Re: Columbian Red-Tailed Tetras and peat use questions

[Sarah LeGates <slegates@yahoo.com>]

Hello all,

I originally started with three of these fish in a 56 gal with a trio
of Heros severus.  I lost one in a heat wave this summer, and the
other two were getting mauled in the incessant breeding territory
defense of the severums.  They were, in turn, also mauling
themselves--has anyone else observed this sort of intraspecific
aggression in these tetras?  At this point they are doing fine as
"company" fish for my altispinosa (since I only have one!) rather
than targets for a spawning pair, and the aggression between them has
subsided as well.

On a related but slightly more topical note, the severums live in the
same chicago lime-water conditions that I mentioned in my previous
message.  These fish have spawned every 2-3 weeks for the last year
but I've never had a single egg hatch.  I'd love to see some
parenting behavior from them; I suspect the tds levels in my water
are preventing the eggs from being fertilized.  I don't have the
space or money for an RO unit, so I'd like to try using peat to lower
the pH and carbonate levels in this tank.  I've read the Krib
archives on peat use, but they leave out certain crucial details such
as the following: exactly how does one boil peat?  Without going
through three pages of pH and %concentration calculations, can anyone
give me a rough dry volume/pH change estimate I might use to
determine how much peat to boil and in turn to put into my tank? 
Should I introduce the peat "all at once", or in stages.  Etc, etc. 
If anyone has gone through a conversion story like this with a tank
of this size, I'd love to hear about it (I've got another large tank
in the works that I'm planning to set up with A. cacatuoides, and I
may as well get used to the water tweaking process now...).

Thanks,

Sarah LeGates

--- Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com> wrote:
> Jack,
> 
> I think we are talking about the same fish, but my Colombian
> Red-fin Blue Tetras
> don't seem to be causing any trouble for me. 

>______ 
> Jack Betz wrote:
> 
> > Sarah,
> >  I had a group of 6 of these Columbia Red Tailed tetras and they
> were the
> > most aggressive tetras I have ever had. 
> 
>
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