Neons.

[Shope.hannah]

Ok so I have posted before on my neon tragedy. But, the last set I got I only lost one. My other two have done wonderful. So after a few weeks I get 4 more. I take the advice from here and do the better acclimation process. I floated them for 45 minutes. Them moved them to a bowl where I couldn't drip but barely poured a little tad in the bowl every 10 min. Until I had added a full Dixie cup of tank water in. I netted them and placed them in the tank. Within 10 min one was dead. Then one would start acting the same way. It died. Then the next one did it. It was like a chain reaction waiting until one died to start another one. I have one out of the four left. It's tiny. Must be a baby. Smallest out of the bunch. It's fine but it looks poor in a way. But not acting like the others so far. What in the world is the problem? I will say the one set that I still have two out of I got from a different store than these last 4. But, they looked healthy as could be. I observed them a long time before buying. No signs of anything.

 

[aquarium_Guru]

Have you tested your water

 

[Shope.hannah]

Yes. It's fine and the same as always. All my other fish are fine

 

[shawnleon]

It seems like they're being shocked by a difference between your and the store tanks. I experienced similar results with some rummynose tetra once, so I went to a very slow acclimation process. Float the bag in the tank for the entire process so the temperature remains the same. Give them 15-20 mins to adjust temp wise, then add water to the original bag until it is twice as full, waiting 15 or so minutes between each add. Unless the bowl is heated to the same temp as your main tank, maybe that's part of the problem. You trust the quality of the stock you're buying?

 

[Coyne]

It's a good idea to remove a little bit of the store's water before adding a little bit of your tank's water.

 

[Shope.hannah]

The temperature might have been the problem but I doubt it. I floated the bag for 45 minutes. The only reason I poured them in the bowl was because I have trouble opening the bag and slowly filling it without them spilling out into the tank releasing the stores water... The room was about 74 degrees where my water was more like 76 77. So maybe? But I floated them for a long time and then the bucket for about the same amount of time which was slowly added to mostly tank water which would have been the same temp? Idk. So confused. I have not had any good experiences with neons. Other than my last set where two out of three lived. And even then, the one that died lived overnight. These were dead within minutes.

 

[Shope.hannah]

Maybe I should have took out some of the store water but I didn't because I didn't want I shock them with nothing but the tank water.

 

[Shope.hannah]

So, what is another good schooling small fish? I might just rehome the ones I have, and get a whole other school of a different fish

 

[Rivercats]

What are your exact readings for nitrates and ph?

 

[JacobThomson]

I've never had any luck with neons, they're hard to keep IMO.

 

[Shope.hannah]

That's what I'm thinking! And my nitrite is 0

 

[Shope.hannah]

Sorry. My nitrates are like between 0-20. Pretty low I guess. But I didn't think that was harmful?

 

[Rivercats]

Yes high levels of nitrates are harmful but as long as levels are no higher than 20ppms they are fine. If the tank is planted you don't want 0 nitrates. Also what is your ph?

Some fish, especially ones like cardinal, rummynose, and neon tetras tend to be delicate and are often hard to acclimate. Understand that the majority of these fish are wild caught. They get caught, and go from catcher to broker, to dealer, and so on, each time begin shipped, held in holding tanks, in a variety of water, until they finally make it to a store. Then we buy them and once again have to move them to another system with different water. Only the strongest fish make it though this process but often times by the time they get to consumers their immune systems are weak and they expire. I'm often amazed any fish live through the process. IMO these fish also do much better if added into a tank that is a minimum of at least 4 months old, mature and stabilized.

 

[Scouser]

I've never had any luck with neons, they're hard to keep IMO.

It's down to the quality of the stock really.

They can be great, or all of them can be really bad :/

 

[JacobThomson]

It's down to the quality of the stock really.

They can be great, or all of them can be really bad :/

Yeah! I decided to dodge them the last time I got stock, decided to get Rummynose tetras instead!

 

[Scouser]

Yeah! I decided to dodge them the last time I got stock, decided to get Rummynose tetras instead!

Rummy's are a great choice.

I prefer penguin now, and my angel doesn't eat em so it's win win

 

[JacobThomson]

Rummy's are a great choice.

I prefer penguin now, and my angel doesn't eat em so it's win win

I love my rummys, I picked up 5! I don't own any angel so for now my rummys are all good

 

[ArtistGardener]

Something just doesn't seem right about this whole scenario. For fish to die so suddenly it has to be a major shock of some type--pH, temp, water quality. I think you are still not doing a slow enough acclimatization. Ask the seller what water they have in the tanks (conditioned tap, half R.O., pH, etc). If your own parameters are vastly different, you will need to do a very slow drip process (or other slow transfer). In any case, the process should take several hours. First, make sure your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are within safe numbers (0, 0, <20) in your quarantine tank/main tank.

I haven't lost any neons and my tank at home is 8.0+ pH while the store's is closer to 7.4 because they use over half R.O. water for certain sensitive fish. When I bring fish home, I gently remove about half of the store water (do this over a clean bucket in case a fish escapes!) gently tip the bag and fish into a clean, clear storage container about 6 x 8 x 2" deep so that it is about an inch or so deep. I take the top off my quarantine tank (no lights or Versa-Top, etc), and float the container for about 15 minutes. Every 15 minutes thereafter I use an eye-dropper or turkey baster to squirt in a little tank water. As the water level in the container gets deep, take a few squirts out of it so you are very, very slowly swapping out old for new. It sometimes takes two, three, or even four hours to do this process. After several hours, gently tip the container into the water. The temp and conditions should now be the same.

 

[Scouser]

It's a widely known fact that neons can die unexpectedly.

I've had neons a few times and I've had 3 from a batch of 20 (stocking a friends tank, bought from a healthy tank bred stock) die without reason.

No high or vastly swinging levels, no temp shock of any fish to stress them.

Sometimes they're just weak fish.

 

[JacobThomson]

It's a widely known fact that neons can die unexpectedly.

I've had neons a few times and I've had 3 from a batch of 20 (stocking a friends tank, bought from a healthy tank bred stock) die without reason.

No high or vastly swinging levels, no temp shock of any fish to stress them.

Sometimes they're just weak fish.

Yeah they are just generally weak fish, probably due to their tiny size!