PNWaquarist
Aquarium Advice Addict
I wanted a few more Cardinal Tetras for my display tank (and I literally only have room for a few more), so I purchased three at the LFS about four weeks ago and stuck them in my freshly-cycled 10 gallon quarantine tank. I knew that they'd be at least somewhat stressed due to insufficient shoaling numbers, so I provided them with four fake plants, a medium-sized piece of driftwood, a small cave, a dozen or so pieces of river rock, and I placed a black piece of poster board under the bottom of the tank. I also make sure that my cats don't bother them, either by shutting them out of the room or placing a towel over the tank. I've been feeding them NLS 0.5 mm sinking pellets and NLS Optimum flakes, doing weekly 50% WCs, and keeping the tank at 80 F. Tank pH is ~7.4.
Anyway, they've been even more stressed than I anticipated. When I approach the tank, they attempt to hide under the cave and often play dead. Anyway, I had only noticed two of them swimming around in the tank over the past week. Uh-oh. So before doing my weekly WC this evening, I moved around some of the decor and found what looked like a badly-decomposed fish (mostly skeleton at the point). More debris than usual in the tank as well. Yuck. After doing the WC, I added a double-dose of prime and, an hour later, tested the tank water. No ammonia, no nitrites, and maybe 2-3 ppm nitrates.
I turned out the room lights and turned on the aquarium lights, which coaxed the two remaining fish to come out. They're both small and thin, as they were when I purchased them, but showed no signs of disease. So I'm pretty sure that the other one died of stress. I hope that the two survivors can make it through the next two weeks.
Anyway, they've been even more stressed than I anticipated. When I approach the tank, they attempt to hide under the cave and often play dead. Anyway, I had only noticed two of them swimming around in the tank over the past week. Uh-oh. So before doing my weekly WC this evening, I moved around some of the decor and found what looked like a badly-decomposed fish (mostly skeleton at the point). More debris than usual in the tank as well. Yuck. After doing the WC, I added a double-dose of prime and, an hour later, tested the tank water. No ammonia, no nitrites, and maybe 2-3 ppm nitrates.
I turned out the room lights and turned on the aquarium lights, which coaxed the two remaining fish to come out. They're both small and thin, as they were when I purchased them, but showed no signs of disease. So I'm pretty sure that the other one died of stress. I hope that the two survivors can make it through the next two weeks.
