"Jim Morcombe" wrote in
:

Can anyone explain this behaviour?

My comunity tank has loads of guppies, half a dozen angels,
three Silver Sharks, and a lot of bristlenose.

It also had seven Neon Tetras who usually stayed in one
particular place in the tank.

I bought my g/f seven juvenile Electric Blues and dumped them in
the aquarium until Christmas.

After the first night, had six tetras and they had changed
their location in the tank.

Each night the number of Tetras was whittled down until there
were two left.

However, these two are still there and have survived for a week.

I don't seem to be losing guppies either, but this is difficult
to verify.

Why are the Electric blues leaving the remaining Tetras alone?

Jim


Very interesting. I had a similar experience. I put 10 serpae
tetras in my South American cichlid tank, guessing that my fish
would leave them alone. Unfortunately, some fish (either my
Geophagus surinamensis or my Satanoperca) was preying on them.
Every few days their number would dwindle by one. Eventually,
there was only one left. But that one serpae has now survived in
that tank for six months! I think it has something to do with
schooling behavior. My current guess is that schooling fish become
much more cautious once a school no longer exists and/or predator
fish are less likely to go after them once there is no school.

Meph

P.S.: I assume you know that the water requirements of electric
blues and neon tetras could not be more different.