Jallen
Fishaholic
Interestingly, I have not had a single loss of a cardinal tetra yet. I have had them one month now, 12 of them in a 30 gallon tank with an angel fish, a dwarf gourami (which i bought at the same time as them), 6 kuhli loaches, a bristlenose pleco, a flower shrimp, and 5 glass bloodfin tetras, which were actually only bought last sunday.
The tank wasn't fishless cycled, in fact I just put in 2 angelfish and 5 guppies (3 guppies murdered by angel fish, other 2 survived, are in coldwater tank, 1 of the angelfish in tiger barb tank - the evil one) and there were no stress related deaths.
I don't know whether its worth looking into, but I have really hard water (we had a kettle a week and you could see limescale on the see through side easily), the pH is about 7.5, and I keep the water at 27C.
Perhaps it's just luck, but I find it interesting that I've read that they like soft and acidic water, yet I've given them hard, alkaline water after 2 weeks of setting up the tank with no losses for a month of having them. To be honest, it's looking pretty hit or miss to me right now, I think that the main reason for loss is the capture methods, it may be that these are captured in a good way, not harmful to the fish (plus perhaps cardinals are more hardy because they are wild caught and not captive bred like neons?)
Oh yeah, one side is densely planted with tall plants and amazon sword, fenced off with a bit of wood allowing for a very secure hiding or sleeping place.
Just thought I'd share this, as it seems to be successful.
The tank wasn't fishless cycled, in fact I just put in 2 angelfish and 5 guppies (3 guppies murdered by angel fish, other 2 survived, are in coldwater tank, 1 of the angelfish in tiger barb tank - the evil one) and there were no stress related deaths.
I don't know whether its worth looking into, but I have really hard water (we had a kettle a week and you could see limescale on the see through side easily), the pH is about 7.5, and I keep the water at 27C.
Perhaps it's just luck, but I find it interesting that I've read that they like soft and acidic water, yet I've given them hard, alkaline water after 2 weeks of setting up the tank with no losses for a month of having them. To be honest, it's looking pretty hit or miss to me right now, I think that the main reason for loss is the capture methods, it may be that these are captured in a good way, not harmful to the fish (plus perhaps cardinals are more hardy because they are wild caught and not captive bred like neons?)
Oh yeah, one side is densely planted with tall plants and amazon sword, fenced off with a bit of wood allowing for a very secure hiding or sleeping place.
Just thought I'd share this, as it seems to be successful.
