Cardinals

[nero]

Hi everyone,
WEll.... our 90L tank just finished its cycle (yay!) , so we moved the 4 zebra danios from the old 28L tank to the new one. They are now seriously hyperactive fish. But my question is, the 5 cardinal tetras we have in the smaller tank are just hanging round the bottom of the tank, not doing much. I suppose compared to the zebras they are less active. So my question is, if we get more cardinals, will the action pick up in there a bit, or will they all still slink around the bottom of the tank? Its just that at the moment it doesnt even look like there are any fish in there!

 

[Phantom Thief]

Thats strange. I have 4 cardinals, and my never even go to the bottom of the tank. Sounds like something is wrong here... are they gasping or breathing heavily?

P.T.

 

[luxum]

Mine hang out mainly at the bottom of the tank too, picking at the gravel for missed bits of food. They do swim around some but they don't like the upper levels of the tank. My tank is really shallow though, might be related. I noticed mine came forward a lot more after i added some floating plants, they feel more secure in the shade.

 

[tstenback]

Right on luxum. Cardinals do much better in dim lighting. THey should spend most of their time in the middle/bottom of the tank but should definitely be active. loafing around is not what cardinals do often. at the same time they are not speed demons either but are constantly moving and searching. HTH

 

[luxum]

Well compared to danios, just about any other fish ~appears~ to be loafing!

 

[nirvanarama]

cardnials arent the most hyper active of fish. have u jus bought them or moved them from another tank? if so, they might be a bit shy, stressed. try adding some kind of "relaxant" for fish, such as stress coat

HTH

 

[nero]

Oo, hi everyone! Sorry, I usually post in the general forum, so im not used to such a polite and enthusiastic response!
Well, heres what is happening:
The cardinals i think were a bit stressed after we swapped the zebras from the tank (have you every tried to net zebras with a small net! sheesh!) Anyway, they used to have to come to the surface to feed, otherwise the zebras ate it all, and there was none left. Now they wait for the food to come to them.
Also, it is a very low light tank, we just have a 20w halogen pointed at it for a few hours a day. nice yellowey kinda effect.
Anyway, we bought 6 harlequin rasboras today, and they are much more active in the top part of the tank, and school nicely, and the cardinals are slightly more active now as well. They werent gasping or anything like that. So all in all the tank is more distributed now. Looks good.
thanks for the feedback!