Should I get more serpaes or give them away?

[Sharonbar]

Hello all,

I am new to this forum, looking for some advice. I have a 6 week old aquarium that is a thriving happy community tank. It's 66 gallons. I have about 27 fish in it, a mix of black skirted and white skirted tetras, red eye tetras, head and tail light tetras, zebra danios and serpaes. I just got a bronze cory and he is lovely. I plan to get a few more as I understand they like to be in groups of 4 or more. However, the serpaes nip at the Cory's fin when he is trying to eat at the bottom. I have 4 serpaes. I have been reading that the serpaes might be less apt to nip if they are in a larger group. So my question is ... whether to increase the number of serpaes hoping that they will be less nippy in a larger group (but if they are not, then I just have more nippy fish), or just give the 4 I have away. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[skullduggery1]

It is totally up to you,My opinion is get rid of the serpaes,and add more cories.

[~Col~]

I would probably get rid of the serpaes and buy more corys as well.

It's one of those things. If you get more serpaes it may help, then again it may just add more nippers.

Personally I would be adding 4 or more new corys (same breed you've got).

Good luck!

[Sharonbar]

Hi

Thanks for your advice. I'm going to get some more corys, and see how it goes with the serpaes. cheers.

[Dave66]

Serpaes are like that; in small groups, they are picky on slow-moving tankmates. Were it me, I'd get rid of the 'skirts' since they get steadily more aggressive as they age and the black 'skirts' (used to be called black widows) grow into bland grey fish.

So, remove the skirts and double or triple the numbers of your other schools. Way I do it is one main school, say head and tail lights with three dozen, and have the other schools in smaller numbers (say six or 12) to complement them.

Dave

[Sharonbar]

Just an update. I decided to trade the serpaes in, and get more corys as I planned. My single bronze cory which I had only had for a week has been agitated for several days, racing around the tank and swimming against the side. The minute I took the serpaes out, he calmed down completely. I think the serpaes were really bothering him and he just kept swimming in order to avoid them. Anyway, it is now a happy-seeming tank with 5 new bronze corys to befriend the solo one. Not sure what's next, I need to add some colour but they need to be friendly fish. Thanks Dave, I didn't know that about the skirted tetras. Right now I am really liking them, they are peaceful and curious.