Black Neon Tetra Behavior

[confusion]

I bought 3 black neon tetras yesterday and put them into my 55G tank. The Tetras seem to be schooling with the danios - the danios seem to be taking well to their new friends as well. The tetras don't seem to be eating anything - I've been trying with flake. I noticed one went after a small bit of a flake that was sinking, so I took some more and crushed it up, and sunk it - that tetra seemed to be eating, but the others werent' interested. The other thing that I noticed is that all 3 seem to be slightly heavier than neutral bouyancy, and they have to flare their fins (and seem to open and close their mouths) about once every few seconds to stay afloat. I have no experience with the Tetras, so I don't know what is normal behavior. Should I feed them something else, or are they still too stressed to eat?

The tank now has 7 zebra danios, a common pleco and some snails. The water stats are 0,0,0 - it is cycled, but heavily planted which to my suprise seems to be absorbing all the nitrates. The Ph is in the 6.4 to 6.5 range (it's been a few weeks since I checked), but I read that neon tetras like slightly acidic water anyhow.

 

[insanityseeker]

ive got eight, and mine do hardly anything, apart from when one accientally swims directly into the line of the filter flow... heehee

 

[Thuggerz]

ive got eight, and mine do hardly anything, apart from when one accientally swims directly into the line of the filter flow... heehee

Hi, i had one black tetra but only became active when the light was turned off, so maybe they eat at night....

 

[confusion]

If I understand correctly, neons are schooling fish - and are supposed to be kept in groups of 6 or more. I wonder if the reason your lone neon tetra only was active at night was because it felt uncomfortable about being alone?

 

[insanityseeker]

If I understand correctly, neons are schooling fish - and are supposed to be kept in groups of 6 or more. I wonder if the reason your lone neon tetra only was active at night was because it felt uncomfortable about being alone?

yeah, and theyre so cheap, why on earth would you have a lone blk neon...

 

[WILDER]

Do you mean it looks like the tail is weighing them down, i would feed the fish some shelled peas.

 

[confusion]

It's not one particular part of them - they just seem to slowly sink unless they actively move their fins.

I have noticed one of them hiding out in a separate part of the tank from the rest. I know that's a sign of NTD, but it could also be a sign that the zebra danios are hard to take So far, it doesn't have any other symptoms.