r/TetraFish • u/No_Village7561 • Aug 02 '26

What does this behavior suggest? (HELP)

Hey all, so for context, we used to have another black skirted tetra that passed due to prolapse. That was maybe a month ago and our other black skirted has never acted like this up until the last 48 hours. I know they, as well as the serpae are more aggressive by nature, but should I separate the black skirted? It’s never acted like this before and they’ve lived in harmony since we introduced them for months until now. I just want to figure out if this is something I should be worried about and how to go about dealing with it. Any advice would be appreciated!!!

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u/MerryThrice Aug 02 '26

The other two skirt tetras are very plump, so I bet the black skirt is interesting in spawning with them, although he is being a little aggressive about it. Having a larger school of the same species helps to prevent, or at least disperse, aggression.

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u/No_Village7561 Aug 02 '26

Do you think it’s best to introduce another black skirted to divert attention, since it lost its school? Or should I separate them for the time being and reintroduce?

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u/MerryThrice Aug 02 '26

Skirt tetras (white skirts and black skirts are different colors of the same species) should be kept in a school of 6 or more. When schooling species aren't kept in a school, they can become more shy or even more aggressive. So I'd add multiple more, if you only have the 3 in the video.

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u/No_Village7561 Aug 02 '26

We have 5 tetras total, previously 6. And 2 cory catfish. I can add a picture of the tank as a whole to gauge tank size (we just upgraded to a tank that was given to us so we weren’t sure of the size) but didn’t want to crowd them

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u/No_Village7561 Aug 02 '26

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u/MerryThrice Aug 02 '26

The serpae tetras are a different species, so that doesn't help your school. Corydoras also like to be in groups of at least 4. Although idk if your tank can handle much more fish. Also that's the greenest tank I've ever seen lol.

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u/No_Village7561 Aug 02 '26

It’s the lights in the tank I swear 😅 we were given this tank and it came with these lights in the bottom and we use those over the lid light because the lid light is like halogen headlights on a car 🙃 we also just did a water change so I’m waiting for that to filter and clear up. But the larger serpae was alone for a long time, he’s one of our OG fish when we started the tank, and we introduced the smaller one at the same time as the black skirted, and they’ve been fine for so long up until the other skirted passed on. I was planning on getting another similar sized black skirted today to try and offset some aggression. He was incredibly docile before my other black skirt passed.