# Oh no ! Dead neon tetra :(



## sondre (Jun 1, 2011)

On thursday we bought 5 neon tetras,1 of them were very shy,hiding behind rocks,plants and wasnt feeding . 

Today i found it dead .... 

So most likely the fish was sick,what are the chances of the other 4 left catching it ? 

I dont know how long the fish was dead for,i left for work last night and only just got up to find it was dead,so it could be , that it was there since last night ! I remover it now from the tank , but i am worried that it was in the water maybe for too long . 

Guys please give me some advise,should i do anything to try to save other 4 from dying or just wait and see what happens ?

Is there anything i can do to lower the chances of remaining 4 dying ???


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Could have just been stress. The thing I know about Neons/Cardinals, if they make it beyond 10 days they usually do fine. I watch new ones when I get them to look for their full colors to come in and if they do, those are the ones that usually make it and I have no problems with them. You'll see ones that the color will not be exactly right and you'll need to keep an eye on them...just in my experience.


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## sondre (Jun 1, 2011)

Only 1 has got very bright colours , hes biggest one aswell , others look like thier colours are faded ...


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## fishman81 (Jan 12, 2011)

sondre said:


> On thursday we bought 5 neon tetras,1 of them were very shy,hiding behind rocks,plants and wasnt feeding .
> 
> Today i found it dead ....
> 
> ...


Need more details on your tank to know,

size
how long cycled or is it cycling
water paramters (ph, amonia, nitrate, nitrite)
other fish if any

These fish are touchy and i've had trouble keeping until recently. My advice, if your tank isn't cycled they will probably die unless you have a very large aquarium, i'd take them back or give them away. If it's cycled maybe they'll do just fine. If your amonia or nitrite is high or even measurable above 0 do a good water change, 50% or so, just be careful to match the temp as best you can.


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

Neons are fairly tough but when they are unhappy their colors aren't bright, They like water in the low 70's, not too hard and a ph below 7.5. They also like clean water (low Nitrates). Make a 20-30% water change and this should help. Make sure their temperature is below 78F.


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## sondre (Jun 1, 2011)

fishman81 said:


> Need more details on your tank to know,
> 
> size
> how long cycled or is it cycling
> ...


The tank is 60x30x30 cm , 54 litre (50 litres of water),planted,cycled,no other fish.No ammonia,no nitrites,ph 6.8-7,nitrates are high 40-80,but thats what i get from my tap.

The other 2 now started hiding away aswell,have a feeling its not going to be good ...


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## sondre (Jun 1, 2011)

NeonShark666 said:


> Neons are fairly tough but when they are unhappy their colors aren't bright, They like water in the low 70's, not too hard and a ph below 7.5. They also like clean water (low Nitrates). Make a 20-30% water change and this should help. Make sure their temperature is below 78F.


Water is at 72F , ph 6.8-7.0 .
Everything seems to fit,but nitrates,i dont know how to lower it,from my tap i get 40-80 ppm,so water changes dont help.I tried mixing 50% bottled water with 50% of my tap water,hoping this will lower nitrates,but it didnt . Dont know what to do...


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## Sweetgreenleaf1369 (Jun 24, 2011)

You should check your bottled water some bottled water has sodium and other indigence not suitable for fish... R/O water is good however then you need to add minerals to the water..


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## briane (Jul 9, 2011)

Does your LFS stock RO water if so do a change with it
It should be cheaper than buying bottled water 
Over here its about 30 cents liter
hope it helps


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## fishman81 (Jan 12, 2011)

sondre said:


> The tank is 60x30x30 cm , 54 litre (50 litres of water),planted,cycled,no other fish.No ammonia,no nitrites,ph 6.8-7,nitrates are high 40-80,but thats what i get from my tap.
> 
> The other 2 now started hiding away aswell,have a feeling its not going to be good ...


Do a water change, and i'd suggest since your tap h20 has so many nitrates to use extra prime or whatever water conditioner you use to remove chlorines and chloramines. I know prime will make the nitrates harmless for the fish, even though you'll still detect it in the h20 with a test kit.


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## sondre (Jun 1, 2011)

fishman81 said:


> Do a water change, and i'd suggest since your tap h20 has so many nitrates to use extra prime or whatever water conditioner you use to remove chlorines and chloramines. I know prime will make the nitrates harmless for the fish, even though you'll still detect it in the h20 with a test kit.


Will do water change now ,filled up a bucked with water yesterday to let it "gas out" and warm up a bit. 
havent got Prime,i use AquaSafe .


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

sondre said:


> On thursday we bought 5 neon tetras,1 of them were very shy,hiding behind rocks,plants and wasnt feeding .
> 
> Today i found it dead ....
> 
> ...


Neons IME are sensitive/delicate. When I buy them I always look for signs of ich and most importantly red inflammed gills.

Additionally I had no luck with neons using just play sand. but they did well when I used peat moss in the sand. I later measured and found kh and gh stayed low with peat moss but increased to high values with just sand.

I do sometimes have 1 of five die almost immediately but usually the rest do much better.

Which I hope happens in your case.


my .02


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## sondre (Jun 1, 2011)

Thank you guys for your replies 

I did a water change , 14 litres (the tank is 50 litres) .Should i do the same tomorrow ?

This might sound silly,but i think it would work : fill up the bucked , put in it filter with nitrazorb,or whatever its called (the one that Holly is using to help get nitrates down) leave it for 24 hours,or however long it takes to lower nitrates,that should sort it out , right ? It just seems the only option for me ...


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## fishman81 (Jan 12, 2011)

sondre said:


> Thank you guys for your replies
> 
> I did a water change , 14 litres (the tank is 50 litres) .Should i do the same tomorrow ?
> 
> This might sound silly,but i think it would work : fill up the bucked , put in it filter with nitrazorb,or whatever its called (the one that Holly is using to help get nitrates down) leave it for 24 hours,or however long it takes to lower nitrates,that should sort it out , right ? It just seems the only option for me ...


never used nitrazorb, i like prime since i have it anyway for removing chlorines/chloramine. It is also good at making nitrates harmless to fish. It worked wonders for me when i was cycling my 55 gallon with way too many fish. wouldn't do it again but was learning alot then.

Chris


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## bolram (May 17, 2011)

To be honest i put 6 neons in on my first tank when i set it up 7 months back. 2 out of the 6 stayed alive after 10 days. I replaced the lost ones straight away and only lost one more of the new batch. I only replaced them as neons calm when there are more of them the less there are the more they stress. As jrman said if you manage to keep neons more than 10 days then it should be clear sailing from then onwards.

(dont know if you read but pets at home do that nitrazorb, that holly was talking about, now, that would help keep your water in balance with nitrates)


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## sondre (Jun 1, 2011)

Bolram,does Nitrazorb come in a little bag which you stick behind sponge in the filter ?

I am thinking would it be enough just put that bag of it in a bucket and keep it in there for a day or 2 without filter before i do water change . 

After water change fish seemed to be more active , even the one that was hiding behind plants , but it still wouldnt eat anything . Should i buy different food for them ?

When should i add more of neons ? after a week or 10 days ?

Oh,and when can i add snails or shrimp ? got green algea growing on my rocks,and brown algea on my gravel and glass.
Dont want to add too many too quickly,so would be great if you help me with this,and what would be better to add first ? shrimp or snails ?

EDIT : i found some Freeze dried daphnia,Freeze dried bloodworms,Powdered brine shrimp and micro wafers .Any of these wouldnt be suitable for neon tetras ?


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## bolram (May 17, 2011)

Yeah thats the one its in a bag. Not used it so dont know the deal on it, but i guess its worth a try because short times with high nitrates is fine but prolonged amounts of time can seriously harm your fish. Even if they seem fine now.

I went from 6 neons to 10 in a space of about 7-10 days, its upto you whether you want to slowly introduce amounts just make sure your params stay level when doing so. Ive no experience with snails so not sure but the shrimp should be fine 

My neons eat anything i put in the tank lol, ive used tetra-color enhancer flakes, nutrafin max flake, freeze dried daphnia and tubifex plus frozen foods, they have eaten everything so far. Just give them a couple of days it just might be stress but when they want to eat they will, otherwise they eat small organisms that live in the water which you wont see but in time they should start eating properly.


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## Sweetgreenleaf1369 (Jun 24, 2011)

I would suggest you research tetra's check your water parameters they are sensitive to ph change the ph from your LFS could be different from your tank...


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## sondre (Jun 1, 2011)

Did a bit of reading about nerite snails , they are small but have big poops lol

My son wants snail in the tank,but i am not sure its a good idea  

So shrimps might be better as algea eaters .


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I doubt your nitrates are your problem if that is what the value is coming out to be. FWIW, I have about 25 that are kept in 80 degree water (Angel tank) with nitrate values that get to 80ish by the end of the week dosing nitrates. Cardinals/Neons are very common in hi-tech planted tanks with high nitrate values. They can be sensitive to ph, but I kept a dozen or so in 8.2 ph for a few months before they were moved to a tank with lower ph. It doesn't matter what the ph they were kept in before you got them as long as they were drip acclimated. Fish that are a little more sensitive to ph just may require a longer acclimation period. I acclimated mine for about 3hrs with a drip rate of about 30 drops a minute because I knew they were sensitive and going into high ph water.


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## sondre (Jun 1, 2011)

So after first 5 ,we bought another 6 , and out of 11 we got only 5 left 

1st one died because it was stressed , the other 5 got stuck behind a filter .


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