Neons are dying off

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I agree with above. The remaining two neons may not last long if this continues. And the pygmy cories are exposed to anything that might be present causing this so the tank should be left as is (regular water changes, regular feeding the cories) for a few weeks to see what if anything develops.

If this was a genetic issue with the neons, it won't affect other fish. If it is/was some health issue, it might affect other fish depending what it is. Wait and see is the best option now.

Concerning the neons in the store, have they all survived, or are they dying too? The store might or might not answer this, or might not be truthful. But if they do confirm that they too are losing neons, that would be something.
 
I agree with both of you. I was sort of thinking out loud. I'm not inclined to add any new fish until this gets figured out. But I wanted to see if there was an angle I was missing. These last two may survive but for all I know, they could be carriers even if they aren't affected themselves. Even if weeks or months from now they're still ok, the risk of adding new fish seems high. Then again, the others also looked fine until they weren't.
I spoke to the store yesterday and they said they would credit me. I need to call them today anyways to update them.
On the plus side, the corys seem to be doing OK. They're coming out from hiding a little more.
 
Had the same thing happen to me twice when I was trying to build up my little neon herd. In the end I opted to wait until warm weather because I found out that the fish arriving in these cold months are extra weakened. Neons are already a dicey bet due to poor breeding practices. Add the stress of the trip and handling, and you've got a recipe for disaster which you'll bash yourself for until you realize the poor fish had a slim chance to start with.

Try a different store, and also scope the place, find out when they get new deliveries, it's usually once or twice a week for most stores, be it mom n pop or chains, and check how the fish look upon arrival. Once o started doing that I saw many doing the "circle drain" swim, or the "separated from the herd" thing right off the bat. Unfortunately those are tell tale signs that those fish are not in their best shape and the trip to your home is probably their last hour on this world.
I like this advice.
I have two survivors that made it through yesterday. I think I'd like to try again with more neons but not immediately. I'll wait at least a month to see if these two are showing any signs of sickness. By then it will be early March when the weather is warming up. I'm open to waiting longer. I hate to have just these two neons not in a school but I don't want to go through all this again.
I think I have a couple of options here. The place I got them from. Maybe I can see if they would be willing to quarantine some for me for a couple of weeks before I take them home. There's another LFS I've been to. They had some nice big neons (which I think is a sign of good health). Maybe I'll use my credit from the first place to buy food or something and buy my new fish from this other place. I could talk to them and see where they get them from.
 
Might have spoke too soon. The two survivors were swimming together pretty tightly. Now I just see the one swimming by himself.
 
Might have spoke too soon. The two survivors were swimming together pretty tightly. Now I just see the one swimming by himself.
It's unnerving to see this. Sorry you're going thru it. I'd definitely ask for a credit and use it on other stuff, or wait until the better weather settles in and buy fish from there again. I've bought fish from chains and a local, hole in the wall, "dirty" lfs. I've had mixed results, but overall the lfs has more knowledge to share without pushing the sale (matter of fact after we discussed my tank he refused to sell me some ottos until I brought tank water for him to test and ensure it met the right parameters) so I trust their advice better and will get finicky fish from him, - like delicate ottos or more neons - rather than from the chains.
To the chains credit, once I learned their routine and scoped their incoming shipments a couple of times, I completed my little neon gang with fish from them, and they are all healthy to this day. As long as your other fish are OK, it is, unfortunately; just the poor way these particular fish are handled, so waiting and/or paying a little more upfront by buying from an independent lfs pays off in the long run.
 
It's unnerving to see this. Sorry you're going thru it. I'd definitely ask for a credit and use it on other stuff, or wait until the better weather settles in and buy fish from there again. I've bought fish from chains and a local, hole in the wall, "dirty" lfs. I've had mixed results, but overall the lfs has more knowledge to share without pushing the sale (matter of fact after we discussed my tank he refused to sell me some ottos until I brought tank water for him to test and ensure it met the right parameters) so I trust their advice better and will get finicky fish from him, - like delicate ottos or more neons - rather than from the chains.
To the chains credit, once I learned their routine and scoped their incoming shipments a couple of times, I completed my little neon gang with fish from them, and they are all healthy to this day. As long as your other fish are OK, it is, unfortunately; just the poor way these particular fish are handled, so waiting and/or paying a little more upfront by buying from an independent lfs pays off in the long run.
One of these days I'm going to try a strategy of going to a new fish store and playing dumb. I'll ask them questions I know the answers to just to get an idea of how credible they are.
 
One of these days I'm going to try a strategy of going to a new fish store and playing dumb. I'll ask them questions I know the answers to just to get an idea of how credible they are.
My favourite test is simply to go in and ask if can have a look at some poecilia reticulata. 9 times out of 10 they will run off to find a manager or fish expert even if I happen to be standing at the guppy tank :rofl:
 

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