Hi All! I'm new to this site and fairly new to the world of aquariums as well. I am looking for some info on what to do with my fish as I think I have screwed up royally, so I will give you some background info... We started out with one male betta one of those half gallon jobbers that they sell that they say are "suitable" for bettas. We bought this back in August and soon I started reasearching our little project and realized how stressed skittles the betta was going to be with the water changes and upgraded him to a 5 gallon tank shortly after. About September/October we then (I'm sure like any tank newbie), thought he was lonely, so my boyfriend and I went off to the local pet store to find him some tank buddies. Hearing that all tetras go well together, and that with a betta we should avoid flowing fins at the risk of him thinking it was another male betta and killing it, we bought some four neon tetras, and two penguin tetras. About a week later three of the four neons were dead, so we went back to the pet store... As we are from a small town in northern BC with only one pet store they were all out of neon tetras, so we bought three zebra danios and one serpae tetra. Soon the fin nipping began, so I went back to the internet to figure out what I had done wrong. Reading that serpae tetras can be agressive when they are the only one I bought another serpae as a buddy for the one existing in the tank. The other day our male betta for some reason kicked the bucket after a water change, not really sure why since the poor guy had been through waaayy worse than that. Perhaps it was his time? Anyways now we are down to two zebra danios, one neon tetra, two penguin tetras, and two serpae tetras. Thinking that our tank looked empty without skittles the betta, I bought four neons after reading that they are unhappy if they are not in schools of at least 6. All of them died within two days from their back fins being ate off by someone. So I am back down to the one original neon tetra. I am now trying to make all the fish "happy" and am not sure what the best way to do this is. I realize that the tank is slighly overcrowded(?) since there are seven fish in a five gallon tank so not room to give the neon the community that it wants so I am willing to buy another larger tank. I have also read that the serpaes can nip at the neons so buying another tank would seperate them. Any suggestions on who can peacefully live with who, and how to make them happy? I am not willing to get rid of any fish, just trying to make them all peacefully coexist. I also don't want to lose any of my existing fish to the initial start up of a new tank. Help?
