own species more

[travie]

Probably will not school together. Serpaes barely school with themselves. If you want schooling go with 5 phantoms.

[Devon Greatwolf]

I recently (within the last 3 months) purchased five serpea and they very seldom get a class together little on a whole school day. The only time they even get close to shoaling is at feeding time. Also, please keep in mind that what we fish keepers call a shoal/school is hardly that. In the wild, these fish are much more like to congregate in the hundreds. I always thought my 11 rummy nose tetras in my 30 schooled quite nicely until I saw a video (cannot remember where was just g**gle'n around for fish vids) of a shoal of app. 500 in a very large aquarium. It looked like almost one organism moving around the enclosure. IMO one needs a minimum of 20-25 fish to begin to see true shoaling/shooling behavior.

[smaug]

I have 5 serpaes in my planted tank,before that they were in a 20 gal tank,They have always stayed together to the point of being almost needy of each other.IMO,serps are the prettiest of the 2 you ask about and would be my choice over black phanys any day.

[C-Dub]

i have 5 serpae in my 10gal and they all hang out together, in fact they school together with 4 gold pristella's... All 9 plus my 2 cories are moving into their new 55gal real soon. Then I am planning on adding a bunch more of each species, I am assuming they will split into their own respected schools in the bigger tank. IMHO I would def go with the serpae, they are hardier as well

[cocoa_pleco]

when i had my 12 serpaes in my old 55g planted, they stuck like glue, they would always be in a group of 12 or 2 groups of 6.

[smaug]

If I werent so everstocked already I would get a big group of them 15-20 at least.

[NanoTankGuy]

ok. So, serpas or phantoms, but definitely 5 of the same species :) Thx for the info, guys:)

[NanoTankGuy]

Btw, I thought I'd ask in the same thread: what's a good time to wait in between adding fish? I read that you should add them slowly - so, maybe 1 first, then 2 and another 2? Or how? And how long should I wait for after adding the first one?
Thx.

[smaug]

For a schooling fish such as tetra of most sorts,it is best to add enough at one time for them to feel safe in there own group.If you want 5 serps in the end then get all 5.If you wanted 10 then get half at a time.

[NanoTankGuy]

so, say I want 5 phantoms, if I get all 5, wouldn't it crash my filter? or no? :)

[Devon Greatwolf]

If your tank is established you should have no problem adding 5 young serpea. If this is a new tank I would recommend you reasearch fishless cycling on this site.

[NanoTankGuy]

No, I meant when it'll be cycled, should I add them all at once or one by one? thx.

[travie]

Serpae tetras are the best fish to go for when wanting a schooling fish.

[Dave66]

I recently (within the last 3 months) purchased five serpea and they very seldom get a class together little on a whole school day. The only time they even get close to shoaling is at feeding time. Also, please keep in mind that what we fish keepers call a shoal/school is hardly that. In the wild, these fish are much more like to congregate in the hundreds. I always thought my 11 rummy nose tetras in my 30 schooled quite nicely until I saw a video (cannot remember where was just g**gle'n around for fish vids) of a shoal of app. 500 in a very large aquarium. It looked like almost one organism moving around the enclosure. IMO one needs a minimum of 20-25 fish to begin to see true shoaling/shooling behavior.

Devon touched on a salient point. To see proper schooling behavior one needs to have dozens, if not hundreds, of fish of a species. Neon tetra schools, for example, number in the millions of fish in nature. So it's not terribly surprising if one buys five or less of them they don't school.
I've a group of 64 serpae tetras and they do indeed school. I have tanks of such size that I can have hundreds of members of particular species, and in such numbers they are a tight flowing ribbon of color.

All the small, colorful tetras school, as do all the barbs available in the hobby. But it'll take dozens of a species to even come close to seeing natural behavior in the artificial confines of the aquarium. Big plus is they live better and longer in such schools due to, in my humble opinion, the security of a relatively proper number of their fellows.

Dave

[travie]

Serpae tetras are the best fish to go for when wanting a schooling fish.


Okay, so I meant not the best tetra to go for when wanting a schooling fish. Neons or cardinals would be the best to go for in smaller tanks.

[Devon Greatwolf]

No, I meant when it'll be cycled, should I add them all at once or one by one? thx.

If your tank is fully cycled you should have no problem adding five young serpea-sized fish.