New planted tank, all my tetras dropping dead

[localfishbreeders]

So I purchased many sword plants, moss balls, planted tank substrate and black gravel. I put everything in a 29 gallon. I have a hardness of 120ppm, temp of 82 and neutral ph. After i setting everything up, I put 12 neon tetras that i picked up from the fish store. A few hours later I noticed that some were lying dead on the bottom. I tested for ammonia and everything seems fine. At the time I was only running the power filter (no planted tanks need bubbles?) after i saw the fish dropping dead, i put an air stone in the tank. From the 12 tetras I have 4 left. What did I do wrong? Was I supposed to let the plants and substrate cycle for a few days? This wasn't a new tank all though 90% of the water was fresh, the power filter is well established.

They are all huddled up in a corner skimming the surface and slowly dropping dead

Was it the lack of bubbles?
Was it the fact that I dripped the tetras to quickly before dropping them in?
Is 82 degrees to hot for tetras?

Help!

[Fraise]

have you checked your ammonia/nitrite levels?

[localfishbreeders]

amonia came back yellow which is good. don't have a nitrate tester. I just read that neons are not hardy at all and that they need aged water. This was was not aged. 90% of it was new water. RO tap mix.

[stephcps]

Neons are just not hardy fish. I've bought a ton of them and now have 2. Go with something more wide bodied like a lemon, or diamond, or even a cardinal (though from I have heard they may not be better than the neons) I don't think it's the tank...it's the fish.

[localfishbreeders]

tank looks cloudy this morning, what could be wrong?

[manitu]

get some easyneo by easylife

that suff really helps iam using allways on my tank


regards

gerald

[calihawker]

You didn't do anything wrong, It's a tetra thing. What I've found with tetras is your either gonna get a good batch or a bad one. What I've tried to do in the past is work with the lfs and basically use their tanks as a pre quarantine quarantine. A lot of lfs need to turn the fish over quickly but if you can find some that have been at the lfs for more than a month you're way better off. Then I buy about a third more than I want to end up with and put them in a qt for at least 6 weeks. By the time they go in the display the ones that survive are quite hardy.
HTH!

[ExReefer]

Are you saying you added new gravel? If so, and your water is cloudy, you didn’t have enough established bio-load in your filter. The cloudy water is bacterial bloom.

For example, this weekend I moved the entire contents of my 29g. to a 37g. (minus the water). I moved my eco-complete substrate, live plants and my Ehiem fliter to the 37g. Filled the tank with 100% tap water treated with Prime. Fish were added immediately after. By the end of the day, my water was crystal clear and the fish were all eating. My fish stock consists of the following:

13 Cardinal Tetra
1 SAE
3 Apisto Borelli
3 Electric Blue Rams
6 Rummy Nose Tetra
3 Otos

So, no large fish, but lots of sensitive fish and they all did fine.

Neons can be tough, but if you already had them for a while, they should have been fine. When I purchase sensitive fish, it seems like the weak ones always die within the first few days. If they make it a week, then I find they will live a long life. I started with 16 Cardinals because I knew a few would not make the transfer from the LFS to my tank. One year later and I still have 13 of them left.

[zamboniMan]

Neons do better in about 78 (at least in my experience) and they need a long established tank (again in my experience). They also do not seem to tolerate dosing of tanks that many planted tank hobbyists insist on following (just a trend I've noticed).

Neons aren't that hardy and not a good starter fish. Danios are nice and hardy and there are many different color variations which make them a much better starter fish.

Hope that helps,
Josh

[Harriett]

Ditto on the temperature--neons do way better in cooler temps. If you want tetras that are 'neon like', switch to cardinal tetras--which actually are prettier, I think! They come from the same area in the wild that discus do, handle the warmer temps beautifully. You didn't necessarily do anything wrong, except not research the needs of the fish. Better luck next time!
Best regards,
Harriett

[Darrell Ward]

I agree. You probably killed them with higher temps. Neons have been bred commercially so much that they have poor genetics, and very weak immune systems. Any kind of stress seems to kill them. Next time buy Cardinals.