# Serpae Tetras and Cherry Shrimp...yum



## Betta132 (Nov 29, 2012)

My black skirts like shrimp, too, but they're longfin and too slow to catch my one cherry shrimp when she swims off. 
The really funny thing is watching my tiny bluefin killies attempt to eat that big cherry. They're almost as small as she is! She easily gets away by just darting, but they keep trying.


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## vladguan (Dec 19, 2013)

That is very interesting. How many of the tetras do you have? I found that if there is enough of them to school they show less aggression. I have 6 Lemon Tetras ranging from 2.5 to 3.0 cm (1" to 1.2") and 19 Cardinal Tetras ranging from 2.0 to 2.5cm (.8" to 1") and they do not go for the RCSs at all, even the small 5mm babies swim about freely and my RCS population is booming. I initially got 37 RCSs in the middle of September and have sold 150 already. There is that many more in there. Will be selling at least another 50 this weekend.

I had reservations when I was thinking of getting them and so asked about it on the Aussie forum AquariumLife. I was told that I needed more plants and that the tetras may eat them. I held off the RCSs until I had some more plants like Subwassertang etc and then got the RCSs. Guess what, when I poured the RCSs in the tetras totally ignored them. They even ignored live blackworms but will go for frozen bloodworms.

You may have an overly aggressive tetra. I once saw a very funny thing. An adult female RCS was swimming in the middle of the tank, out in the open and one Lemon Tetra was chasing another Lemon Tetra. The chase was heading straight towards the RCS. The RCS, seeing this, stopped and the Lemon Tetra that was being chased darted off before colliding with the RCS, but the one chasing did not have time and stopped a couple of centre metres from the RCS. Time was frozen for a few seconds before both darted, in double time, off in opposite directions.

Mind you, I had Platys before getting the Lemon Tetras. I was told by numerous people that they will be OK together so I bought 6. Guess what happened, the first two Cardinals I put in were immediately set upon by the Platys, including ones that were smaller than the Cardinals and both died and promptly eaten within the hour. My jaw just dropped. I then quickly put the other 4 in, however, these 4 were not bothered at all. The first pair, however, continued to be harassed. I eventually got rid of all my Platys.

Here is a photo showing the RCSs, a Caridina Typus and a lone Cardinal Tetra, a blackworm and a pond snails feasting on something.


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## staypuft (Aug 31, 2013)

Serpae tetras are very aggressive, and will readily devour anything, food, shrimp, fins, small children.....but they are so much fun to keep in a species tank.


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