# School of Ember tetras or Bleeding heart tetras? or other?



## manami (Feb 4, 2012)

I decided to remove the rummynose tetras from my list. They are just too fast that im worrying about the other fish being stressed by them in my 40g tank.

So I saw the ember tetras at petco (i think =S), and I like that they are tiny and deep red. They aren't as pretty as other tetras, but I like their simplicity. I could get 15 of them. Or 12.

I saw the bleeding heart tetras too and while I'm not sure yet what their color's supposed to look like. (I see online pictures that they look either pale red/pink or a little stronger orange/red color on their bodies) I find them interesting and I'm liking their funky fin above their heads = p. I could get 12 of them since they are a little bigger than the ember tetras. Or less.

But I don't know which to choose = /. I'm worried that the ember tetras may be too fragile or too small for the rest of my fish. Or that the bleeding heart tetras may be fin nippers. Or are the ember tetras fin nippers too?

If there are other school fish that look pretty and aren't fun nippers and hardy (or not too fragile), please let me know!

Thank you!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

What other fish are in your tanks?

I love my Embers, they are no fin nippers and really aren't that fragile either. They only get to an inch so you could easily have 15 of them.


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

I wish I could get ember tetras, love the look of them, but can't get them around here and my water it a bit alkaline for them.


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## nympxzie (Oct 2, 2014)

I have 20 embers in my tank. They came to me very pale which is normal. This is what they look like now! Pictures are sideways....yay


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## manami (Feb 4, 2012)

*lilnaugrim:* I have two list with minor changes (depending on the stock of the petshops)

List one:

- Pearl Gourami (1 male) <-- If I find a nice healthy one =/.
- Bleeding Heart Tetras (12-15) or Ember Tetras (15) <-- Will the gourami eat the embers?
- Panda Cory (6)
- Kuhli Loach (6)
- Otocinclus (6)
- Orange Platies (3 males) <-- why not? XD

Team two:

- Dwarf Rainbowfish (6-8) either 2 males/4 females OR 3 males/5 females.
- Bleeding Heart Tetras (12-15) or Ember Tetras (15) <-- for list two I think I'm liking the embers more.
- Panda Cory (6)
- Kuhli Loach (6)
- Otocinclus (6)
- Orange Platies (3 males) <-- why not? XD

*AquaAurora:* Here my water is hard (don't know by how much), but I'm going to buy almond leaf and maybe some cholla woods and if I'm lucky I'll add some nice woods with roots for the kuhlies. Hopefully the water will soften a little by all that. Or at least with the help of the leaf.

*nympxzie:* I'll try to remember that they can look a little pale at the petshops. Yours look really pretty! = )


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

Wood and IAL lower pH not hardness. Hardness determines how much buffer you have- how much tannins from wood or IAL you need before it's enough to start lowering pH. To reduce hardness your need to mix your tap with or switch to RO or DI. 
API has a liquid GH KH test kit pretty straight forward: get you proper water sample size-to vile line then add 1 drop, cap gentle shake or rotate, check for color change and repeat keeping count of drops used. You can measure hardness by # of tops needed to get the color change or use the graph on the back of the direction sheet to see the large #


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah that list looks great! I vote the first one, less boisterous for the tetras.

I actually have a Male Pearl in my 29 with my 16 Ember Tetras, 6 Corydoras Habrosus, 1 Hera Jeradoni, 1 RTBS (temp), and 4 Golden Dwarf Barbs

He doesn't mind the Embers at all! Very peaceful!


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## manami (Feb 4, 2012)

*AquaAurora:* What do you mean by buffer? I'll have to buy the api water hardness kit thing to see how hard my water is. What if i use Tetra blackwater? Will it work lower the water hardness? Or is it too much chemical for the fish? Just curious. 

*lilnaugrim:* Your tank looks great! What is the name of that floating plant? And your pearl gourami looks pretty! I don't know why the pearl gouramis from petco look too sick = S. Btw, what's a RTBS? XD

aaand, can a male bolivian ram live peacefully with the rest of the fish?

and here is my tank with the new plants that arrived today! (After waiting two more days delays >_>).

and after posting the picture three different plants unrooted from the ssubstrate sand >_<.


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## andakin (Aug 10, 2009)

The tank is coming together nicely. I would suggest that those bunched plants be separated and planted closely together one stem at a time. Planting tweezers are awesome for that.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

+1 to andakin, it will better let the bottom leaves see light and breathe, otherwise the bottoms will rot.

RTBS is Red-Tail Black Shark.

I have a mix of Salvinia Minima and the longer roots are Dwarf Water Lettuce


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## MikeG14 (May 31, 2014)

manami said:


> aaand, can a male bolivian ram live peacefully with the rest of the fish?


Yes, a Bolivian ram would be fine in your tank, even a pair would work. If you decide to go with a pair any potential aggression would be conspecific and they won't do any damage to each other. They really don't bother other fish. They might take a swipe now and then but their bark is much worse than their bite.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Whoops, knew I missed a part of that haha.

Yep, Bolivians will work, even other Dwarf Rams and Apisto's will work. I have two German Blue Rams and one Golden Ram, beautiful little guys and quite respectful of other fish. They can spar a bit with each other but if you get a pair, they will be a little aggressive during breeding time. Now, this doesn't mean they'll kill your fish because they won't, they'll just protect their area while they have fry. Rams make pretty bad parents though so don't be surprised if they eat them as well lol.

But if you want just a male, that totally works as well. You don't need a female or a group of them but I've found they show their best colors when they're with others to show off with!


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## manami (Feb 4, 2012)

*andakin:* I'll do that. Thank you!

*MikeG14:* hehe. Ok. That's good to know. I've seen the Bolivian rams on a different LFS and the colorful rams (blue,gold, etc) at petco. They are all pretty, honestly. Maybe someday when the tank is mature I'll get a pair = ).

*lilnaugrim:* Ok. That's a relief = ). I'll have to add more hiding places for the bottom fishes. I want to get a pair someday...depending on my bottom fishes personalities XD.
I wish to get a female gold ram and an electric or german blue male ram. Or a pair of bolivian Rams if the others get too fragile.


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## manami (Feb 4, 2012)

I saw today at petsmart black neon tetras. They look cool, but they get easily scared that they tried to hide = S. There was also bleeding heart tetras. I really like them x_x. They weren't scare of my hand and were acting curious, but they were fin nipping their own species...but there were only four of them..maybe that's why they were acting that way.

If I get ember tetras and harlequin rasboras, will they school together? Or ember and lemon tetras together?

Or how about mixing ember tetras with bleeding heart tetras? Or maybe lemon with bleeding heart tetras? I'm still going to choose the ember tetras as my main school fish, but I wanna try and add another schooling fish too. Like mixing 10 ember tetras and 6-8 "other" tetra specie.

Or Lemon tetras with either harlequin rasboras or ember tetras!!! XD. *hides*


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

For Tetra's, it doesn't matter how many ou have in a shoal unlike Tiger Barbs, they will always nip. I had a lovely school of 9 Long Fin Serpae Tetras, very similar to the Bleeding Hearts; I had one top-dog who seriously picked on EVERYONE's fins, not even just the Tetras. He picked on the rainbows, the Betta, the cories, even the little Otos! Terrible! I have 3 left that I keep meaning to scoop out and send back to the LFS. They're beautiful but not worth the stress!!

As long as you have the minimum 6 for the single species, you can mix. HOWEVER, I would not mix micro fish with larger fish like the Embers and the Bleeding Hearts. All micro fish feel tooooons better when you have more like 12 of them and up. They'll school loosely and hang out together and give you a much better color. If you go less than 10 or so, they tend to hide more often and not get as bright of red.

You CAN do Harlequins and Embers though, Harlequins get a little bigger than Embers but not as much as the larger Tetras will. Or if you can find Espei Rasbora, those stay the same size as Embers and will look great with them.


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## Gariana (Jul 22, 2015)

I have a mix of espei and hengel's rasbora in my community tank. Absolutely gorgeous fish, espei are deep burning orange and hengel's silver with a slim neon orange stripe. As a group of 17 they look lovely, stay at the top half of the tank and never bother anyone.


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## manami (Feb 4, 2012)

Wow! The espei are prettier than the Harlequin Rasbora! But I haven't seen a espei rasbora here before...I hope I can find them >_<. I was recommended to check out two different LFS that sells supposedly more variety of fish. I'm gonna cross my fingers hoping to find the espei there. If not then I'll just get 12-15 ember ember.

I'm wondering...if I buy the finnex Monster Ray led light will it help the red color of the embers pop up more? And not just the fish's colors but also the plants looking better and maybe getting more light for the plants...especially the red ones.


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