Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if tetras of different varieties would school together or not

They might, but my educated guess is they won't. In the wild, they school to avoid predators, so if you school with fish of other species you don't blend in... therefore you could get eaten.
Are you trying to set up a tetra tank? Or already have one set up?
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

im getting ready to set up a tetra tank and trying to see if i could have multiple types of tetras in it

You can certainly house them together, but I would still have about 5-6 of each tetra species. How big is your tank going to be? Any ideas of what tetras you want?
If I recall correctly, tetras aren't a good fish to cycle your tank with because they don't do well with wide water parameter changes. Since you haven't set up your tank yet, I would recommend doing a fishless cycle if you are interested in that... or you can cycle with zebra danios which will look great with tetras. You would have lots of color. If you decide to do a fish cycle, I would recommend ordering some biospira if they don't have it in your LFS. I haven't been able to find it in my LFS.
I'd be glad to answer any other questions you might have about setting up a tank, cycling, or helping you select some tetras.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

It is only a little 10 gal tank cause i needed something to give me a small fix until i can get my 29 gal. tank from my old apt. that i have yet to start up for cichlids

and i plan on making this a very colorful tank with plenty of plant life and invertebrates i was thinking of all small fish like tetras or the like and some decorative shrimp and maybe a freshwater clam or 2 and anything that is born in this little tank will be used as treats for my cichlids in the bigger tank that i will be setting up within the next month or so

If you only have a 10 gallon tank, I wouldn't have more than 1 school of 5-7 fish. Tetras love lots of room to swim. Since tetras don't do well in a new tank, fishless cycling would be recommended for you. I have a link below on how to do it. All cycling does take 4-6 weeks. Bio spira supposedly is another alternative to helping the cylcing process, but I haven't used it yet.

I wouldn't feed my cichlids tetras. Most places recommend only feeding live brine shrimp.
Fishless cycling

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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

I will take your advise and i will be out and about tomorrow so ill stop by this LFS that we used to go to when i was younger that just recently found again cause they moved and i couldnt find where they moved to (even though i drove by it twice yesterday and didnt even see it) and try out that bio spira you noted on

oohh yea and i found these cool looking upside down cats that look like cory's and would a couple of these be ok with the school of 5-7 tetras if i plan on having alot of cleaners in the tank

I don't see why not, but I would make the school about 5 then. Also, I have found that my tetras thrive with extra air in the tank, so an air stone would do wonders. It's not necessary right from the start, but I think it will definitely help things a little later if you can't afford it now.
Do you have a water testing kit already? If not, one that tests ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites will be needed so you know when your tank has cycled.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

ok cool when i got to get my tetras in a week or so(when the tank is done cycling) ill pick up 6-7 tetras cause im sure i may lose one or 2 possibly

and yes i have a water test kit i ordered one when i was ordering everything for my 29 gal to get it ready to setup which got a little pushed back hence the 10gal now

and would plenty of vegetation help with the need of oxygen or would you also recommend getting the airstone cause if you do i have no problem picking one up cause they always add that little extra to a tank

and thanks for all of the help you have been so far

I'm here to help.
Hopefully if you cycled correctly you won't lose any fish. That's the point of cycling. It's adding the bacteria that get rid of the most harmful chemicals (namely ammonia - it kills fish faster than any other problem), so that your fish can live stress free.
I would recommend testing every day or every other day... and make sure you keep note of what the water parameters were for that day. I can give you an article on cycling if you need to read up on it. Just let me know.
Live plants would help the oxygen level, and they are also a little more difficult to take care of. I'm not sure whether you have the experience or not, I'm just letting you know just in case. They need lots of light, and that may lead to algae blooms, which would not be good.
If you are going to have a lot of plants, I would say an airstone isn't necessary then. However, if you notice your fish gasping at the surface (they probably won't, but if they do) then you need an airstone.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Well they didnt have Bio Spira but they recommended this stuff called Special Blend that was supposed to be the only thing they carried that really worked and it does look like it has something in it and it smells like rotten eggs(was warned of the smell before hand) and yes i would like the link to the articles on cycling

and i have been thinking i may not do as many plants as i have previously planned on and maybe use some driftwood and rocks to help make the tank look as natural as possible to the fish

Hmm. I've never heard of that stuff, but I'm sure it's pretty much the same thing... there are lots of similar type products out there. A little bit of rotten eggs never hurt anyone. hahaha.
Below is the link on cycling for you... let me know if you have any questions about it.
As far as your tank goes, if you are going for natural, you can do research on what the natural habitat looks like for the tetras. Possibly somewhere that describes how to create an amazon biotope like: http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquarium/amazon.php

If all else fails, and you want the look of real plants without the fuss, you can always go with something like what liveaquaria.com sells.
New Aquarium Setup

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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."