Cardinal Tetras and Hard water

[gar1948]

Just moved to Ohio and have very hard water. Tested GH 250-300. Will Cardinal tetras adjust to this? I know most of these fish are wild caught and come from soft water areas. What kind of softing pads can I use?
Thanks for any ideas.

 

[fort384]

I keep neon tetras, which are similar in water that is almost that hard with no issue.

 

[bs6749]

I keep neon tetras, which are similar in water that is almost that hard with no issue.

The thing is, most (over 90%) of neons are commercially raised and are already adjusted to harder water. The vast majority of cardinals (nearly all) are wild caught and that's why they aren't easy to find year round like neons. In the wild cardinals live in soft and acidic water so if may be easier to keep them alive in those conditions in your tank. Cardinals aren't as easy to breed commercially as the neons are and that's why they are almost always taken from the wild.

 

[gar1948]

Thanks for the info. Just what I thought.

 

[jim692]

Any tips on how to best introduce them to the tank?
I was thinking of getting a few also and heard you can lose some when first acclimating them to the tank.

 

[krap101]

Cardinals are actually more hardy than neons, but since they are caught in the wild, when they get to the store, they are really stressed out. Also I believe that cardinals like harder water than neons, but it is better to acclimate your fish to your water rather than using chemicals or whatever to try to reach the "ideal" parameters.

As for acclimating the fish, I usually float the bag in the water for awhile for temperature, and slowly add tank water to get the fish acclimated to the water.

 

[ScottS]

Cardinals are actually more hardy than neons, but since they are caught in the wild, when they get to the store, they are really stressed out. Also I believe that cardinals like harder water than neons, but it is better to acclimate your fish to your water rather than using chemicals or whatever to try to reach the "ideal" parameters.

That's backwards from everything I've read (other than Cardinals are more apt to be wild caught, though I understand that's quickly not becoming the case anymore).

If your tank is small enough, consider buying reverse osmosis water at a local pet store or grocery store. I've had a lot of luck doing that for my Cardinals and gotten well over 5 years of life out of them that way. The water locally is incredibly hard and didn't figure would be great for them.

 

[bs6749]

Scott, I'm not aware of any large commercial breeding operations that involve cardinal tetras. Neons yes, but cardinals are a whole other thing to try and breed, especially on a large-scale basis. It's always been this way and that's why cards continue to be taken mainly from the wild. Hopefully this will change and cards will become captive and commercially bred, but the cardinal has been in the hobby for some time and there still isn't a successful method designed for producing them commercially. I really doubt that there ever will be, but it would be very beneficial if the available cardinals were captive bred. In my opinion they are much better looking than neons.

 

[ScottS]

Scott, I'm not aware of any large commercial breeding operations that involve cardinal tetras. Neons yes, but cardinals are a whole other thing to try and breed, especially on a large-scale basis. It's always been this way and that's why cards continue to be taken mainly from the wild. Hopefully this will change and cards will become captive and commercially bred, but the cardinal has been in the hobby for some time and there still isn't a successful method designed for producing them commercially. I really doubt that there ever will be, but it would be very beneficial if the available cardinals were captive bred. In my opinion they are much better looking than neons.

I was told this by the manager/buyer of one of the larger stores in Chicago (Living Sea). Surprised me too. I think he said he was getting them through Singapore. The store has photos of them going to Asia on fish buying trips, so I tend to give them some credibility.

 

[bs6749]

Are you sure that the fish weren't purchased wild, sent to Asia, and then resold to companies in the U.S? They probably purchased hundreds of thousands of them and the person/company that sold them was probably looking to unload LARGE quantities of them rather than shipping out boxes of several hundred to a couple thousand. Asia is willing to pay more for fish too. It's extremely difficult to find excellent wild discus, since the pay so much more for them in Asia to have nice stock for breeding.

 

[ScottS]

I make no assurances, just repeating what a relatively credible person was telling me. If it were an 18 year old kid at PetCo, that'd be one thing, but this is a nice, relatively large LFS, one of the best in Chicago. He could be wrong, I don't know.