# Ember Tetras in a 55



## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I'm planning on adding a school of Ember Tetras to my 55 gallon tank. The current plan is to have a RCS colony, a few Amanos, a Nerite snail or two and a school of Embers. How large of a school would you go with? I'm not trying to go small, well besides the fish size.  I was thinking at least 25. I was unable to find pictures or videos of any super large schools unless they were in massive tanks. What does everyone think?


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

You cold probably keep a hundred or more. I would wait till the tank is well planted and established though.
Lots of fish = lots of food. When you add lots of food, waste builds up fast, so filters need regular cleaning.
Lots of plants help to burn through this waste.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The tank is fairly well established, been running in its current configuration since 2014. Just replanted a bunch of stuff over the last month. Due to this I will be starting the shrimp colony(added the first 15 today!) and letting it grow for a month or more before adding any fish.


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## Tvadna (Jan 17, 2013)

I've placed Ember Tetras in a 10 gallon with RCS and CRS when separating males and females to try my luck at spawning. I didn't specially notice them going after the shrimp much but I don't think I had many small shrimp left afterward. I would caution the choice or at least look at your goals. Your adult shrimp will probably be just fine with Embers but they may hide more. You may struggle at breeding CRS, especially with a large school of Embers. 

No doubt you could fit 100 embers in a 55 but I think it would look crowded. I have 8 in a 40long (same footprint as a 55) but I wouldn't go less. If I didn't have other fish in the tank, I would probably go with 25 of the Embers.


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## bacon5 (Jul 25, 2011)

Short answer: a crap-ton

+/- :hihi:

More seriously though, you could fit 100+ and I honestly don't think it would look to crowded but rather stunning. Especially since it seems these will be your only fish, a hearty large school would look fantastic.

Also this is assuming proper aquarium husbandry: water changes, good filtration, good plant growth, and of course... water changes


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Yeah I agree with the others you could go for quite a lot, a school of like 50-100 would look really good.
Although I do recommend you maybe add them in batches of 20-ish so your filter can gradually get ready to take that bio-load.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

plus minus 50 in this pic, and they just take up a small spot.


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## Fishly (Jan 8, 2010)

I suggest a minimum of 25, but build it up slowly and keep an eye on your nitrates.

If you do this, PLEASE post lots of pics and videos! I really wanted to have a giant school of nano fish (in my case chili rasboras) in my 55g, and I really regret not trying it. I would love to see how it turns out for you.


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

Aqadvisor says 25 would be approximately 34% stocked with adequate filtration and 108 would be 100% stocking. Not that aqadvisor is exact, but it should give you an idea. I've had tanks stocked at 150% with a dense plant load and seen minimal increases in nitrates between water changes.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

bacon5 said:


> Short answer: a crap-ton
> 
> +/- :hihi:
> 
> ...


ugh... water changes... hahaha! I don't plan on doing them weekly or anything but WCs will happen every few weeks. As part of the changes I recently made to this tank, I upgraded from an Eheim 2215 & Fluval U4 to an Eheim 2217! 



Opare said:


> Yeah I agree with the others you could go for quite a lot, a school of like 50-100 would look really good.
> Although I do recommend you maybe add them in batches of 20-ish so your filter can gradually get ready to take that bio-load.


50-100 would be awesome! 



Nordic said:


> plus minus 50 in this pic, and they just take up a small spot.


This is one of the pics I found while trying to find large schools of them! I love their coloring! 



Fishly said:


> I suggest a minimum of 25, but build it up slowly and keep an eye on your nitrates.
> 
> If you do this, PLEASE post lots of pics and videos! I really wanted to have a giant school of nano fish (in my case chili rasboras) in my 55g, and I really regret not trying it. I would love to see how it turns out for you.


I just kept debating what to stock this tank with and I'm not really a fan of community tanks. The idea of a giant school of nanos seemed like a cool idea! Sadly, I suck at videos, at least well composed/edited ones. 



Freemananana said:


> Aqadvisor says 25 would be approximately 34% stocked with adequate filtration and 108 would be 100% stocking. Not that aqadvisor is exact, but it should give you an idea. I've had tanks stocked at 150% with a dense plant load and seen minimal increases in nitrates between water changes.


Thanks! I didn't even think about Aqadvisor! Haven't been focused on the hobby in a few years. 


I will definitely be building up the total number of Embers slowly. Probably ~10 at a time to let the filter adjust to the bioload, that should ease the blow on my wallet too. I've been told, and found in my research, that I should mostly be okay with Embers and shrimp together. The tank has a lot of areas of dense vegetation & as the current planting matures will be heavily planted! I believe this will help with the bioload as well as any potential predation of baby shrimp by adult Embers.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

Not sure how readily they breed, but my experience with fish with such fat females is that you just need to look at them right to make them shoot out a clutch of eggs.
For example, I have some glowlight tetras breeding at the moment, they haven't been in the tank for more than two hours even. So it is pretty easy to grow your own.
I started off with only 6. Thinking of keeping 40 or so in the 55 gal with some young angelfish. Most are outside in a pond now, saves a fortune on food and brine shrimp if they just eat whatever is in the pond.
I feed once or twice maybe a day. But only a powdered baby food and some crushed flakes. Maybe you could get away with bi-weekly water changes if you run an oversized filter. 
Most of these tetras originate in water with very low dissolved solids and nitrates. Good water is a prerequisite to keep most fish healthy and active.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

Just wanted to report that the breeding was a success. I am looking at a bunch of really tiny white fish shaped larvae swimming around. I only saw the previous batch once they were several weeks old. the tank had tons of moss in though. Those fry are outside in a pond now. They take about 9 weeks to grow out, which is very fast compared to many species.


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## GrampsGrunge (Jun 18, 2012)

A shrimp breeding colony and a big flock of tetras is asking for the shrimp babies to be munched. You could keep a few shrimp in there as long as the tetras are well fed. But even 50 tetras is pushing it for this tank. moreso if you're going dirted substrate. I'd only stock about 25. Even though embers are small they're active little carnivores.


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## Fishly (Jan 8, 2010)

johnson18 said:


> Sadly, I suck at videos, at least well composed/edited ones.


My favorite videos are just full tank shots that last for 2-5 minutes, so it's like I'm watching the tank in person. I like seeing some close ups, but really I just want the vicarious experience.


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## C10H12N2O (Nov 13, 2014)

Please post pics when you have your school built, I love embers! A 55 with a big ol' school of them sounds like wet dream (haha see what I did there because fish tanks are wet, I know I'm terrible) for me. Someday...

I have a small school in my super low-tech 20gal and I've caught them spawning several times - it's apparently not hard to get them to do so since I never did anything to try and encourage it! 
Mine have never bothered or even acknowledged my shrimp, but every fish is different so you never know. Buuut I would bet that with a large, densely planted tank, you should be fine. 

Hope these little tidbits of info helped and I apologize again for the terrible wet dream pun, lol


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## Sean W. (Oct 12, 2013)

I'm currently building up a school of Ember tetras in my 75 gallon. Right now I think I'm up to 40. I will probably end up getting around 100

check out my video, you catch a few glimpses of the school in the first part of the video.







I also had a school of around 35 in my 20 gallon long tank a couple years ago






And Pedro Rosa had a very nice school in his "green and grey " scape, around 100 if I remember correctly.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

GrampsGrunge said:


> A shrimp breeding colony and a big flock of tetras is asking for the shrimp babies to be munched. You could keep a few shrimp in there as long as the tetras are well fed. But even 50 tetras is pushing it for this tank. moreso if you're going dirted substrate. I'd only stock about 25. Even though embers are small they're active little carnivores.


Oh, I understand that losing a few baby shrimp is always a possibility. Why does the dirt substrate contribute to the limiting of the fish stocking? 



C10H12N2O said:


> Please post pics when you have your school built, I love embers! A 55 with a big ol' school of them sounds like wet dream (haha see what I did there because fish tanks are wet, I know I'm terrible) for me. Someday...
> 
> I have a small school in my super low-tech 20gal and I've caught them spawning several times - it's apparently not hard to get them to do so since I never did anything to try and encourage it!
> Mine have never bothered or even acknowledged my shrimp, but every fish is different so you never know. Buuut I would bet that with a large, densely planted tank, you should be fine.
> ...


Congrats on the spawning! Thank you for the pun, I love it!!! I'm all about the horrible puns and dad jokes!

Bump:


Sean W. said:


> I'm currently building up a school of Ember tetras in my 75 gallon. Right now I think I'm up to 40. I will probably end up getting around 100
> 
> And Pedro Rosa had a very nice school in his "green and grey " scape, around 100 if I remember correctly.
> 
> ...


I noticed that you were building up a decent size school! I love your tank! Your attention to detail in the set up and maintenance have resulted in an incredible tank! Watching your build on the 75 has got me looking at how to build a new system. The videos of the "green and grey" scape were some I found and watched all of while I was thinking about what to put into this 55! What an awesome tank!


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## JustJen (Jun 20, 2011)

I've got probably 15-18 ember tetras in my 33 long (same footprint as the 55, just not as tall), along with other nano fish, a pair of electric blue rams, and a colony of RCS. Even in my tank with other fish, I think I could easily double that school and not have it look crowded. I think in your tank, with no other fish, 50-100 is very reasonable. They are great little fish! I have no doubt that they (and others) pick off some baby shrimp here and there, but my adult shrimp are out constantly and the embers ignore them.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Sean W. said:


> And Pedro Rosa had a very nice school in his "green and grey " scape, around 100 if I remember correctly.


Can you tell me what is the plant in that last video, growing up between the vry red one, that looks like green umbrella shape?


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

do them 10 at a time like you are planning on and MAKE SURE YOU QUARANTINE THEM. Get them from a reliable source and quarantine each batch. you don't want a bad batch ruining all your stock.

for reference I have 40+ bloodfin tetras (quite a bit larger than embers) in my 75g and I could easily fit 20+ more. I would say you could do about 100 over time.


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## Sean W. (Oct 12, 2013)

JJ09 said:


> Can you tell me what is the plant in that last video, growing up between the vry red one, that looks like green umbrella shape?




Rununculus


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Cool, thanks. I'd never seen it before. Too bad sounds like it won't do well w/out C02...


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## Boostr (Dec 8, 2016)

Not to HiJak, but will Ember Tetras get along with Cardinal Tetras?


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

Sure, why not. I would make sure to have about a dozen of each though for their sense of security.
As i said before, with many tetras all you need is an extra 10 gal tank to breed your own school.


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

JJ09 said:


> Can you tell me what is the plant in that last video, growing up between the vry red one, that looks like green umbrella shape?


Ranunculus inundatus


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## GrampsGrunge (Jun 18, 2012)

johnson18 said:


> Oh, I understand that losing a few baby shrimp is always a possibility. Why does the dirt substrate contribute to the limiting of the fish stocking?


Well with the Shrimp and the extra bio load of the dirt's organic breakdown products, I feel it would keep your algae levels and Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrates to a minimum. Shrimp really need clean water.

I also like Dutch style stockings of fish, and they'll school in a smaller group, which will allow them to move as a 'unit' around the tank.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

GrampsGrunge said:


> Well with the Shrimp and the extra bio load of the dirt's organic breakdown products, I feel it would keep your algae levels and Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrates to a minimum. Shrimp really need clean water.
> 
> I also like Dutch style stockings of fish, and they'll school in a smaller group, which will allow them to move as a 'unit' around the tank.




Ok, I see what you mean. My soil is a couple years old at this point. Thankfully I don't seem to get much change in water quality due to it leeching. I'm sure when it was new it contributed greatly to the problem, as well as the explosive plant growth. I didn't keep too many fish in the tank then, just a couple Clown Plecos & ~6 Black Neon Tetras. 

While I have to admit I'm not too familiar with the Dutch style, both of stocking and aquascaping(other than it's pretty), I've never been one to heavily stock things. Once the shrimp colony is fully rolling we'll see how large of a school I'm willing to keep. Heavy stock levels require a super close watch on everything. As a full time college student(returning in my 30s) I approach school like a job, during the semester it isn't unusual for me to spend 40-60+ hours per week in the library studying outside of my 18 hours of classes/office hours. Needless to say, I'm not home much & when I am I mostly eat, sleep, & shower. Haha. Doesn't leave much time to constantly monitor my tanks. 


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

One of the rules of Dutch scapes is not having schools smaller than 11 or 12 fish, or you incur penalties....


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