queijoman

My situation is -- I converted my tank recently to el natural about a month ago. At first everything was fine. After a month I added 10 neon tetras and 4 angelfish because there was a local sale, and ever since then I have been having massive neon death. I have since purchased 5 more. Today I only have two living neon tetras. (I started out with 2, so now I am back to what I had in the beginning, but not the same 2 fish I had before.)

I haven't had anything else die, just neons, so I was wondering if anyone else has had any problems with having neons in an immature el-natural tank???

Here are my specs:
30 gal.
HOB filter with sponge media only (I had carbon for the first month)
3 consecutive 5 gallon (~15%) water changes 1X per week
Plants:
Mixed Fast and Slow growers.
No ferts, still using diy co2 w/ hagen ladder
~1 hour of direct sunlight per day w/ ~7 hours of 55W CF lighting
Fish: 1 small pleco, 1 guppy, 2 medium size rainbowfish, 4 small angelfish, 3 corys, 4 ottos, 4 khuli loaches, 1 swordtail.

aquabillpers

Most neon tetras in fish shops come from southeast Asia, where they are produced by the millions. The ones that are usually offered for sale at low prices are tiny and usually less than 2 or 3 months old. They have already passed through several sets of hands by the time we see them. They are not strong fish and poor bets for survival.

Larger neons cost more but they are more likely to survive. They still are somewhat picky about water quality.

Good luck!

Bill

chinton

I am in the same boat with my neons. My 10G NPT has been up and running about a month now. 5days after the plants were settled in, I decided to stock.

I added 5 black neon tetras from Petco. The next morning I was down to 4, but couldnt find the dead one. I had seen a double-tail betta i wanted the same night as i purchased the neons so i went back and got him the day i noticed one fish missing.

For the next couple of days, I had 1 neon die each night until I had only 1 and the betta.

yesterday I went back and got 5 regular neon tetras (red/blue) to try and increase the bio load. About 2 hrs after introducing the new fish, 1 died...

I woke up this morning and found another one dead and now as I watch the tank a 3rd is bobbing around the top.

The betta, 2 remainng neon tetras, and 1 black neon tetra appear to be perfectly fine as they swim around the tank.

I tested my water parameters after each death. PH remains a constant 7.2 while nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia are all 0ppm

firefiend

Neons are not a hardy fish. Finding a healthy stock is nearly impossible in a LFS. This is why most places do not warranty them.

They just die for seemingly no reason at all.

/shrug

bartoli

I would go as far as saying that neon tetra is delicate. But it is also the most playful fish that I know of. When neon tetras play, the tank lights up!

When introducing neon tetras to a tank, I typically drip assimilate a couple hours (at the rate of two-drop per second) before moving them to the tank.

While neon tetras survive pH of above 7, I have much better outcome when pH is around 6. Thus, in my Walstad-tank with only neon tetras, I use pressurized CO2.

Neon tetras are easily stressed. But when they are in a tank all by themselves, they feel secure and tend to play a lot.

chinton

I think my neons may have also died due to lack of oxygen @ night. Yesterday morning the last one was gasping at the surface but as the tank started to get sunlight it started swimming more actively and returned to normal.

This morning i found it dead. im thinking about running a small internal filter w/ venturi @ during the night to keep things oxygenated.

How my black neon tetra learned to adapt to the conditions I do not know (unless firefiend is correct and I got lucky).

My next try is going to be harlequin rasboras as im reading they are much hardier

aquabillpers

Queijoman,

I don't think that a lack of oxygen is killing your fish. Your DIY CO2 doesn't produce enough to cause problems, and the other fish seem to be doing OK. The HOB filter probably causes enough surface agitation to remedy any oxygen deficiency, if there is one.

I still think the neons were weak when you got them. But if you see symptoms in the other fish, you should look further.

BTW, any new fish is a potential source of disease. They should be quarantined for several weeks before they are added to an existing tank.

Bill

griffin7882

if they're in with a betta, that might also cause issues as the betta is likely to harass the neons

Dustymac

I know they're pretty, but according to Diana's book, most plants do better with hard water and a ph above 7. That's just the opposite from the optimum conditions for neons. That's why I don't even try neons in my NPTs.

If you have to get your fish from the LFS, which is always a crapshoot, you might try bloodfins, scissortails or black-lined tetras. My daughter brought home 6 of the latter from Walmart one night, and they're all doing fine after nearly two years. Go figure...

Jim

ItsDubC

bartoli brought up a good point; How are you acclimating these tetras? I do something similar to the drip method over the course of about an hour for small fish. All of the ember tetras I got from Petsmart about 6 months ago are alive and well in my 10g NPT having been introduced in this way.