Looking for tank mates.

[Delphe]

Hello,

I have 9 corydoras panda and I am looking for middle to top swimmer was thinking maybe either blood fin or lemon tetras....
my pH 7.8, temp kept at 76 degrees. I would like them to stay rather small if schoolers as I have a 29 gallon
Any suggestion for me?
I am considering adding peat to my filtration (want to be around 7.5) but i am not sure how to proceed so if anyone as a suggestion on that side I'd love it too.

[seb's fish]

One of my favorite tetras is glowlight tetras. They look awesome in a low-light tank with plants. You could also do neons, serpaes, silvertip basically any small-medium tetra you want.

[Brhino]

Is there a reason you feel the need to tinker with your pH? 7.8 is perfectly good for almost all commonly available aquarium fish, and it's usually better not to mess with pH at all.

[C-Dub]

Agreed, 7.8 should be ok- remember to drip acclimate. Grab a little air bubbler hose, a potato chip bag clip, and a 5 gal bucket. Syphon tank with air hose, use clip to adjust syphone to a slow drip, and 2 hours later you got yourself a perfectly acclimated fish.

I think serpae tetra havent had the greatest reputation on this site lately, people seem to be having nipping problems, but any of the other previous suggestions would make great additions. I like cardinal's personally for that size thank.

[Delphe]

Is there a reason you feel the need to tinker with your pH? 7.8 is perfectly good for almost all commonly available aquarium fish, and it's usually better not to mess with pH at all.

Yes and No, haven't had much success with neon tetras and although I thing I got a bad group that finally took them all (ick and probably some fungus) if I can say, I have now a quarantine tank. I've had the corys for 2 months and lost 2 a couple weeks ago, the others look good though.
I know it is better to stick with what I have but I just wonder if it is good enough for them to grow strong and have a long life. Peat is the most natural way to take that pH down a notch and for a long time, though unlike product there is no dosage or time or protocol for 0.3 or 0.5 as I still want to be able to see the fishes. I don't know, a thought on what I could ameliorate for my little aqua world.

[Delphe]

Yes, it seems that the Serpae are nippy little fishes, and I don't want to take a chance with the corys, they are pretty though. :-).
Cardinals are beautiful I agree but I am not sure they are right for me now as they are sensitive fish.

[seb's fish]

You could get a school of bleeding heart tetras, if you could find some. Ember tetras are also very cool,and very small.

[steeler1]

Bloodfins will stay closer to the top, while the Lemons will stay mid to bottom. Both are hardy especialy the Bloodfin, who is not at all that particuler about pH or hardness. Some other hardy Tetras for this size tank would be Black Neons, Rosy Tetra's and Hed and Tail Light's. The Head and Tail lights will also occuppy the upper regions of your tank.

If you realy research Serpae Tetra's you will find that there are a lot of sub-spieces of this fish which accounts for all the different shades of red which could also explain why some have different dispositions. Like C-dub said he had no problem with his.

[Dennis Bissett]

both embers and serpae will swim top to bottom and look really good. The embers are the more active of the two (not frantic though), another to consider would be harlequins, although they are more of a mid tank swimmer

[C-Dub]

Like C-dub said he had no problem with his.

In addition to this I just want to say I never kept Serpae in groups smaller than about a dozen or so. Most ill-reputed nippers improve vastly when kept in large schools.