Killer Lemon Tetras?

Started my 75 gallon tank with 2 medium size juvenile Angels and one juvenile Rotkeil Severum. Eventually I'll put the Rotkeil in another tank with more robust fish, but at least for now it's a pretty laid back fellow/lady and keeps to itself. The Angels just hang out with each other and rarely take notice of the other fish as well.

I originally planned to round out the tank with 10 Lemon Tetras and some Denison Barbs. Bought 5 Lemons...everything was fine. Not huge, but not babies, and they colored up right away. Bought an additional 5 a week later, and all broke loose within a week. A couple of these fish were bigger, less yellow colored and had thick, well-defined black stripes at the outer edges of their fins. They chased the other fish endlessly and even put my Angels in a bad mood. I was changing the water yesterday morning and found a dead Lemon at the bottom of the tank. I first thought that maybe one of the Angels had enough and took a Lemon out. I left the room for a bit, and my wife watched the two completely terrorize the other seven including cornering one and biting it. One of the Lemons had a nice chunk taken out of its back behind the dorsal fin. Talked to the LFS owner, and he was at a loss. Fortunately he took the two perpetrators and the injured one back (who was also of the same color and size as the other two). I wanted to feed them to my cats, but my wife shot that idea down immediately.

After I got home the remaining six are together and acting fine. I picked up a few Celebes Rainbows as replacements, and all is well.

I guess the moral of this story is that even the "peaceful" Tetras can have a bit of a mean streak.

 

I've had killer Neons! You never can tell, even with supposedly placid fish, which is why you will never go wrong keeping a back up tank, just in case.

 

Yeah crazy. Cichlids are always a dice roll, but I end up with the predator Lemon Tetras! Deciding to remove them was easy...trying to catch the little buggers was the toughest part.

 

Wow..I never heard of that from Lemon Tetras. I know they can be a little nippy, but that's beyond nippy.
You are gonna love the Celebes Rainbows. They have beautiful subtle colors. Keep them on dark substrate and a dark bacground, then you will really see how beautiful they are. Definitely one of my top favorites.

 

They streaked across the aquarium chasing one Lemon and then would pick another one to pursue. They were even fighting in the bag when I brought them back to the LFS. My Rotkeil will occasionally chase the Angels out of its way, but the chase ends as soon as the Angels move. The Lemons' activities were a lot more sinister.

Thanks regarding the Celebes. They looked good in the tank at the store and should look good in my tank when they settle in and color up a little (Fluorite substrate, Malaysian driftwood and some small but growing plants). They have really cool eyes.

 

I bought 5 Neon Rainbowfish (Praecox), and within hours of placing them in a 55 gallon tank I watched 1 Neon Rainbow kill 2 of it's kind. That Neon eventually die of its wounds, I ended up returning the remaining 2.

 

You can't tell fish behaviors some of them are peaceful some of them are aggressive and some of them are killers
I had four red eye tetra which they like to steal food from other fishes although no one got hurt at the end but they got chased several times by my pleco which proven that didn't like to share his food with anyone

 

You can't tell fish behaviors some of them are peaceful some of them are aggressive and some of them are killers
I had four red eye tetra which they like to steal food from other fishes although no one got hurt at the end but they got chased several times by my pleco which proven that didn't like to share his food with anyone

I'd say Lemons definitely are no killers.
Chasing, dominant behaviour okay.

 

Every species has aberrant individuals. That's why we always observe the fish for a few days after adding them to a tank. It's also another reason for QT.