# Congo Tetra Compatibility? How many?



## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

Your list of fish is almost exactly what I have in my 40 gallon tank. My Congos (I started with six, but lost three over the past six months) have been very peaceful to all their tankmates, including very small Cherry Shrimp.


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## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

good to know, Bill.

Yes, your list is very similar to mine.


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

I have 4 large females that dont bother anyone in the tank _or_ any of my plants...I heard that they do but they have behaved and pretty much keep to themselves roud:
I am on the hunt now for some males but to no avail so far. The closest I came was this past week but they were diseased. Most of the time in my LFS's they are too small to distinguish sex. 
I love my congo's, they are probably the best schooling fish I have ever kept in 20+ years. For a 50 gallon and your current list I would say 6 would be safe...they do get larger then I expected. Of course I cant vouch for the males habits since I never had any ... YET :icon_conf


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

I was at Concord Aquarium (in COncord, CA) back in Sept and they had a tank full of male Congos. Must've had 20. They had a lot more blue in them than mine does, but maybe it was just the lighting. My male tends to get a coppery band from head to tail with a bluish tone above it.


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## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

are the colors really different between male and female? is one more vibrant than the other? I"m not too interested in breeding, but it would be nice to have the more colorful ones. It's not like night and day difference I imagine (like male and female guppies)


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

The females are just silvery with maybe a hint of gold. The males color up really nice when they're in the spawning mood. Here's a picture of my male...








When he's showing off the gold band deepens in color and thearea above it get's an irredescent blue. I'm still waiting for him to grow out his finnage, though.


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## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

hmm another finnage traits or other traits to distinguish sex? be nice to get the colorful males


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

The fins are the only way I know of to tell the difference, but they cant be too young or they dont show very easily "I learned the hard way"...LOL
Bills male in that photo is still pretty young it looks...here is a good photo of a male that Tula posted here in the profiles Male Congo


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## sanj (Jan 11, 2004)

I have 7 congos (3 male) in My rena aquarium. They live peacfully with 15 rummy noses, 25 cardinals and 5 peruvuan angels aswell as some loaches.

Found these fish to be very hardy, males are gorgeous when they fully develop their fins.


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## wonder woman (Oct 30, 2003)

Hi Motifone!
Yesterday, I bought and added a school of 8 black neons- they're about the same size as "jumbo" regular neons. Although they are basically being left alone so far, the angels did try to nip at them when they were in the plastic bag, and the two larger male congos have charged at them a couple of times (the neons are pretty fast and are able to out-swim them, at which point the congos lose interest). 
Based on this information, if you can find JUMBO neons, or juvenile congos, that might be a good match. Also I think fatter (deeper)-bodied tetras would be better than thin fish like rummies. But one thing I don't think you'll have to worry about- my angels have barely paid any attention to the neons since they were added to the tank. 
For school size on the congos, I would say get at least 6-7. 5 or less will "school", but it won't have as nice an effect as a larger school. I have 3 large males (about 3" long- yes, they do get big!), 2 juvenile males (about 2" long), and 3 juvenile females (about 2" long). 
Let us know what you end up doing!


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