serpae tetras

Question
Hi! I have a new tank with three serpae tetras that I find very amusing and colorful. The tank is five gallons. Can I add any more (I heard that the more the merrier) or should I stay with the present number. Thank you in advance for your response.

Answer
Hi Matt,
Serpae tetras are in fact awesome little fish.  With your 5 gallon tank being newly setup you might want to wait a little while and make sure your tank is established or cycled the beneficial bacteria. Otherwise if you stock more fish you could get ammonia spikes. All that is needed is to simply test your water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. These levels should be as follows- Ammonia-0 Nitrites-0 Nitrates-20 or less. Testing your water is just a precaution to avoid any unnecessary fish loss.

If the levels test out OK, then I would say you could likely easily keep at least 2 or 3 more Serpae tetras if they were the only ones species in the tank. It'd be a really nice display. Just keep up with those vital water changes and you'll be fine. If the tank was planted, all the better!

If you see that you have trace amounts of ammonia and/or nitrites you'll need to do water changes of 30-50% and wait it out for the tank to get established which shouldn't take any more than a couple of weeks or so.

I really hope this helps!
Best wishes and happy fishkeeping!
Karen~