dying neon fish

[pikashy]

I cycled my tank with ammonia and added 12 neon tetras. 5 of them have died already. The ones that are about to die swim off away from the school and when I come home, they become pale and are either floating or on the bottom of the tank.

My tank is housing discus with no problems and everything, nitrite, ammonia, nitrate is 0. The only reason I can think of is a too high water temperature. I'm keeping the temperature around 83.

[Carol_Roberts]

Sorry - I don't know much about neons . . .

[Rhinoboy38]

all try and help but im new at the discus. i have 8 neons in my tank. none have died. even with the ammonia spike after getting the discus. now how big are the neons and how big are the discus. they could be getting attacked and killed that way. Al (brewmaster) told me that the discus could get ahold of them. another thing is what are the other water parameters? the PH, hardness. whats the parameters from the tap?(remember to age the water day or so) what do you do to the water during water changes? when do you do water changes? is it planted? what kinda plants do you use? what do you feed them?

[RedestWing]

I have gone through MANY Neons myself, just to have my Discus Rip them to shreds. For the longest time I never knew why they were all dead. Then I seen that early in the morning or soon as the lights wen't out they started stalking the school of Neons. For some odd reason though they will leave Cardinals alone!

[Howie_W]

My tank is housing discus with no problems and everything, nitrite, ammonia, nitrate is 0. The only reason I can think of is a too high water temperature. I'm keeping the temperature around 83.

Hi pikashy,

If I understand your post correctly, you added this group of neons to an existing cycled tank that already contained your Discus correct? How long did you have the neons in quarantine before adding them in with your Discus? What changed between the time you brought them home and the time they were added to the tank? Also, what type of tank did you add them to...bare bottom or planted? Were the neons subjected to large water changes?

As a final note...I usually discourage people from putting neon's in with Discus, as the slower moving ones often become snacks for the Discus.


Howie

[aggie_67]

Cardinals are not immune either. I lost all of mine one night, had been fine for 5-6 weeks, then one morning they were all dead.

[bio new]

I cycled my tank with ammonia and added 12 neon tetras. 5 of them have died already. The ones that are about to die swim off away from the school and when I come home, they become pale and are either floating or on the bottom of the tank.

The trouble with neon is that their life span is around a year. By the time neon is put up for sale at any LFS, their life is half due :( . Further, neon has their own disease. Sorry, I can't recall the name.

It is common for neon to die 1 by 1 till all ur stock gone. Ask any neon keepers, I believe they experienced this.

[jules]

Your temp seems fine. Neons dislike quick changes in water parameters.
The disease is called Neon Tetra Disease.

As bio says, the neon life span seems short - mine live only about a year.

[JeffreyRichard]

The problem is TEMPERATURE, assuming the Neons were healthy to begin with. Neons prefer cooler temps ... 72-78 degrees. Keeping them at 83 will stress and eventually kill them.

Go with Cardinal Tetras instead. They enjoy the same conditions (water chemistry and temperature) that Discus thrive in.

[jules]

The temp would have brought out any underlying disease IMO.
Though not at Optimal Temperature; my Neons lived over a year at 83-84.

Julie

[RyanGSP]

Could be neon disease. only harms neon tetras. The skin infront of the dorsal fisn goes all white and the fish slowly start to die off. I like cardnals the best they are an indicator fish. If the water quality isnt right their red stripe starts to fade this is a good indicator it is time for some action to be taken.

[JeffreyRichard]

The temp would have brought out any underlying disease IMO.
Though not at Optimal Temperature; my Neons lived over a year at 83-84.

Julie

You are lucky ... most Neons won't survive temps in the 80's.

If you are keeping Discus and wish to keep tetras with them, go with Cardinals.

[JeffreyRichard]

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/gneon.html

This is a good article on Neons

[Mustang65]

Yes It's difficult to keep neon fish alive, they can die one after the other, by the time you get some, they already consume half of their life, other bigger fish pick on them till they die and do not support high temperature But they are really nice to have.

I have been lucky with them, my local pet store sell young neons (6 neons for $3), having them young allows me to keep them longer.

The key is to have neons in a tank all the time, if some dies, replace them right away. Once you manage to have a group of neons that stay alive, they will become part of the fish tank community and other fish will share the tank with them. A community tank have rule and when small new fish are introduced, they need to earn their space; others might not like it and try to defend their tank. you might lost a lot of neons.

I am really lucky; my neons (I have 6) leave in my tank with Silver dollars Guppies and Discus. They also support 82 degrees since a long time and I just raise the temp to 86 degrees a week ago. They might all die but I have more problems with my juveniles Discus that I need to fix first.

If they die, I will replace them with neon cardinal just to make sure other fishes knows the tank is shared with neons.

good luck!

[Tony]

neon doesn't like that high temp.... they would slowly die at high temp but quick death may be related to other thing like temp.

Try other tetra....e.g. serpae, rummy nose,....

[mikeos]

IME it is rare to get real quality neons these days, farm breeding eems to have diminished the colour, size and vitality. I have had neons for 2+ years at 30c/86f without problems, although they were large by the time the discus went in & didnt loose any to predation. Neon tetra disease killed the lot over about 2-3months.