Thank you, I consider myself a novice because I still really have no freaking clue what means what, so best to keep your head down, learn everything, and figure it out. Lol. Old habits.
I've got Walstad's book on kindle, and read it once a while back, and just started re-reading it again as I got back into the hobby. Her chapter on allelopathy is one of my favorites. I've no idea how to set up a tank along her lines, however.
And as for the Ruby Tetras: this is honestly just anecdotal experience, so grain of salt. I wanted a species only tank, and ordered 12. I lost 4 total over three weeks. They were extremely shy. When I'd wait inordinate amounts of time, and they thought I was gone, they were amazing. They picked out microterritories, investigated things together, and picked out little rivalries. But as soon as I moved, they ran into cover and disappeared.
So I did a little more research on nano fish, and just happened to be emailing a retailer about ordering 6 more rubies. I noticed their newsletter said they had tucano tetra, and I did some research, and saw they didn't get bigger than an inch generally, and they fit my tank's overall color scheme. Adult shrimp safe, community safe. They also needed identical parameters as my ruby tetra. So I got twelve tucano as well as the six replacement rubies.
The supplier was way better, and everyone is still alive months later. And the difference in the rubies, with the tucanos, is incredible. Instead of hiding all the time, they're all out front and center, schooling and shoaling. They infight between their own species, cover most of the footage of the tank from bottom to top third, and are just a joy to keep. I used to hate being a fish keeper. I'm back to loving it. Hope the honeymoon phase lasts.
TLDR: Here is a vid of ruby and tucano tetras after getting their weekly frozen
bloodworm treat. Bonus- oto fry on leaf.
