# Lemon tetra question



## Bob-O (Jan 28, 2012)

I had five lemon tetras originally. They were peaceful and schooled together looking for food. I lost three when a heater exploded. I added six more last tuesday. Did a little research, figured out how to sex them and realized the two I had left were both female, and the six I added were four males and two females and the behavior in the tank has changed drastically. Instead of swimming together like the original five, the new fish chase each other around the tank at full speed. They chase each other, they chase the older females. It looks pretty violent at times but I haven't witnessed any biting or noticed any nipped fins. I have noticed the older females hiding in plants in the corners and both new and older fish diving into java moss in what looks like an attempt to escape. Is this normal? The first few days I chalked up to establishing a pecking order since they don't bother any other fish aside from just acting crazy.

A side question, this morning I witnessed one of the original females and a new male wriggling parallel to each other and very close for a good 10 seconds. They kind of wriggled into some java moss and then went back to the male chasing the female. Is this mating behavior? I did some googling and found plenty about how to get them to spawn, how to raise fry blah blah blah, but nothing about what mating actually looks like. My sterbai corys spawned recently and I have a few fry in a breeder net, and the info on their mating dance was very easy to find. Thanks in advance.


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## Bob-O (Jan 28, 2012)

Scratch that first question. I went and did a boat inspection for my friends this afternoon and when I came home six of the lemon tetras were calmly schooling with the other two randomly swimming around. Figures I post about aggro behavior a few hours before they stopped it.

Still wondering about the little dance two of them did earlier. I'm assuming mating for now cause it was very different and specific behavior.


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## ElChef194 (Dec 25, 2011)

huh, i stumbled on this post after i just posted about my pregnant black neon tetra, and my guys were super playful and chasing each other like crazy abt a month ago, and now... it's like i have a comically inflated fish in my tank.


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