Broq15

Hi everyone,

So I began my first freshwater tank on my own. My brother is a "fish master" and has owned freshwater and saltwater for years since we were kids. I've always helped him but I recently have my first real tank on my own (had guppies, goldfish, cichlids on separate occasions in the past)

I impulsively bought 3 sunburst orange glofish because they were cheap (originally wanted the starfire red ones) before I knew that they were genetically modified zebra danios. I originally wanted the red glofish plus green tiger barbs, but decided not to since my tank is a little too small for the barbs in a few years.

Basically, I would like to get rid of the glofish and get rummy nose and cardinal tetras but I feel kinda bad for wanting to abandon them since I know they are happy as heck in my 20L.

To get to the point, if I decided to keep my 3 glofish, would it be wiser to go with a school of 5-6 rummy nose or cardinal tetras? They're both really peaceful and my glofish are really playful/active and dart around like crazy. The cardinals are beautiful and I know will look great with the contrast of green plants. I've seen some threads of people on here having danios and cardinals with success, despite conflicting info online and from LFS. Any reccommendations? I also have 2 panda corys and 1 white cloud minnow (an orphan I took in from my friend).

harpua2002

Either cardinals or rummynose would be fine with Glofish IMO.

Broq15

I know these tetras are similar in behavior but would they get too stressed out by the fast swimming glofish. I understand that the glofish will probably chase the tetras initially and occassionally over time, would this stress the tetras (rummy or cardinal) too much? Can I throw in 1-2 hatchet fish you think? Those are EXTREMELY peaceful!

iloveengl

Here's some info I found: "These Hatchets must be kept in schools of at least six or they seem to decline and have a much shorter lifespan. They are excellent jumpers so make sure you have a tight fitting cover with as few gaps as possible" (http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile89.html).

So it depends on whether you have room for a school of them (they don't do well with 1-2) and no spaces where they could jump through.

harpua2002

Skip the hatchets IMO, they are schoolers as iloveengl said and they would be stressed by the activity level of the Glofish.

I've kept cardinals and rummynose several times over the past few years and they aren't as delicate as people say. I don't think either species would be stressed by Glofish; they aren't aggressive or anything, just really active.

Meenu

I have danios that get aggressive. When I had 2, I had a huge bullying problem. So I got 4 more, and it helped a lot, but they still get aggressive on occassion.

harpua2002

Interesting...
Typically they're just really active.

hazeymom

I don't know about the tetra part of the question, but I think glofish would prefer to be in a school of at least 6.
You can mix and match them with other colors of glofish or with regular danios, and they should all school together, and be much happier than your 3 are by themselves now.
(We have 3 red, 1 orange and several regular zebra danios in our 55 gallon commmunity tank)