New black skirt tetras are jerks

Yesterday I introduced five black skirt tetras into my 10 gallon. The other fish already in the tank are six glowlight tetras.

The black skirts were squabbling pretty good amongst themselves yesterday evening. This morning however, three of the six glowlights have had a good nip taken out of their tails. The little guys are now hiding in the corner. Poor fellows.

There seems to be one black skirt who hovers above them and tries to keep them from swimming around the tank. I am trying to see if it is always the same individual with a mind of exchanging him/her to see if I just happened to get a really nippy one.

If it is all of the skirts I'll have to decide which school to rehome and which to keep.

 

Yes black skirt tetras act just like serape tetras and are known fin nippers and shouldn't be kept with other tetras or slow moving long finned fish at all! They can be kept in most other tanks though.

 

Most folks and sources reported they were peaceful enough, at least towards other fish, as long as they were in a school of 5-6. But there were mentions of this occasionally so I am not totally surprised.

 

The problem is your tank is too small for them, they're cramped & can't get away fom each other & are taking it out on the glowlights who also need more space as they're quite active swimmers.

 

among others does not seem to imply 10 gallons is too small.

 

I think a lot of people would agree that that site is only a very rough guide, it doesn't take into account behavioural characteristics such as whether fish are fast swimmers or not & it can't have told you that black skirts can be fin nippers

 

Thanks all, and I mean it. I'll probably take the black skirts back and get more glowlights or some neons or similar.

I am finding with this hobby there are so many right and wrong answers that one always finds as many "works for me" as "told you so" across all the sources of information available.

 

It can be very confusing, that's why this forum is so good as people keep & have kept all kinds of fish & know their personality traits, good or bad

 

It can be very confusing, that's why this forum is so good as people keep & have kept all kinds of fish & know their personality traits, good or bad

But I am sure the other forum where I got differing advice feels the same...

 

HI Bob, I'm sorry your fish are not getting along.

Now that you have experienced the nippiness of these fish you can make your own choice about them no matter what any forum says. Including this one.

There are a lot of good forums out there.
Many members belong to more than one in fact some moderate others.
At least one of our moderators is a moderator at another.

 

The other advice I got was to try more plants, which worked for somebody who keeps black skirts in a 10 with neon tetras.

I decided I would rather try to find a different 'larger' fish, compared to the glowlights and neons I want to have than just find a better way for all those little guys to hide. If it comes to it I'll just keep the little tetras for now.

 

The other advice I got was to try more plants, which worked for somebody who keeps black skirts in a 10 with neon tetras.

I have no doubt that it worked for someone else.
It's often recommend to provide hiding spots or hinder the line of sight

Problem is our fish do not follow the rules or read caresheets. lol

What works for for some people may not work for others.

That's why you'll read so much conflicting information.

We choose which advice/opinion we think will work for us.
If it does, great!
If not, we try something else.

 

Yes, ANY fish keeping is always a "what if" situation! I had guppies in my community tank, and had to remove the females because they were tearing my my long fin plecos tail and dorsal fin up pretty bad. As soon as I took the females out, no nipping!

Its amazing what works for some people won't for others, and just goes to show that fish themselves have personalities and act differently even though they are the same species!! I've got cichlids in the African tank that should be food, but the big guys don't even take a second look at them.

 

I just got back from exchanging them and the gal who helped me, different from the gal who sold them to me, mentioned that their Black Skirt Tetras always seemed to be pretty aggressive and nippy.