cardinal tetras

[bamzam]

I have a 75 gal tank with 5 discus and 3 angels, all 3-4" and I want to add a school of cardinal tetras. I spoke to a few lfs and looked online and they all said as long as the fish are well fed and the angels are not adults, the tetras should be ok. Tonight, after overfeeding and making sure my fish were full, I added 20 wild cardinal tetras. The angels immediately chased them all over the tank. One unlucky tetra was caught and an angel had as much of him he could fit in his mouth a couple times before the tetra died. I removed the dead tetra before he could be eaten because I read that once they get a taste of fish, they'll always eat them. My question is, is it too late? Will the remaining tetras get hunted down one by one? Or is there a chance they'll get used to the tetras living in there? If it's too late, I may try to remove the tetras while they're still alive and return them to the lfs. Also, is there a different way I should have added them to prevent any from getting killed?

[ESXiGuy]

If the Angels are still chasing the Cardinals, it will just be a matter of time before they catch them all eventually. Even if not, you are taking chances every day. One rule about fish which I learned twenty years ago which still holds true today -

If a fish can get it's mouth over another fish, it probably will.

Sorry about that. You could try to grow the cardinals out to maximum size in another tank and try your luck again putting just one in the tank and not an entire school.

[limige]

its best to start with the cards and add young juvie angels and raise them together. bad news adding the cards last. best you can do is pull your fish out and rearrange the tank, then add the cards, a day or two later try adding the angels back in and see how that goes.

[bamzam]

Thanks for the replies. Theyre still getting chased around, even by the discus now. The angels and discus are having a hard time catching them but I don't know if theyll make it through the night. That sucks because these wild cardinals look awesome. If they don't make it I don't think I will try tetras again...maybe some German blue rams next time?

[Phillydubs]

May I ask where you purchased these? I am guessing you did not qt them before you added them in??

I have cardinals and rummies in with 7 large discus and the discus could care less that they are there... How big are yours? Did you try feeding the lather fish as you added the others to deter their chase and occupy them?

All I can say is good luck trying to catch 19 cards in your tank. They are quite fast little buggers.

[bamzam]

I am friends with a lfs that specialize in discus who was nice enough to qt for me. The discus and angels are all 3-4" the Cardinals are all 0-1". I did try to feed as I added the Cardinals. That kept the discus busy but the angels were locked in, and after eating all the food, now the discus have joined in the hunt. I am more wondering if the discus and angels would get used to the surviving cardinals eventually and stop hunting them down? Or if there was a different procedure I should have done when adding the Cardinals (quarantine related discussion aside) for future reference? As of this moment, 4 have been killed =(

[Phillydubs]

As stated earlier, the best bet then is to have the cards in the tank and established already then add your bigger fish... Once the big guys are in and settled anything that heads into that tank is deemed "food" even if they have to work for it. I would keep them well fed and see what happens before you go ripping your tank apart to net them.

Had only one died so far...?

[bamzam]

4 so far but the rest are spending every moment just trying to stay alive...I don't know how they'd ever get to eat or sleep. When I added a very young albino pleco that was probably 1.5", he was never harassed. Do you think German blue rams being slightly bigger would get eaten as well?

[Luke S.]

First, I have only had two tanks of discus and im just getting into them, but I added ten cardinals in my adult discus tank and the they could care less but the one small one was eaten and the larger ones survived with no struggle. now if I were you I wouldn't add any other fish than discus because before they mature they will have to fight for the food and the other fish will eat the food way before your discus do unless you have an amount of 7 or more discus then you could maybe add a couple rams. Now if you don't want the tetras to die then just wait and see if they die and if the fish eat more than half of them, then try feeding the discus at one end of the tank and the tetras at the other and when the tetras come to the surface get underneath them and scoop them up. but if they are near the discus then don't bother because you will just stress out you discus and if so just let nature take its course.

[bluelagoon]

A lot of times smaller fish get eaten is because,O gee I smell fresh meat.When the new fish eat and poop and smell more like the tank,they should be safer.Maybe holding them in a large fish net a day or so in the tank will work better for you.

[Luke S.]

I agree with blue lagoon

[Driftwood Mike]

Started with 13 months ago, down to 4, the lucky ones grew to a size that they were no longer threatened, was wondering how the Angels grew so fast. Angels not even interested anymore

[bamzam]

Thanks for the advice guys. I hope you're right blue lagoon! I came home from work to discover I lost another one. However, the remaining 15 are swimming freely and have not seen any fish chase them at all. I'm hoping the fish get used to them, they look great in the tank

[bamzam]

Just as an update in case someone tries it one day and looks it up for advice, blue lagoon was right. I lost 5 on day one when they were fresh, but they are now living peacefully in the tank. None of the fish are chasing them around anymore. Maybe next time I'll have some kind of net or divider