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Columbian Tetra

James D

James D

Member
Joined
11 Jul 2013
Messages
705
Location
Oswestry
I bought five of these two weeks ago and I've hardly seen them since, the devils have found favourite hiding places under plants or rock and stay there all day and night.

They're lovely little fish (my daughter thinks they're Piranha) but they're starting to get on my nerves and my tank looks half empty. Is this there normal behaviour or will they start getting a bit more adventurous?

Cheers

James
 
I kept a dozen of these for close to three year's and found them to be extremely active fish.
Kept mine in 90 gal tank with Electric Blue Dempsey and four synodontis multipunctatus.
Perhap's if you have room,a few more would encourage them to come out more.
Are you sure they are Colombian's? (just askin).
What you describe sound's more like behaivor of bleeding heart tetra's (look somewhat similar when young).
I have kept that seldom ventured from the bottom near plant's,wood.
 
What else is in there with them?

My 12 neon dwarf rainbows hid until I stuck 6 black/purple harlequins in with them. The harlequins get all over the tank and the rainbows have followed. Kind of a dither fish I guess

Higher numbers might help as well
 
I assume they're Columbians, they were sold as such and they look like the pictures I've seen, they're still juveniles though by the looks of them.

I keep them with seven green tetras which are always active.

Funnily enough I turned off my filters yesterday and they all came out for a quick look although they soon went back into hiding when the filters came back on, maybe they aren't too keen on the flow?
 
Yes, 60p mate.... my turnover is about x10 plus a Eheim Skimmer so nothing too drastic.

I didn't know that about the minimum numbers but I doubt it'd make much difference as they all hide separately anyway. I'll give them another week or two to settle and if they don't look any livelier I'll take them back to the LFS.
 
Safety in numbers really can make a difference to the little fellas
 
Fish stores here in U.S. seldom if ever take fishes back due to likelihood of transmitting disease and no desire to quarantine before offering them for re-sale.
Stores will refund money or give store credit for dead fish but they won't take back fishes with few exception's.
I agree very much with increasing their number's but if room prohibit's this,,then maybe consider Diamond Tetra's that look very nice once they settle into new enviornment and are equally as active as the colombian's .
 
My tank certainly isn't big enough for me to double their numbers, I'll have to wait to see if they liven up a bit but if not I'll swap 'em.

My local Maidenhead Aquatics is more than happy to re-home any fish you take in there, I actually got these tetras half price because I took in 5 Rasboras I didn't even buy in there!
 
I was watching them last night and I'm starting to think that one of them is bullying the others which is contributing to this behaviour. 🙁
 
I'm treating BBA with Easycarbo at the moment so I've been switching my filters of for ten minutes or so while I do it... Hey Presto, out they come. Filters are switched back on and they all (but one) vanish again. Very weird!
 
I'm certain that it was a case of bullying after watching them a bit more.

Luckily the friendly bloke at Maidenhead Aquatics let me take them back a the weekend, I've now got five Rosy Tetras instead and they seem to be a much happier group. 🙂

I've never had so much trouble netting fish as those Columbian devils, two of them actually buried themselves in the substrate to avoid getting caught, I couldn't find them for ages.
 
MobyDick style:sick::hungover::dead:
 
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