Ember tetra care: the easiest small schooling fish
If a beginner asks for a schooling fish for a 10-gallon, this is the answer: small, hardy, cheap, and it looks better in a group than most fish twice its size.
Ember tetras come from the Rio Araguaia basin, where they live in slow, tannin-stained water among leaf litter. They are adaptable — which is exactly why they are a better first school than the more sensitive chili rasbora — but they still colour up best in a planted, slightly acidic tank.
Group size changes everything
Eight is the minimum; twelve is where the shoal starts behaving like a shoal instead of a group of nervous individuals. In a smaller group they hide, pale out, and spend their day in the plants.
Tankmates
- Pygmy corydoras for the bottom — see the care sheet.
- One honey gourami as a centrepiece in a 10-gallon.
- Shrimp, with the caveat that embers will eat shrimplets if they find them.
- Not: any fish large enough to see an ember as food, including most barbs and larger tetras.
Crush micro pellets between your fingers. A whole pellet is too big, sits on the substrate, and decays — in a nano tank that is a measurable ammonia source. Feed what is eaten in 60 seconds.
Frequently asked
Can ember tetras live in a 5-gallon tank?
Why are my ember tetras pale?
Chili rasbora
A 2 cm blackwater fish from Borneo. Soft, acidic water matters more than tank size — and it is the reason many chilis fade in hard tap water.
Read →Honey gourami
A peaceful labyrinth fish that suits a planted 10-gallon. Slow water, floating cover, and one per tank — the rest is easy.
Read →Pygmy corydoras
A 2.5 cm schooling cory that actually works in a 10-gallon — if the substrate is sand and the group is big enough.
Read →Stop guessing what your tank did last week
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