Neon Tetra deaths

[TomK2]

Well, I have a 10 gal tank, been cycled for over 6 weeks, with plants - anacharis, crypt, and anubia, and a small piece of driftwood. Aquaclear mini filter, temp of 78 degrees. pH of 7.6, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate between 5 and 10 ppm, probably closer to 10 (dang color charts!).

I took out my 3 danios that did seeded cycle duty 7 weeks ago, and put in 6 jumbo neon tetras about 5 days ago. Day one, one dead tetra. day three, another dead tetra. day four, another dead tetra, and day five, two dead tetras. Just one little dude left now. They were all were swimming actively and eating the day prior to going belly-up. Fed crushed flakes, and frozen baby brine shrimp on occasion. The only thing I see that is puzzling is an oily sheen on the surface of the water, don't know what it is. Thought perhaps it was a residual from Flourish added a week or so ago.

Any ideas? are the neon tetras just that touchy and sensative? I haven't tried to keep them in decades, and didn't have much luck with them back then, thought a little planted one species tank would be ideal for them.

edit: saw the sticky profile. I have the neon tetras, not the cardinal tetras.

 

[Devilishturtles]

It could be the pH. Do you know the pH they came from? They prefer very soft water (pH below 6.5) ideally.

Sorry to hear about the lil' guys and gals.

 

[TomK2]

They were bought from LFS, water paremeters at the LFS are the same pH, hardness. Same water supply, in fact. I looked up the neon tetra profile, and the aquarium hobby fish are supposed to do OK at this range of pH. I am puzzled that they look fine one day, are dead the next. I don't have c02, use a low light tank (1.5W/Gal),and doubt the tank 02 level goes down at night that much, since the zebra danios did fine in there. Guess I will try another batch tomorrow. If they doesn't work out, then I don't know whats up.

 

[rich311k]

Neons can be very sensative. I have read that they are a lot of bad strains of them out there. To much inbreeding.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Dang. I suppose you could have gotten a bad batch of fish too. Good luck next time.

Will your LFS refund any of your money on the other batch?

 

[TomK2]

Will your LFS refund any of your money on the other batch?

They would, if I had saved all the corpses and brought in a water sample for them to test. I am still trying to decide if I will buy again there, since I get a little discount, or try a different LFS and see if it goes better.

 

[gheitman]

All of your parameters seem fine so I don't see any obvious problems. Neon tetras aren't as touchy as some other species (i.e. cardinal tetras) but you never can tell. Do you know how recently your LFS got your fish in? It is possible that they hadn't recovered from the stress of being transported.

 

[TomK2]

Do you know how recently your LFS got your fish in?

No, but I think I will ask next time. At least the last one was still alive this morning.

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

To get rid of the oily sheen I lower the water level so the water from the filter falls through the surface.

 

[TomK2]

I have been skimming the surface during water changes. I still don't know what it is from. Still got one neon alive, think I will buy some buddies tommorow. Hope it works out better this time.