# Bloodfin Tetras and Angelfish / Why doesn't anyone stock bloodfin schools?



## FuzzyCrawdad (Mar 21, 2015)

I have 11 angels, 4 of them nearly breeding age, and a small school of 3 normal bloodfin and 2 glass (had been larger but one glass jumped in the betta tank and got eaten). Also rummies, but they're just a supplement to the bloodfin as they will school together.

I've had this mix of fish for months and when they get a larger tank there will be even more tetras.

I wish you luck, I really love the bloodfins with the angels.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

FuzzyCrawdad said:


> I have 11 angels, 4 of them nearly breeding age, and a small school of 3 normal bloodfin and 2 glass (had been larger but one glass jumped in the betta tank and got eaten). Also rummies, but they're just a supplement to the bloodfin as they will school together.
> 
> I've had this mix of fish for months and when they get a larger tank there will be even more tetras.
> 
> I wish you luck, I really love the bloodfins with the angels.


Good to hear!

I've heard bloodfins school really well together in larger groups.

Any issues with bloodfins nipping at the angels at all?


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## FuzzyCrawdad (Mar 21, 2015)

So far, even in my mixed group of eight (5 bloodfin, 2 rummy, 1 WCM) they school really well when they're active. Almost every time I look over, all eight fish are together, or at the very least my 5 bloodfin are. It'd be something else to see a school of, say, 25-30 doing that.

Nope, I've never witnessed my bloodfins even acknowledging my angels' existence, even though I'd heard online that bloodfins tend to be nippy towards angels. My angels only lose fin from each other. There's always going to be some risk when pairing fish, but angelfish heal really fast. I've had angels have small tears in the morning and not have any by that night.


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## longgonedaddy (Dec 9, 2012)

klibs said:


> Any success stories?
> 
> Thinking of getting a huge school of bloodfins and an angel for the 75g...


I've been thinking the same thing.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

longgonedaddy said:


> I've been thinking the same thing.


Also turning this thread into:

Why don't more people stock schools of bloodfins?

Seems like everyone jumps to rummys or harlequins...

I was at PetSmart earlier and their bloodfins were GORGEOUS. Very brightly red colored. Would look amazing in a large group.


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## FuzzyCrawdad (Mar 21, 2015)

klibs said:


> longgonedaddy said:
> 
> 
> > I've been thinking the same thing.
> ...



I agree. I rarely hear about bloodfins, but they're beautiful. Maybe it's because they're "boring", i.e. just a silver/transparent fish with colored fins, whereas rummies have red faces and then black and white striped fins. That's just what I think, honestly bloodfins are just as pretty as rummies.


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

what if you had a huge amount of bloodfins and 2 angels in a glass bottom tank! that would look cool :O


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## longgonedaddy (Dec 9, 2012)

FuzzyCrawdad said:


> I agree. I rarely hear about bloodfins, but they're beautiful. Maybe it's because they're "boring", i.e. just a silver/transparent fish with colored fins, whereas rummies have red faces and then black and white striped fins. That's just what I think, honestly bloodfins are just as pretty as rummies.


That's it, bloodfins for my next school!


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## FuzzyCrawdad (Mar 21, 2015)

longgonedaddy said:


> FuzzyCrawdad said:
> 
> 
> > I agree. I rarely hear about bloodfins, but they're beautiful. Maybe it's because they're "boring", i.e. just a silver/transparent fish with colored fins, whereas rummies have red faces and then black and white striped fins. That's just what I think, honestly bloodfins are just as pretty as rummies.
> ...


Haha, success! They really are lovely, energetic, entertaining little buggers. Here's some shots of mine.


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## myswtsins (Nov 1, 2008)

I've always loved blood fins but they have never come home with me. Mostly this is due to the fact that I can never find more than 5 or 10 at a time and I always go with as big of schools as possible so basically I find enough of them! I do find rummynoses and ember tetras to be excellent schoolers though so I've been happy with those as alternatives.


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## FuzzyCrawdad (Mar 21, 2015)

myswtsins said:


> I've always loved blood fins but they have never come home with me. Mostly this is due to the fact that I can never find more than 5 or 10 at a time and I always go with as big of schools as possible so basically I find enough of them! I do find rummynoses and ember tetras to be excellent schoolers though so I've been happy with those as alternatives.


With bloodfins you can always grab what you see and then add to the school. I'm lucky that my LFS always has like 30-40 at one time so a large school is always an option, but there have been times I'll grab 2 or 3 of a social fish and then get more as soon as I find more.

I just wish my LFS would stock normal bloodfin and not just glass. I LOVE glass fish but I want an even number of each.


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## myswtsins (Nov 1, 2008)

FuzzyCrawdad said:


> With bloodfins you can always grab what you see and then add to the school. I'm lucky that my LFS always has like 30-40 at one time so a large school is always an option, but there have been times I'll grab 2 or 3 of a social fish and then get more as soon as I find more.
> 
> I just wish my LFS would stock normal bloodfin and not just glass. I LOVE glass fish but I want an even number of each.


This is very true but the only place that carries them locally is a petsmart, which is a decent petsmart though. But I would definitely QT all fish from them and QTing 5 fish at a time to get a school of 30 feels like never ending QTing. lol


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

myswtsins said:


> This is very true but the only place that carries them locally is a petsmart, which is a decent petsmart though. But I would definitely QT all fish from them and QTing 5 fish at a time to get a school of 30 feels like never ending QTing. lol


This is essentially what I will have to do... Buy 5, 10, maybe 15 at a time and QT in my spare 29g. Will take around 6-10 batches of 2 week quarantines so it will take awhile lol

After dealing with columnaris right now and having dealt with ich in the past I don't think I'll ever skip QT again. Columnaris was introduced when I put in a huge school of harlequins at once. Even with daily water changes it blew up and killed most of my stock.


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## FuzzyCrawdad (Mar 21, 2015)

klibs said:


> myswtsins said:
> 
> 
> > This is very true but the only place that carries them locally is a petsmart, which is a decent petsmart though. But I would definitely QT all fish from them and QTing 5 fish at a time to get a school of 30 feels like never ending QTing. lol
> ...


Oh yeah, never skip the QT. When I first started getting into Angelfish, I bought three with some white tufts on their fins thinking no biggie. I put them in my tank that had 8 longfin leopard danios, 2 longfin zebra danios, and 4 black skirt tetras. Roughly 24 hours later, I had 14 dead fish that had basically had that white fluff explode out from inside them, ripping scales off and eating fins and eyeballs. It was a nightmare. My angels survived, and seem to never be affected by whatever it is the new angels have, but now that I have more than just angels in my tank I have to go back to QTing.


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## infolific (Apr 9, 2016)

I envy all of you that have had success combining tetras with your angels. I thought rummy nose tetras would be big enough to avoid trouble with my angels. I was wrong...


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## dpod (Sep 16, 2014)

Do you think bloodfins would be large or fast enough to avoid larger SA cichlids like electric blue acaras or firemouths?


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## TINNGG (Mar 9, 2005)

infolific said:


> I envy all of you that have had success combining tetras with your angels. I thought rummy nose tetras would be big enough to avoid trouble with my angels. I was wrong...


Oops. That's why I tend to avoid the smaller, streamlined tetras with my angels - too darned expensive for sushi. I admit I was somewhat paranoid when I put the first group of congos in, but they seem to pretty much ignore them. Then again, I suspect they thought they were funny looking diamond tetras. And well, congo tetras get big.


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## longgonedaddy (Dec 9, 2012)

infolific said:


> I envy all of you that have had success combining tetras with your angels. I thought rummy nose tetras would be big enough to avoid trouble with my angels. I was wrong...


That's unfortunately a great pic!


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## FuzzyCrawdad (Mar 21, 2015)

infolific said:


> I envy all of you that have had success combining tetras with your angels. I thought rummy nose tetras would be big enough to avoid trouble with my angels. I was wrong...


Ouch. Bad angel! Lol

I had three rummies. One of my oldest angels had it half in its mouth (either my rummies were bigger or my angel smaller) in the time between me putting the fish in and me dumping the bucket and looking back. I chased it with a net, but the rummy was done for. Now, my angels don't even acknowledge them, like they don't exist.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

infolific said:


> I envy all of you that have had success combining tetras with your angels. I thought rummy nose tetras would be big enough to avoid trouble with my angels. I was wrong...


lol @ that picture

From what I can see online it is totally hit or miss whether people's angels eat their stock. Many report that neons and angels are totally fine in their tanks while others like you say fish like rummys get eaten left and right.

My plan is to stock my tank with the school FIRST and then put a juvenile angel in later on so that it grows up without associating my bloodfins = food. This could be wishful thinking but whatever.

Out of curiosity did you add your angel first and then add the rummys? If so how large was the angel when you introduced it? Looking to have the best chance of success here...


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## infolific (Apr 9, 2016)

klibs said:


> Out of curiosity did you add your angel first and then add the rummys? If so how large was the angel when you introduced it? Looking to have the best chance of success here...


The rummys were added after the angels. The angels are about 2.5" to 3" (body only, not fins). I've also read that the order in which fish are introduced can help, but I couldn't control 1) having many fish wiped out by some illness and then needing to restock 2) my wife stumbling upon on these pearlscale angels and just having to have them 

One thing also to consider is that while the angels may not chase your tetras, the tetras may still fear them enough so that they don't exhibit the schooling behavior that many people like.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

infolific said:


> The rummys were added after the angels. The angels are about 2.5" to 3" (body only, not fins). I've also read that the order in which fish are introduced can help, but I couldn't control 1) having many fish wiped out by some illness and then needing to restock 2) my wife stumbling upon on these pearlscale angels and just having to have them
> 
> One thing also to consider is that while the angels may not chase your tetras, the tetras may still fear them enough so that they don't exhibit the schooling behavior that many people like.


I always thought it was the other way around? Because the tetras fear the angel they exhibit more schooling behavior?

Whatever, we'll see in a few months lol


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## infolific (Apr 9, 2016)

klibs said:


> I always thought it was the other way around? Because the tetras fear the angel they exhibit more schooling behavior?


I don't have a lot of experience combining tetras with angels so I can't say with certainty, but from my recent experience the tetras that weren't caught by my angels (about 10 tetras) now hide low in and amongst the plants. They come out when there's food and sometimes when the angels have moved to one side of the tank. They are never at mid-level or at the top.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Hmmmm

Again, I'm hoping that if I establish a school of bloodfins they will be totally comfortable around the tank with no potential threats at all. Then when I add a juvenile angel they won't bat an eye at it. As the angel grows I am hoping they will still feel comfortable and likewise the angel will hesitate to attack any of the bloodfins having grown up in the tank with them and not immediately associating them as threats / food. Keeping him well fed at older ages will help out here lol. Of course as it reaches larger size the dynamic might change. This I am assuming is up to chance and the specific angelfish that you have. Only time will tell. I have researched a lot of posts online of people saying their fully grown angels are totally 100% fine with all other fish even if far smaller and others that report angels trying to eat everything in sight.

Done the other way around I can see smaller schooling fish being introduced to an angel who 'owns the tank' already. The schooling fish are never comfortable and are in fear of the angelfish from day 1.

Might be overthinking things but it might have some validity


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## longgonedaddy (Dec 9, 2012)

I have a pair of 3+ year old angels in with cardinals. I bought the cards when they were tiny, grew them to respectable size, and then put them in with the Angels. As far as I can tell, no predation, unless it's the occasional one here or there. I started with 16 well over a year ago, and have 12 today. 

I also added a handful of shrimp to the tank, none lived, but I found all of the bodies intact, so they ignored them, too.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Yeah I really think that might be the key. Introduce angels AFTER the school is established.

Might flip flop and go with some honey gouramis anyways lol. Won't be for a while so I have time to decide.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

What about glowlight tetras? I've had a school of 20 with my angel for well over a year now. The angel is easily big enough to snack on them, but seems not to care. Also have a school of cherry barbs, maybe a dozen, the angel never bothers them either. Other fish in the tank include, black phantom tetras(i really want more of these), serpaes, bolivian rams, and a bristlenose pleco. Tank is 125g.


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## longgonedaddy (Dec 9, 2012)

sadchevy said:


> What about glowlight tetras? .


Damn you for bringing these up in this thread! :laugh2: I was thinking bloodfins for my next school for some time, then my wife saw glowlights at the store the other day and liked them. So, in my quest to keep her somewhat interested in my hobby, I thought I would give them a shot. But this thread reinforced my original thought for bloodfins. Now, you've got my thinking again. >


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## FuzzyCrawdad (Mar 21, 2015)

longgonedaddy said:


> sadchevy said:
> 
> 
> > What about glowlight tetras? .
> ...



Why not both, lol


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## longgonedaddy (Dec 9, 2012)

FuzzyCrawdad said:


> Why not both, lol


That might happen. I'm moving from an under stocked 65 to a 75. There's a lot of linear room to fill up...


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## Trickster 75 (Mar 23, 2014)

When I set up my 75 gal about 2 years ago I had 10 Bloodfins and 13 neons 7 hatchet's and some panda garras and khuli's. Im down to 1 Bloodfin,but they schooled up nice. I had a couple neons in a 20 gal with 4 angels, never had any issues so i doubt you would with the bloodfins.


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

I had 3 Angels, 3 Bolivian Rams, 2 German Blue Rams, and 25 Bloodfin tetras. I was constantly adding to the Blood fin school as they jumped out, swam into the filter and powerheads... I enjoyed it. They are definitely under rated


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Might flip flop and do pearl gouramis instead... either way I am set on the bloodfin school!


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