I have only been fishkeeping for about six years now, so I don't have much experience with tetras. I have only had two species, neon tetras and Red Eyed tetras. The neons were a failure for me, none lived very long and these fish had ick and lord knows what else was wrong with them.
The Red Eyed tetras lasted about ten months, I had ten of these to start with but lost one right away. Over a couple of months lost another one, then another one died. But the killing blow for the Red Eyed tetras was the last water change. I have no idea why, because I have done the same thing for water changes over the past 10 months. But this last time the Red Eyed tetras (there were six) all died but one. None of the other fish, snails, etc were affected at all. My two angelfish that share the same place in the water column as the tetras showed no sign of stress. Then I found that one dead on my living room floor this morning, it had somehow managed to jump through a gap in the back of the lid, where everything concerning plugs ins and the canister filter's intake and outtake.