rm
Passport
- Family
- Tetras
- Grows to
- 4 cm (1.6")
- Lives
- 5–7 years
- Temperament
- Semi aggressive
- Care
- Beginner
- Swims
- Mid-water
- Keep
- In a group of 12 or more
- Water
- 20–28 °C (68–82 °F)
BrazilPeruBolivia
Care requirements
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On record for Serpae Tetra: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 76 L / 20.0 US gal
- pH 5–7.5
- Hardness 1–15 dGH
- Diet omnivore
- Tank length 80 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Serpaes are the tetra with a reputation, and it's earned. They nip fins — properly nip, not the occasional opportunistic peck — and a small group of them in a community tank will find the longest-finned fish you own and work on it.
The fix is numbers, and it's the whole of the answer. Serpaes form loose hierarchies where males spend their days squabbling with each other over position and females, and in a big enough group all that energy goes inward. Keep too few and it goes outward, straight at your tank mates.
They're worth the trouble. A blood-red fish with a black comma on the shoulder and black-tipped fins, out in open water and constantly displaying, is a genuinely impressive thing that a peaceful shoal can't give you.
Tank setup
Give your serpaes length and open water. They're active, they display constantly, and the tank needs room for a group to spread out rather than pile into one corner.
Go dark underneath and furnish it well. They'll live anywhere, but colour deepens over a dark substrate among wood, roots and shady corners, and a well-planted tank gives the fish getting the worst of the squabbling somewhere to go.
Think hard about who else is in there. Anything slow, shy or long-finned is a target, so no guppies, no bettas, no angelfish, no fancy livebearers. Robust open-water fish of a similar size are the right company.
Leaf litter suits them and darkens the water, which they respond to well.
Feeding
Serpaes eat greedily and are not remotely fussy. Flake, granules, frozen and live food all go down fast, and getting food into them is never the problem.
Keeping them busy is. A well-fed serpae nips less than a hungry one, so feed small amounts a couple of times a day rather than one big meal, and use foods they have to chase.
Vary it properly. Bloodworm, mosquito larvae and daphnia bring the red up in a way that dried food alone won't.
Avoid: one heavy daily feed, which leaves them hunting for entertainment the rest of the day.
Filtration and flow
Give them moderate to strong flow. In the wild they're found in strong currents, and they use a current rather than being pushed around by it.
Filter generously. They're enthusiastic, messy eaters and the waste load is higher than their size suggests.
They're tolerant of ordinary water chemistry, since almost all stock is farm-bred. Steady conditions matter more than soft ones.
With plants
Serpaes are safe with plants — they don't dig or graze — and heavy planting is positively useful with this species.
Plant it as a sightline breaker rather than as decoration. A tank where fish can't see each other from end to end is a tank with less chasing in it, and that applies to the serpaes among themselves as much as to their tank mates.
Broad-leaved plants and wood give the lower-ranked fish places to sit out of the way.
Health
They're hardy and rarely ill. Most serpae problems are injuries rather than infections, and they're injuries the serpaes caused.
Check fins across the whole tank regularly. Ragged edges on a tank mate mean the group is too small, the tank is too tight, or both — and fungus follows fin damage if you leave it.
Watch for a fish being singled out within the group itself. It'll be the one hanging at the surface with its fins clamped, and it needs either more company or a way out.
Breeding
Serpaes spawn readily and will do it in a community tank, though nothing survives there. They scatter eggs among fine-leaved plants and eat them immediately.
Condition a group on live food, move a pair or a small group to a dim separate tank with moss or a mesh floor, and pull the adults out as soon as they've finished. Slightly softer, slightly acidic water helps the eggs develop.
The fry are straightforward once free-swimming and take baby brine shrimp early, which makes this an easier tetra to raise than most. Keep the spawning tank shaded until the eggs hatch.
Tank mates
Avoid9
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Serpae Tetra at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Serpae Tetra at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Pictus Catfish Pictus Catfish grows to 12 cm against Serpae Tetra at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Common Goldfish Serpae Tetra is not safe with Common Goldfish: common goldfish and tetras are a bad pairing.
- Demasoni Cichlid Demasoni Cichlid is not safe with Serpae Tetra: african cichlids and tetras are a bad pairing.
Only with care13
- Least Killifish Serpae Tetra is noticeably larger than Least Killifish and may bully it or outcompete it at feeding time.
- Scarlet Badis Serpae Tetra is noticeably larger than Scarlet Badis and may bully it or outcompete it at feeding time.
- Kribensis Serpae Tetra is semi-aggressive and Kribensis is peaceful.
- Panda Garra Serpae Tetra is semi-aggressive and Panda Garra is peaceful.
- Cherry Barb Serpae Tetra is a risk to Cherry Barb: barbs and tetras are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 85 species in the database, so nothing to flag. 1 species is not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.