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Stocking a new 29 gallon-fish compatibility


Cinnebuns
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I am very new to keeping fish.  I was originally lead astray by some bad advice and have been working to solve the problems that arose because of it.  For the past 3 weeks I have been doing a fish-in cycle with a 10-gallon tank and a fishless with a 5-gallon.  I just today obtained a 29-gallon tank.  The plan was to fishless cycle the 29 while continuing to fish-in cycle the 10.  Once the 29 was finished cycling I was going to put the fish currently occupying the 10 into the 29 and add to it.  The problem comes in that I recently discovered that although I was originally told the fish I currently have are compatible, I am not finding conflicting info as to if this is true or not.  I currently have 3 glo tetras (black skirt tetras) and 1 male guppy.  The original plan was to increase those numbers to 6 tetras and 4-5 male guppies. 

 

I am now reading that the tetras can nip at the male guppies and possibly kill them making them incompatible.  However, I have also read that if you keep the tetras in a large enough school (6+) that this will not happen.  I'm so confused as to if I should continue with my plan or scrap it and find a different solution.  It's especially frustrating considering I already have some of the fish.  It is interesting to note I have not seen ANY fin nipping from the tetras.  I dont wanna fool myself to think that that could be because they are young and small though.  If I had to decide between the 2 species I would probably pick guppies, however that runs the added issue that I have more of the tetras currently.  

 

Questions then are:

1.  Are these fish compatible?

2.  If not, how would you suggest going from here?  Current tanks available are 29, 10, and 5.  

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One thing with this hobby is: always have a back-up plan! Sadly this is sometimes because of these instances. 

I will start by saying I have not kept either (though I recently started keeping Endlers which are similar in nature to Guppies)- HOWEVER  - I did do some research on black skirts and did not choose them because of their reputation for fin nipping- it pays to point out that tetras sometimes have that reputation (not all but as a family it's something that I look for when researching a new one). If your tetras are the Glofish BRAND a friend of mine has a pack of them (about 6) and they're not aggressive at all- in fact they get spooked by just about everything. You may never notice them fin nipping. 

When they say get a large group- well they're refering to dither fish really- meaning (in this case)- if you have fin nippers or aggressive fish they don't know who to chase when they're in a crowd making it less likely anyone gets victimized. 

SO. Knowing that you could continue with your plan and take your chance- everything could turn out fine. BUT you have options. Potentially a 10 gallon could be a really cool Guppy tank!

Edited by xXInkedPhoenixX
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I have black skirt tetras (about 10) kept with guppies.  I think when there were only 4-5 tetras they tended to nip at each other a bit, as I added more to the group they seem to nip less.  I see them chase an occasional guppy, but have never witnessed fin nipping a guppy or guppy fin damage.  I would expect as your groups get bigger there is less chance of group fin nipping behavior - BUT I always have a back up option in case the worse happens.  I think you can keep to your original plan and know that you might need to split one group into your 10 gallon if things don't work.  Welcome to fish keeping and the forum.  Good luck.

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