All About Serpae Tetra: The Not So Good Beginner Fish

[@Aemilius46]

I love the Serpae Tetra!!! ❤️💙🤎🤍 My favorite Tetra!! Thanks for this!

[@SharonSnow-k1q]

I have 10 female serpaes (gave away the males, and now they are much calmer) and they get along with the Cory's and zebra neons quite well. Hardy, beautiful, active, and in the 55 gallon just delightful. Love them...

[@RadMax8]

I really enjoy your videos, the photography is excellent as is your delivery of the facts and commentary. Well done! I had always heard that Serpae Tetras were fin nippers, akin to an Amazonian Tiger Barb. Glad to hear that’s not necessarily true. I don’t think I have an appropriate tank for them, but the information provided will be good for future aquariums.

[@Constantine_Cvl8]

But... tiger barbs are from Sumatera?

[@OskarYT900]

I have the same experience with them, spot on information! thank you :)

[@Fifthimagez]

One of my favorite tetras!

[@christianleeperrr7641]

I want you to know your channel is very , very high quality :)

[@IndoorEcosystem]

Another great video! I've always avoided these guys because of their nippy nature.

[@MrTas1967]

I have 15 of these in a 75 gallon, they chase everything smaller then themselves around the tank, including other Serpae's and nip at the fins, mostly of my panda cory cats.

[@metaphoricallyspeaking8987]

Same with mine. They peck at my peppered Cory.

[@mondraymondo]

just bought 10 of them today! lovely little group already eager to eat

[@seamus6994]

Great video! I've had 6 of these guys about a year and a half. At night in the winter, I turn my heater off in my home. By morning inside my home, it can be as low as 50F, 10C before I turn my heater back on. This winter I had no idea the tank heater went off, (broke). No idea how long it had been off. I was surprised the Betta, Serpae's and other fish all survived. Because I checked the cold water and it was 47F, 8.3C. Obviously all the tropical fish must have been pretty hardy. Though I bought a new heater ASAP. They are now in my 70gal-264litre Tank with many different community fish. They do enjoy the darker spaces. And luckily with a ton of wood and many plants, there are many caves and hiding places. Still they zoom in and around the entire Tall tank. Fat, healthy and I believe Happy.

[@thisizmonster]

Do you keep Betta with Tetra? Is it male or female? Any aggression issue?

[@seamus6994]

@@thisizmonster yes, both male and female are fine in a good community tank. Certain so called community fish are NOT always good. Angel fish can be fin nippers for example. I've always had male or female Bettas in my tanks. Often both, if there isn't a fast water current.

[@thisizmonster]

@@seamus6994 I heard females are less aggressive. But obviously males look far better. I want to add 1 male to my tank. If not possible, I'm thinking about add 2-3 females. My current setup is 55 gallon tank, 7 corydoras, 4 red eye tetras, 6 blue acara, 4 german ram and 1 electric blue jack dempsey. My worry is I heard tetras love to bite fins, so they can damage Betta's beauty. Also Jack dempsey is quite aggressive right? I wonder they fight or not.

[@seamus6994]

@@thisizmonster I think your okay except with the Jack Dempsey. But you can try it. You have plenty of room still in that 55 gal. Here's what I know about Bettas. I bred them as a teenager. Have some floating plants. The males love to nest in floating plants. If you decide to get a male. Some females are SUPER aggressive. And can be very nippy towards males. If you decide to get several females. Buy them ALL at the same time. Do not buy one and later another and another. Why? Because even females become territorial. Add all three, four or whatever at the same time. I have seen a number of tanks on KZbin that are only Female betta's. They do well, unless you have a couple or few and then add one loner. She will be picked on badly since she has no territory. I have a lot of plants in all my tanks. So many of the fish have their own areas, (Territories) to live in. Most community fish wont fight other fish unless they are the same Specie as them. Several different colored Female Betta's look awesome in a tank. Deep red, Blue and Mustard Yellow look great!

[@pelhamsaquatics]

I once had a group of 8 serpae tetras, and the one fish they would not leave alone was my dwarf flame gouramis…who was actually quite aggressive, the serpaes would attack it like a pack of wolves would attack an elk, that being said I love the serpae tetras, great video and very good points on theyre behavior💯⭐️

[@peasantrobot]

Hi Tiny Menagerie, I will direct you to someone that films them in their natural environment, and present them as a cold water tetras... his channel is amazing! Worth seeing it, as he is a reference in the hobby. His channel is named "below water". Recently, he learned how to digitalize some video footage from miniDV tapes, filmed around 25 years ago... Really worth a look. also to see around 60 new species of tetras filmed in their habitats! Although, he could really use your talent in presenting them!

[@Dassenkop]

Hi there. An another note ... I ended up adding 6 black neons to my tank a few month ago. After extensive elaboration and viewing one of you vids. Just wanted to say that keep those species vids up as it may give other info and ideas for their tank. The neons have grown up nice and chunky and depending on the lighting the red spots on the eye and tail show up nicely, also like the blue sheen on the fins if you look carfully. The females sometime bully the ember tetra's (10 nowadays) but seem to leave the 'natural colored' honey gourami's (2, nicely colored males) and rummy nose alone (7, really bright red head). Very happy with them, just wondering looking at the bioload (+/- 100 liter) in my tank if I can increase the group size beyond 6 or whether better to add a few smaller cory's instead.

[@AG-6969]

I'm not new to fish tanks, but new in the sense I haven't had one in 25 years, I just set my tank up and, on a whim, bought 5 of these as they were dirt cheap and looked healthy. which at Petco in a minor miracle. now i think i made a mistake with these, but i guess I'll give them a try, then get some advice at a real fish store. i really only started a tank to mess with plants as when i was younger they were not an option but i always wanted to grow underwater plants. got two Java ferns and some un-named thing that looks like bean stalks in the tank now.

[@ilovelori]

mine keep attacking eachother :( they have many hiding spots in my 20gal, I had 10 but it went down to 7 because they keep attacking each other :(, some seemed sick when we bought them from petco though, one was definitely killed though

[@datamatrixformat1]

I just brought a dozen of them and kept in a 10 gallon tank, real cool moving fish, can someone tell me some homemade food for them

[@liamcooper6721]

Hyphessobrycon Eques from the Rio Surcuri are some of the best examples of them. This river is crystal clear with medium flow and Strong light. Here they get a solid brilliant red like nowhere else. For beginners, I found the information in your video a good place to start. Temperature play a massive part with how aggressive these can be. More heat = more aggression not just with each other but towards other fish. They also loose their brilliant red with hotter temperatures as they are a cooler tropical fish Most of the fish in our hobby get put in tanks with lower flow than they should have. A good example of this is Angels and Discus, these fish live is rather strong river flows and only really leave the flow to breed and sometimes sleep. Hyphessobrycon Eques are not really an exception to this. More often then not they are found in rivers and streams with good flow.

[@chicagotypewriter2094]

do Ember tetras do the same? I have some and theyre very pale

[@royalspin]

Perhaps I have a piranha crossbreed because pretty much nothing you said matches my own experience with these fish . I have a densely planted 55 gallon tank not overly bright, lots of hiding spots and with the water tinted dark such as what they'd have in their home habitat . They're not the slightest bit shy and they love to school with each other and they get very demanding for their food . Almost as soon as I got 8 of them they started nipping at the fins of my Bronze Cory cats and then started attacking other Tetras such as my full sized Black Neons, the fully grown ghost shrimps and then they started killing their other tank mates like the Otocinculus and an entire group of regular Neon Tetras . I knew they could potentially be fin nippers but I was assuming that meant long finned fish like Angel fish etc but not the catfish or literally killing the other tetras overnight. I'll never get these fish again unless I have small cichlids in the tank like Rams or something like them that can hold their own against these little red devil piranhas .

[@remhk6672]

Oh god... wish i had come across ur video.. i got 6 of these guys on an impulse purchase.. i now have them in together with my sunset thicklip gouramis and my cory cats in a 29 gallon. I hope they are safe from any harrassment by the serpae tetras. I hope they behave! If not, i will move them to the 20 gallon with my bolivian ram and krib who arent really aggressive towards each other. Some dominance here and there on the part of the bolivian ram but he allows the krib to roam and feed as well. Just depends on his mood i guess. If this doesnt work in the 20 gallon, ill put these tetras in with my stinkpot turtle in the 20 long.

[@johncameron4194]

Good video thank you

[@Constantine_Cvl8]

I find that they're good company for the bigger hyphessobrycon and moenkhausia species. Shorter-finned cyprinids work well, but I feel like they do better with other south american characins.

[@james9836]

I put them in my turtle every so often my turtle chases them but never catches them is that bad😅 considering I just found out they're very peaceful

[@assassin3003]

I had 11 of them before in a planted 90 gallon they were great for months then I made the mistake of putting a shy 11inch female jaguar for 1 night as I took her and didn't know much about them at the time and I was left with 1 serpae that lived 2 years with a big Oscar

[@chicagotypewriter2094]

It’s a damn shame they nip! They do look so lovely and my local PetCo has some beautifully coloured up, deep red ones. Kinda reminds u of a Ferrari! Then again, I’m just a beginner so no use starting with something tricky

[@Shalom-qn5wt]

I know!!! I just had to take them out of my tank because they wouldn’t leave my betta alone 😞

[@cutekiwibird9997]

Lol this fish is strong I even didn’t take care of them I didn’t change my aquarium for 4 months they still alive

[@soccreyes4647]

I bought one of this and she's not shy. I keep her in mu community tank with platies,, dwarf crayfish two large giutamis and a school of glo tetras. Shes no bully

[@ZimmFor3]

How is it keeping the mini crayfish in the community. Do they bother the fish at all?

[@soccreyes4647]

@@ZimmFor3 It's amazing to have dwarf crayfish on a planted tank. It adds activity in the tank, plus they eat small pest snails! Wiyh regards to harming fish, they don't lift a claw on them, because my fishes are bigger than the crayfish. They do tend to prey on sick and wrakened fish, but thr healthy ones they don't. They just roam around your tank, climb plants and wood, and scavenge your substrate for food detritus and even snails and its eggs!

[@soccreyes4647]

@@ZimmFor3 Oh And I only have 2 of them and they're fun to have. They won't bother your fish, I even have 4 corydoras and the crays don't mind they just move around the cory if they're in the way.

[@DoubleOh42]

I just got 4 of these today to second out Zebra Danios. Kind of wondering what the heck is going to happen now. Battle Royal 20gal Long.

[@TA_pS]

Any update on what happened? Im also planning to put serpae as tankmates for my zebra danios

[@DoubleOh42]

@@TA_pS the Scraper didn't like my tank. I gave them two days and they just played opossum the entire time. I ended up taking them back.

[@ezra293]

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