Platies And Neon Tetras?

[Etrigan]

I have recently started the hobby with a 10 gallon tank.

I have 2 platies and 2 ghost shrimp. Would these get along with Neon Tetras?
Would I have enough room for 5 of them added to the rest? I like them because they would add more color to the tank and are a peaceful fish like the rest.

Any suggestions or other comments would be welcome!

Thanks!

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Etrigan and welcome to TFF!

We generally wait six months from the time a tank is first filled before introducing neon/cardinal tetras, but if a tank is nice and stable and shows good test numbers week after week you could certainly give it a go at 4 months. And yes, its a small tank but I don't see why you couldn't try a shoal of 8 in there - I've found that with neons I'd rather have the minimum shoal be a bit larger so 8 instead of 6. You could even introduce them as 5 and 5 and allow for 2 to die off in transition as I think you could handle 10 if they all live. There'd be no other room for stocking if you did this obviously.

How old is the tank and how did you cycle? Are you using liquid-based test kits?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Etrigan]

Hi and thanks for the reply.

The tank is about three weeks old. Some friends got us a boxed kit with a tank, filter, pump and other bits and pieces to set up for my daughter. We set it up and rushed a bit to put fish in it. We lost one within a couple of days but the remaining seem to be doing ok. We have some live plants as well.


As for cycle and testing kits... really have no idea about those. We got the tank before we really did much research. Our friends knew we had been wanting one and surprised us.

I'm not looking to get obsessed with this at the moment. I just want a low-key, low-maintenance experience with a few interesting fish to watch.

Also, I'm still a little unclear if the fish I already have would mix with the neons. I don't want to overstock it either. What you suggest sounds a bit much for such a small environment.

Hi Etrigan and welcome to TFF!

We generally wait six months from the time a tank is first filled before introducing neon/cardinal tetras, but if a tank is nice and stable and shows good test numbers week after week you could certainly give it a go at 4 months. And yes, its a small tank but I don't see why you couldn't try a shoal of 8 in there - I've found that with neons I'd rather have the minimum shoal be a bit larger so 8 instead of 6. You could even introduce them as 5 and 5 and allow for 2 to die off in transition as I think you could handle 10 if they all live. There'd be no other room for stocking if you did this obviously.

How old is the tank and how did you cycle? Are you using liquid-based test kits?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[james_fish]

Yeah I agree with Waterdrop.

I put Neon's in my tank reasonably earlier, but it is recommended you wait for quite a few months.

A couple of mine did die to be fair, but i still have the majority of that shoal left

 

[Deleted member 55926]

I also got 12 neons as my first fish, and 3 died within about 3 weeks. I had fishless cycled my tank for about 2 months beforehand.

I would probably wait, although I have 11 neons at the moment and they seem fine.