Neon tetras

[sieski]

Ok I've had this tank for a week and I have NEVER seen the neon tetras come up for food and it's sort of worrying me now. Would sinking pellets be better for them?

 

[Liquid_Pyro]

i am sure they will be fine give them some time

 

[TheNamelessPoet]

my new ones I just got were VERY skittish... been 2 day and they havent come up... they may just be eating it once it falls. what I did to draw them out was to put VERY tall plants in teh tank

 

[meegosh]

Give them some time but be aware of the fact that the neon stock at the local stores are not of the best quality. I had 10 at one point, three died within 24hrs. Roughly a year and a half later, I have three.

They can be rather finicky with more active or larger fish when it comes time to eat. Mine usually stay at the bottom and wait for some flake to fall to them. They also pick through the Java Moss and get the food that is stuck in it.

 

[sieski]

my new ones I just got were VERY skittish... been 2 day and they havent come up... they may just be eating it once it falls. what I did to draw them out was to put VERY tall plants in teh tank

Well they aren't new technically. They came with the tank a complete setup as to say! But I'll keep an eye on falling food next time and see if they go for it then.

Theres 5 of them I can only count 4 but I know he's hiding some where. Enough the "school"? I wondered if there wasn't enough and maybe that was making them stressed sad?

 

[meegosh]

I had four at one point and added six more. They definitely stuck together a lot more once I upped the number of them. They were always close together and had their own spot at the bottom right side of the 30g long. Eventually, around six months after adding the six, they started to die off. Like I said before, I have three left now... one and a half years later. The remaining three are huge compared to the ones you see in fish stores.

 

[neurotik]

I set a little 12 gallon tank up for my mom a few months back and got her a school of neon tetras to go in it and they act the same way even after all of this time. They seem to prefer hanging out together near the lower part of the tank, and even when she feeds them they typically just wait for the flakes to begin sinking to the bottom and then they nibble at them. I actually told her to just start pushing the flakes down through the surface of the water so that when she feeds them she can get the food to them right away and make sure they're eating it so she does not accidentally put too much in and then walk away because she doesn't want to wait for it to sink down to them and end up overfeeding them.

They've been doing pretty well for almost six months now, so I'd assume there is nothing seriously wrong with them.

 

[Rikesh]

Try feeding freeze dried blood worms. Mine go crazy with that food
That's just to make them know that you're giving something tasty, don't forget to vary your food.

 

[neurotik]

Hmm, I never thought to try and give them freeze dried blood worms. I have some so I'll try tomorrow. I always figured the neons would be a bit too small to eat the blood worms unless I broke them up into tiny pieces.

 

[Rikesh]

Hmm, I never thought to try and give them freeze dried blood worms. I have some so I'll try tomorrow. I always figured the neons would be a bit too small to eat the blood worms unless I broke them up into tiny pieces.

Neon too small? Blood worms are quite small too. They are just another type of mosquito larvae.

 

[hacket]

Just make sure you don't over feed them, thinking that they aren't eating. Neons are extremely sensitive!

 

[meegosh]

Yeah if I could do it all over again I would've went with Cardinal tetras instead. They are larger and seem to be less sensitive. I've also heard they acclimate a lot better than neons.