# Aggressive Tetra



## freshwaterfriend (Sep 19, 2013)

Hello! This evening I purchased an adorable, yet small bristle nose albino pleco! I've had my 29 gallon aquarium up for several months now and have only had one casualty..(an already sick fish.) 

In my tank now I have 8 tetras, two diamonds, one lemon and five neons. I've had the diamonds and the lemons the longest and purchased the neons about four weeks ago. My new Pleco is smaller than all of them. All my fish got along until I put the Pleco in, after floating his bag for an hour I released him and he went straight for one of my big rocks. My neons usually play in my back bubbles and didn't bother him but my three bigger tetras immediately started nipping at him. 

All my fish are well fed on a diet of tropical flakes, dried blood worms and brine shrimp and I bought some algae wafers for my Pleco. They nipped at him like they thought he was food and continued. 

I thought it might been an off balance in the water but the temperature right now is 78 degrees and I checked the pH it's at 6.8-6.9..

I don't know what to do. I had a 10 gal quarantine tank but I recently found a leak, I can run to the store and get a tank divider if necessary or will the tetras eventually calm down? 

I've included pictures to show the size of my different fish although it might be a bit hard to tell. 








These are my three biggest tetras, the diamonds and lemon.







The belly of the pleco.







My largest tetra.







Largest Tetra behind the pleco







He found some personal space behind a rock, him and the neons are the only ones small enough to fit back there.

Sorry the pictures are of such bad quality, I had to get pretty close due to their size and my camera doesn't shoot a good macro!


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## starrysparkle (Aug 4, 2013)

I have 4 gold skirt tetras which are almost territorial in behavior and are nippy as hell also I read online that tetras have a tendency to be aggressive and do nip at fins 
I always thought that tetras were pretty docile but they are not from what I read 
mine were a bit nasty after I put in my 4 platies and 4 mollies chasing them around out of the corner they normally hang out in but they have calmed down it took about a week for them to get used to it and now they are fine with everyone in the tank ,, watch them closely and if they don't stop picking on your pleco remove the pleco and wait until he gets a bit bigger and try again ,, he will eventually outgrow them


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## yekoms (Jul 7, 2013)

I have a bunch of Tetras and a few Otos. They were added to tank in the order that they're listed below my name all within about ten days.
I was afraid of the things that I read about the Serpaes. All of the fish seam to be happy in and not nipping at all. The Tetras wonder and mingle around the tank by themselves for a couple minutes but then school up with their own kind for awhile. At night they relax and hang with their own kind. If something startles them they school up in a tight bunch. So they seam to get comfort as a group.
The Black Skirts and Serpaes dart around fast when eating.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

To make the diamonds and the lemons to where they don't nip at bristlenose they need larger schools of each then the nipping is towards their own kind but your tank isn't big enough for to many more.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

You also need some driftwood for the pleco to rasp on.


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