Neon tetra woes...

[bluerose]

After losing all but one neon tetra over the summer and quarantining the last tetra for a month to see if it would kick the bucket too, I decided to start restocking with 3 more tetras, bought this afternoon.

One's already dead and mostly taken care of courtesy of my amano shrimp. Another is pale, swimming weakly and gasping near the surface. The third is chumming around with my original tetra quite like nothing's wrong.

The sickly one is currently separated in a tupperware floating on the surface of the tank (washed and well rinsed in dechlor'd water). It looks a little less pale now that it's out of the current, but is still gasping.

Ammonia and nitrite are 0 (no reason to assume nitrate is a problem-- until now the tank has had 1 tetra and 4 shrimp and plenty of plants to keep the water clean).

I'll admit I didn't drip acclimate, but I did the lazy aquarist's acclimation (adding small amounts of water every 10 mins or so until it's mostly new water) and I added only a little bit of the resulting water when adding the fish (my net has run away). pH isn't much different from the store as in my tank.

At the store the fish were brightly colored, not terribly stressed, not exceedingly overstocked, and all were swimming strongly... so I dunno. Bad luck I guess?

Any suggestions for what to do with the sickly neon if it survives? I have a female betta that I was planning on adding to the tank as soon as the tetras settled in...

(This is a 5gal hex-- somewhat newly set up, but seeded from a healthy tank.)

 

[Blueiz]

Tetras aren't what they used to be in quality.

Your water may be really different than the pet stores water. I don't think the fish are diseases if they were fine in the store and are having great trouble only a short time after going in your tank.

I use my hand to get the fish out of the bag instead of a net, and drop them in the tank. You can try this method, that way you won't be adding store water to your tank. I prefer this method because it's gentler on the fish.

 

[meegosh]

I second that, neons are not what they used to be. I started with 5 a long time ago, added 5 more and three years later all I have is 2 left. They are larger and more colorful than any other neons I've seen. Almost as big as cardinals. I think it is the luck of the draw with neons lately.

I acclimate mine the same way you do, float a bag in the water for 10 mins, add a cup or so of water, wait 10 mins, add another cup, wait 10 mins and then net them out and put them in the tank.

 

[bluerose]

The other tetra died overnight. Harrumph. (It was unable to stay upright-- would swim, then flop over on its side or even upside-down before righting itself slowly.)

The third seems to be OK still-- not hanging out with the other tetra but there are only 2 now.

Don't know if I should try to get a couple of more tetras (this time from the $$ fish store with better stock...) before adding the betta? or just put her in? She's in a pretty small container still.

 

[dkpate]

I would wait to add the betta, just in case the tetras come with something like ich.

 

[bluerose]

I watched the other tetras closely; they're both looking quite vibrant and happy, no flashing, loss of appetite. Since the betta was in a pretty small container and can easily tolerate high temps if needed, I added her earlier today. She's quite a happy camper (although she will probably be the end of my trumpet snails, sigh).

It's pretty funny having a betta that's smaller than my (huge) female amano shrimp, though.

 

[dkpate]

My bettas leave my MTS alone, no problem.

 

[bluerose]

So did my last girl-- but this one has already attacked two snails (and they haven't shown themselves again yet-- one is half out of the shell).

Ah well... I had hundreds in the last tank, and they were all over the walls all the time. I don't mind them in the substrate, but they were getting into the filter... good fun taking out the sponges to rinse them

 

[dkpate]

Wow! Your MTS are crazy lol!!! Mine parade up the glass in groups of like 50, but never in the filter!

 

[meegosh]

I'd keep a close eye on the betta over the next few days. Just as a precaution. It could be that you just got some weak fish and there is nothing wrong with your tank, or the other 2 neons but only time will tell.

Never knew bettas would eat snails. I recently swapped my substrate in my 30g to sand and I put my ~3.5" clown loach in my 10g temporarily while I changed things around. I think I only have about 3, dime sized MTS left. He probably ate more than 20 snails, it took me a good couple minutes to scoop up all the empty shells on the bottom of the tank.