poor neon tetras

[FISHPUNK]

why in the heck are my discus trying to eat my neons?
HELP!

Because Discus are Cichlids and when they're hungry they eat whatever moves and fits in their mouth.

Dave

[Ralph]

Dave's right, if you want to keep neons, get them out of that tank.
Cardinals do OK with discus and are only slightly bigger than neons, you can use that a guide.

Welcome to Simply.

Fishpunk, Neons are not compatable with discus because they do better in temperatures of 78 degrees and discus love them.

Cardinals are a good choice as the higher temps are fine!

Joe :)

[Wahter]

One time I kept neon tetras with discus and I noticed that the discus seemed to 'wake up' earlier in the morning and found the neons easy pickings. :fried:

I've had good luck keeping cardinals with discus - just make sure you have a decent sized school of them (no less than 7-9 and more like 15 or more).


Walter

[wo]

Hi fishpunk,

I had the same experience before. When I first kept discus in tank, I saw many reference books recommending neon tetras. So I bought 30 neon tetras back and put in tank with my two 2"RT discus. They seemed fine on the first day. But I could only see the dead bodies of all neon tetras with ripped bellies the next morning. So if the discus have not eaten your neon tetras. Get them OUT as soon as possible.

[Jason]

big fish eat little fish ;D

[Discus Don]

Dave and Jason said it.....

When I introduced a school of cardinal tetras into my discus tank, they were chased around like crazy the first day. Once the discus learned (?) that they were either too fast to too large to eat, they left them alone. One of them apparently got nibbled on and eventually died, but the others have been fine and are growing like mad from the diet of the discus.

As for Neon's though, for size and temperature reasons, I would avoid keeping them with discus. Try the cardinals, rummy-nosed tetras, black neons, or lemon tetras. They all get large enough to "stay safe", and can all stand the higher temperatures (I'm not certain about the lemons, but the rest can).

Good luck!
-Don

[Ralph]

Lemon tetras are fine at even 90 degrees F.

[Jason]

I agree with Ralf lemon tetras are too big to fit in their mouths, my personal favourite is rummy nose though....until I brought 3 altum angels home one day :o

[RAWesolowski]

Fishpunk,

I have to say that you treat your discus very well! When your discus saw the neons it was like they found a bowl of discus M&Ms! Black worms are much less expensive as are fish that like the higher temps.

[jamesmcsyd]

I must say from my experience, I tend to disagree with you!

I have never had any trouble keeping neons with discus as long you keep to the following rule. Introduce the neons BEFORE the discus and make sure the discus you have are young. Using this method, they have grown up together in peace and harmony. However, if you remove the discus from the tank and then replace them back in a few days later, then the neons will be in real trouble!

I have used this method with neons and angelfish (although angels tend to be a bit more troublesome)
and neons and african knife fish. (i'm not kidding!)

James

[jamesmcsyd]

Oh, and by the way....
here's the proof!

Hope the pic is OK

James

[jklnbrg]

I have 4 large (2 VERY large) adult discus in my planted 150 along with 50+ Neons. To my knowledge the discus never even notice the neons.