Some cardinals died, now i have 3 on their own! Will they shoal with zebra dannios?

[SENETOR]

Hey, Some of the weaker cardinal tetra i got died from stress and fungus and i am down to 3. I started treating with melafix and no more fish have died! There are only 3 fish in the tank now and this must be very stressful for them. You have to have 5 zebras, you have to have 5 cardinals. Could I have 3 and 3 or 3 and 2?

Also when feeding fish do they go straight for the food? My tetras never really went for it. 1 or 2 would eventually have a nibble after a while and some would take a bit as it fell to the substrate. (I am using flake). The instructions say that the fish get to eat as much as they can in 2 mins. This gives me the impression that they are supposed to be jumping out of the tank for it, having a frenzy? Mine may take a bite aftrer 5 mins.

Also my fish just go from back corner to back corner?

Thankyou

PS- Tank is new from weekend, I cycled it, got filter, heater.

 

[guppygirl09169]

i used to have 3 danios and a small school or fancy guppies 5 or 6 they never had any interest in shoaling with them. Cardinal tetras should also be in groups 6 at minimum. Tetras also usually are not as enthusiastic about food either so thats pretty normal. With fish it varies about their eating habits too, dont listen to the instructions on the can, feeding a small amount at a few set times during the day should help too. My gourami likes to eat food thats floating around and will wait too. What i would do is wait a little while for your tank to get back into order and then get your tetra number up to six. hope that helps!

 

[Laser]

Cardinals are pretty fragile... Sometimes they seem to die for no reason at all. I had a good group of 10 once that lived for quite a time... Went a year and half without having a single one die. I believe I have read they only live a year on average in captivity. In a school of that size they loved to eat and felt safe to come out of hiding with the corys out and about.

 

[LyndaB]

PS- Tank is new from weekend, I cycled it, got filter, heater.

How did you cycle this tank? Typically, cycling takes 4-6 weeks.

What are your readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

Tetras should be kept in schools of 6, 8 is better and you must treat each species as its own school.

Don't put any new fish in here until this tank is cycled.

Your fish will not exhibit typical behavior with eating, etc., while they are in a toxic environment.

 

[SENETOR]

Lynda B I cycled it with filter running and making weekly water changes for about a month beforehand.

 

[Super_Blueberry]

Lynda B I cycled it with filter running and making weekly water changes for about a month beforehand.

We're you dosing ammonia for that month? Without a source of ammonia, either from a bottle or from the fish, then there wasn't any cycling happening.

 

[LyndaB]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...started-check-out-these-resources-154837.html

this might help