Help me decide how many neon tetras this tank can support?

[Johnny Tuttle]

When I was a kid doing tanks, neons were tough. That just doesn't seem true anymore. I tried to get my neons the other day, too, and my LFS had them pulled from sale because of neon tetra disease.

I'm switching to a live bearer tank exclusively now, by the by.

 

[Purrbox]

Unfortunately many fish once they become highly popular are overbred, often by breeders that don't know or don't care about anything but selling in high numbers. This leads to the decline of the quality of the fish and can make it difficult to find hardy specimens. It's very similiar to how puppy mills breed popular dog breeds.

 

[korith]

So basically inbreeding from the genes they have in their fish farms, and not introducing any new genes into the mix. Makes sense.

 

[korith]

Well fish are doing fine. I was at petco buying more substrate for another tank and saw they were having that 5 for 5 sale again. So I bought another 5 neons. They all seem to be doing well. Water paramenters are good.

Total fish count is at
9 black neons
13 neons (including the 5 added in today)
5 shiny gold tetra (friend possibly taking these off my hands)

The tank is heavily planted, and I'm amazed at how quickly the hornwort was growing. I had to cut it down a bit tonight, was quickly overtakin the tank!

Oh the petco sale I think is till oct 18, not as many fish on sale this time though, think it was only 5 or 6 different types that were on the 5 for 5 sale.

I wasn't ready to upgrade the lighting yet, so I just replaced the flourescent tube that was in it with one that was better for plants. For a 20g Tall tank how much wpg should I be trying for? I mainly only have low light plants and amazon sword, which is doing alright.

 

[Purrbox]

The amount of light that you need, depends on your goals. If you want to stick to a lower light aquarium with minimal maintenance, aim for 20-40 watts. If you want to get into CO2 and ferts and be able to grow most any plant you choose, then shoot for some where from 60-80 watts.

 

[bluerose]

does petco have Glolights too?

I'm considering getting a few more so I have an actual school of tetras... and as I'm a broke college student $5 for 5 sounds good!!

 

[RJRofFL]

Hey Korith.

Just a side note here. And this is purely for aesthetic reasons.

It is truly a sight to see a large school of neon tetras schooling. Some folks prefer to mix cardinals with the neons, but I have found when viewing them, our eyes seem to focus on seeing the differences, whereby if all are the same, it's a more impressive sight. Just food for thought.

Bear in mind also that "schooling" is somewhat of a "defense tactic" i.e. the strength in numbers theroy. So they all may not school 100% of the time.

Good luck.

Bob

P.S. If you really want an impressive sight, add a few LED "moon" type lights and it will be brilliant when they swim by them.

 

[korith]

does petco have Glolights too?

I'm considering getting a few more so I have an actual school of tetras... and as I'm a broke college student $5 for 5 sounds good!!

Hi ya they do, I can't remember if they were on the 5 for 5 thing or not though, couldn't hurt to look to check.

 

[korith]

Hey Korith.

Just a side note here. And this is purely for aesthetic reasons.

It is truly a sight to see a large school of neon tetras schooling. Some folks prefer to mix cardinals with the neons, but I have found when viewing them, our eyes seem to focus on seeing the differences, whereby if all are the same, it's a more impressive sight. Just food for thought.

Bear in mind also that "schooling" is somewhat of a "defense tactic" i.e. the strength in numbers theroy. So they all may not school 100% of the time.

Good luck.

Bob

P.S. If you really want an impressive sight, add a few LED "moon" type lights and it will be brilliant when they swim by them.

Yep I've noticed they tend to school more when something surprises them, like someone approaching the tank, or when the lights flicker on. Usually they tend to just hang out in small groups. Hmm moon lights, will see about those, I actually have a bag of various colored leds.

 

[korith]

The amount of light that you need, depends on your goals. If you want to stick to a lower light aquarium with minimal maintenance, aim for 20-40 watts. If you want to get into CO2 and ferts and be able to grow most any plant you choose, then shoot for some where from 60-80 watts.

Thanks that gives me an idea of what I should look for. Might upgrade lighting in a few months, not sure if i want to get into co2 and all that at the moment, but who knows.

Thanks for the advice people!