Depleting Shoals...

After setting up and cycling my Aquanano 40 (55l) I added 4 Platy and 6 X-ray tetra to the tank. Eight months on, the Platy are all still fine, but I have lost two of the tetra.

Whilst I love my X-ray tetra, I'm concerned they're a little too large and active for the tank. I don't think they have enough room to stretch their fins in their 40cm cube home. So I have decided that when the time comes, I'll replace them with a shoal of smaller fish that are more suited to the tank, like Emerald Dwarf Rasbora or Celestial Pearl Danios.

In the meantime I have four gorgeous tetra that I wish were in a larger shoal. They seem reasonably content as a foursome, but I worry what will happen when they are down to three or less in number. This must be a dilemma faced by many a fishkeeper and wondered how others got over the problem. I've thought about offering them up for adoption, but I'm too attached to the little fellas!

I currently have 3 ember tetras and 4 green neon tetras that were once in larger groups. I will just keep the remainders until they die. Obviously this isn't ideal but the only alternative for me would be to find someone who already has shoals of these fish and would take them.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I don't want to give the little guys up, I'm a "until death do us part" type of guy when it comes to pets.

A bigger tank would be my ideal solution, but there's no chance of that. FCMF, interesting the behavior you observed, mine are exactly the same! They have their preferred 'posts' around the tank and every now and again they go berserk and rampage around. Maybe they're not too unhappy... their colours are certainly great!

Will stick with them, and continue to convince the better half that a larger tank is a good idea!