Cardinal Tetras

[theteflondon]

Does anyone else have trouble keeping these guys alive? My tank is planted 2wpg t5 6500k my ph is 6.8 nitrites are 0 amonia is 0 nitrates around 10ppm. I could be going crazy but they seem to be droping like flies This is my second batch first batch died because of a ph spike that happened accidently 50 fish died in 3 days. I also bought the first batch like 1cm in size so I think that made the situation worse but I only spent .85/fish so i was willing to take the risk. This time i got 47 fish between .75 inch and 1.25 inches I spent 2.25/fish my water levels havent changed, but I feel like I have lost almost half I could be completly crazy I know I have found 8 definitely dead so that brings me to 39 in my atempts to count I have only reached 27 I am keeping my tank around 84 degrees because the ultimate goal is to have discus. Im not really sure what im doing wrong.

[Eddie]

Yes, I have read this can be from a fast acclimation and that cardinals require a very long and slow acclimation period. My problem was the discus eating them. LOL

Eddie

[theteflondon]

Yes, I have read this can be from a fast acclimation and that cardinals require a very long and slow acclimation period. My problem was the discus eating them. LOL

Eddie

do you mean I shouldnt have bought 47 at one time or you need more than 30 min to put them in the tank?

[rickztahone]

h means intially when you get them. you would take a longer time to acclimate them to your water with an extended period of acclimation. they have told me up to 3 hrs doing drip. ive lost about 20 myself because of short acclimation as well (1hr)

[captain morgan]

No problems with my cardinals, 12 cardinals in my tank for about 1.5 years now- still have same 12. Have a 100 gallon planted tank.

[theteflondon]

h means intially when you get them. you would take a longer time to acclimate them to your water with an extended period of acclimation. they have told me up to 3 hrs doing drip. ive lost about 20 myself because of short acclimation as well (1hr)

wow and here i am thinking 30 mins staying in the bag would kill them

[rickztahone]

wow and here i am thinking 30 mins staying in the bag would kill them

well you should take them out of the bag though. what you do is put them in a 5g bucket. get an air hose and drip the water in slowly and make sure you put an air pump providing air as well.

[calihawker]

The first time I slowly acclimated them for maybe a couple hours and put them in the display. They dropped off one by one over a period of about 2 weeks. The second time I made sure they came from a reliable source and my friends at the LFS kept them there for 3 weeks. Then I put them in a ten gallon QT for 6 weeks. They've been in my display for about 4 months now doing great.



Steve

[KDodds]

A lot depends on the source, meaning WC vs. CB more than which LFS. WCs die off in pretty large numbers, acclimitize slowly, and in many cases poorly, to new conditions. Once they're established, they're hardy as heck. I would buy no more than 12 at a time and QT them in a 10g or so. They will acclimitize (IME) to captive conditions more reliably and wihtout as much die off if they're the only species in the tank. CBs are a different story, farmed cardinals are hardier than their WC brethren, but not as easy to come during WC collection season.

[rickztahone]

A lot depends on the source, meaning WC vs. CB more than which LFS. WCs die off in pretty large numbers, acclimitize slowly, and in many cases poorly, to new conditions. Once they're established, they're hardy as heck. I would buy no more than 12 at a time and QT them in a 10g or so. They will acclimitize (IME) to captive conditions more reliably and wihtout as much die off if they're the only species in the tank. CBs are a different story, farmed cardinals are hardier than their WC brethren, but not as easy to come during WC collection season.

CB are far more difficult to come by in my neck of the woods i've found. almost all are WC and i believe the batch i had purchased had been in the LFS for only a week or so. it might have been the quality or lack there of of the cards but i am hesitant to try again. i will go with some rummies from an LFS that i know QT's his dither fish for over a month before he puts them on sale

[mcsinny99]

I have twice purchased cardinals, just to watch them die in qt (meaning 20 cards a trip). If anyone knows of a reliable card dealer in the US I would be in. My lone cardinal will thank you.:D

[KDodds]

Drs. F&S sell CBs, though it would be awful expensive for only a few with the shipping.

[poconogal]

I've never had a problem with cards... I brought them home, floated the bag for about 20 mins. while removing and replacing equal amounts of bag water with tank water every few minutes. When temps were the same, I netted them out of the bag and into the tank they went. They were eating within 1/2 hour. They are WC. My LFS guy is very picky about the fish he'll bring into his store to sell though, he does QT every fish for at least 2 weeks before selling and if a problem does come up, he won't sell until he's QT'd a few weeks after the problem has been fixed.

[Don Trinko]

I have the problem with neons. They look fine but 1 dies ever couple weeks.
I bought 4 cardinals for a non discus tank and they are all alive after several years. This surprized me considering the problem I have with neons and my water is alkaline. I read that very few are bred in captivity. Don T.

[Adam Robinson]

I have had the same types of issues the quality of the fish is a huge determining factor. I have done the QT tank routine as well and found it helped because if you put them directly into a show tank i find the discus stress them out big time. My .02

[silent_thunder]

Does anyone else have trouble keeping these guys alive? My tank is planted 2wpg t5 6500k my ph is 6.8 nitrites are 0 amonia is 0 nitrates around 10ppm. I could be going crazy but they seem to be droping like flies This is my second batch first batch died because of a ph spike that happened accidently 50 fish died in 3 days. I also bought the first batch like 1cm in size so I think that made the situation worse but I only spent .85/fish so i was willing to take the risk. This time i got 47 fish between .75 inch and 1.25 inches I spent 2.25/fish my water levels havent changed, but I feel like I have lost almost half I could be completly crazy I know I have found 8 definitely dead so that brings me to 39 in my atempts to count I have only reached 27 I am keeping my tank around 84 degrees because the ultimate goal is to have discus. Im not really sure what im doing wrong.


Like you, I alway had trouble keeping cardinal..that being said...the last bunch I had a not so local FS order me a dozen...and was waiting in his store when fed ex was to deliever..

I grabed the bag and drove home...acclimated them for an hour cuz I have no patience , and for the first time they are all alive and well 3 months later...

I keep the water at about 86...

I put 2 small red eruptions I bought last week in with them until my other tanks are ready...

Ain`t gonna let ANY fish eat the cards!

Theys my babies...

Good luck!

[poconogal]

I have had the same types of issues the quality of the fish is a huge determining factor. I have done the QT tank routine as well and found it helped because if you put them directly into a show tank i find the discus stress them out big time. My .02
I think that's a good point about the Discus stressing them, on top of the stress of being placed in a new tank. When I bought my Cards, I put them directly into the main tank, but there were no other fish in there yet. They were the only fish in the tank for about two months and they became the bosses of the tank, and very comfortable. After I bought some Discus for that tank and put them in after QT, the Cards were nervous, but not as much as they'd have been if they were just placed in the tank.

[Scribbles]

I pretty much did the same thing after failures with cardinals. They are such little fish and go through so much stress during import that they have few reserves left when they arrive. My current ones are CB that I acclimated for 2+ hours before putting them in the tank by themselves. Four months later I added discus and everyone is healthy and happy. When I get a bigger tank I think that I will let the cardinals have it to themselves for a few days before moving the discus so that they can explore in peace.

Chris

[Corona]

From my experience, it depends on the LFS's acclimation and care of the cardinal tetras. I bought from various LFS and many die very easily. I live in Northern CA. Although it is about a 45 minute drive to San Francisco, the one place that I buy cardinals that are consistently trouble free is at Ocean Aquarium at 120 Cedar St, San Francisco, CA. They are a little hole in the wall; but, they know fish (they don't carry Discus though).

[dogwood]

Get rummy nose, I find them hardier stay closer together and you get a red nose alarm indicator of your water quality.

bright red nose = good
faint red \ pink = bad

great looking fish also.