Success with cardinals

[Eoin]

I have been trying for some time to get my cardinal tetras to come out from hiding and swim in the open, with no success. I changed from fake to live plants, purchased testing kits to monitor the water conditions, and purchased other fish that I was told would socialize well with cardinals.

I currently have a 20 gallon tank with 6 cardinals, 2 columbian tetras, 1 silver tip cardinal, 1 male dwarf gourami and a handful of ghost shrimp. The cardinals look quite healthy, they just don’t seem to want to come out. I have read up on the basic behaviour of cardinals, and the kinds of conditions the like, but that doesn't seem to have helped.

I have seen many pictures of tanks with cardinals that are swimming out in the open. Is there anyone here who has had success in getting their cardinals to come out? What suggestions might you have for me? I have been trying to make this work for several years with no success. This is getting frustrating.

 

[lmw80]

My first though would be the male gourami. Male gouramis can be very intimidating and if he intimidated them even once, they may be traumatized...does he swim by their hiding spot a lot? Or poke his head into it at all?

 

[Menagerie]

I'm not a cardinal keeper, but I think the bigger their school is, the safer they will feel. Personally, I would do a planted tank of just cardinals (10-15) and keep up with water changes.

 

[TankGirl]

When I kept cardinals with a dwarf gourami, I never saw the cardinals - they would barely come out to eat! When I took them out of that tank they suddenly started swimming about and schooling through the spray bar current - I was thrilled, and though it may have been a coincidence, I am positive it was the dwarf gourami keeping them in hiding (I saw no real aggression on his part, but I am sure his presence intimidated them).

Good luck - one of my favorite fishes!

 

[docrak]

If your Columbian tetras are bigger than an inch and a half that may also be your problem. U used to have some Columbians in with some small Neons and they were pretty aggressive towards them. The Neons ended up schooling in a corner until I removed the Columbians.

I know a few people with Cardinals where that’s the only fish they put in there. There is a guy here locally that has a 200 gallon setup with over 300 cardinals in it. It's a pretty awesome site seeing a school that big swim around.

 

[Menagerie]

I know a few people with Cardinals where that’s the only fish they put in there. There is a guy here locally that has a 200 gallon setup with over 300 cardinals in it. It's a pretty awesome site seeing a school that big swim around.

Please get a pic if you can!

 

[Eoin]

Cheers. I’ll try taking out the other fish, and purchasing some more cardinals. It could be a wait until the lfs gets in more cardinals, but I will let you know how things turn out when they do.

Docrak, I second that request for pictures of those cardinals.

 

[kenor33]

holy cow, a school of 300 cardinals 8O I wanna see that. Eoin I don't keep cardinals but I keep neons and I know the larger the school the happier they are. Of course mine are little bullies, when it's feeding time they push their way to the top and dodge around the other fish to get their share( their so cool )

 

[shawmutt]

The only way my cardinals ever came out was if I sat really still for about 10 minutes in front of the tank. If anyone or anything made any kind of movement they would get spooked and I'd have to start all over. I had a black background on the sides and back of the tank and tons of hiding places (the tank's in my gallery). The cardinals that you see "out in the open" probably lack sufficient hiding places and are stressful because of it. You can also tell how stressed a cardinal is by how tightly they school--the tighter the school the more stressed they are. Stress, as you probably already know, can lead to illness and death.