Acclimating Cardinal Tetras

[YaBuddyHuddie]

I'm going to be getting 8-10 of these for my 29g planted community hopefully sometime this week. I know they are supposed to be fragile and hard to keep alive. What are their ideal params? My test kit is depleted so until then I don't know what my params are but I'm doing 20-30% water changes weekly. What's the best way to add them without killing them?

 

[YaBuddyHuddie]

Until I get a new test kit, I meant to say.

 

[YaBuddyHuddie]

Well thanks guys. Lol

 

[bigbanker]

Lol.. oh well. Cardinals are known to be hardier than neons.... which is what I keep. For acclimation I slowly add tank water to the bag and then qt in my ten gallon hospital tank. I do daily water changes on that tank until they come out. Then net them out and slowly acclimate them to the main tank where the ph is a roughly 6.8-7 and nitrates are 20 or less

 

[Ljk09]

I'm going to be getting 8-10 of these for my 29g planted community hopefully sometime this week. I know they are supposed to be fragile and hard to keep alive. What are their ideal params? My test kit is depleted so until then I don't know what my params are but I'm doing 20-30% water changes weekly. What's the best way to add them without killing them?

Cardinals are more hardy than neons. They are also less likely to have Neon tetra disease (clearly) they prefer warmer water over the neons so 76-78 is ideal I think. They are extremely sensitive to poor water conditions. They like a lot plants in a tank so id definitely do live/fake plabts. they prefer acidic water between 4.0-6.0.

 

[Ljk09]

Cardinals are more hardy than neons. They are also less likely to have Neon tetra disease (clearly) they prefer warmer water over the neons so 76-78 is ideal I think. They are extremely sensitive to poor water conditions. They like a lot plants in a tank so id definitely do live/fake plabts. they prefer acidic water between 4.0-6.0.

And if you do quarantine (which you always should ) I'd at least do 14 days. I'd do 30 days for them honestly.