Cardinals Or Neons?

[Chri$]

I am thinking about maybe getting a small shoal (6+) of either cardinals or neons for my new tank. Looks wise i prefer cardinals otherwise i am unsure. Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated
Thanks guys

 

[millym]

hi
we started off with a large group of neons a few years ago & sadly lost all of them eventually to either ntd or other diseases so although i love them i wouldnt go for them again as they are a group fo fish that seems to suffer badly from the effects of over inbreeding over the years & 'weak genes'. we replaced ours with cardinals & apart from losing one recently due to a nasty incident where it got stuck behind our co2 ladder, theyve been there very healthy with no probs for 3 years, we live in a very hard water area & despite the fact they are supposed to prefer soft water ours have always been healthy.
we're going to get a couple more v soon
whatever you choose theyre both gorgeous fish, we just didnt like watching little creatures continually get sick & die which is what our experience with neons was.

 

[Chri$]

Thanks for your reply millym.
So i pressume that cardinals are a lot hardier?

Are cardinals widely available?

 

[millym]

actually cardinals are supposedly much harder to keep and as i said supposed to only thrive in soft water but ours have been fine, but we bought ours from a lfs in our area so i suppose this is what they were used to. i think to attempt breeding you would need lower pH water (ours in london is 7.8-8.0).
any good lfs should have cardinals. neons used to be the hardy ones but over the years i think the gene pool has been weakened greatly which has contributed to the probs you often get with neons now (well here in the uk anyway)
we had 14 neons initially & they were bought from 3 different lfs and when we added them to the tank it was mature with excellent water parameters so im sure that wasnt the cause of all the problems/deaths.
whatever you decide on theyre both lovely bright little additions to your tank. we see our cardinals often having little fights where they flick back & forth at eachother esp when one invades anothers favourite 'patch' in our tank. the neons used to do the same thing. they dont tend to shoal a lot once they settle in & feel happy & secure but still now & then they'll go off on a swim around the tank together.

one point to mention make sure you have no other fish in your tank that may see your new additions as a nice snack (angels,kribs to mention a couple) see my sig to see what we've had in with our cardinals (& the neons) with no problems. cardinals & neons are teeny when young our 3 yr cardinals are now about 1 & a half inches long.

 

[Chri$]

Thanks for the reply
Stocking wise i was thinking along these lines:
1 Male Bolivian Ram
4-6 Black widow tetras
4-6 Harlequin Rasboras
4-6 Cardinal Tetras
(20 ukg)
How does that sound?
This is just a general idea. I am selling my current tank to a relative and she may want some of it's inhabitants - so which ones she wants may alter the stocking of the new tank.

 

[Alps]

how about getting 2 rams(pair) and two different schools, say 7 of each? Then you can get like 2 or 3 ottos = very helpful for staying on top of algae.

- i find cardinals more difficult than neons in my hard water, but I still like them more. You have to introduce them with lights off and even use the drip method for an hour or two then just plop them in.

- try searching for a cardinal v neon thread, i remember reading one that isn't more than 2 months old that had tons of posts.

-im going with cards and harlequins, 2 bolivians, and a few ottos for my 20usg tank.

 

[Chri$]

Thanks for the replys
I am going to add 1 male bolivian and see how he gets on, i may then add a female later on. I am unsure about Otto's??

 

[Rafael Dilone]

Well neons should be for the more experiene aquariest. I am not saying you are not a experience aquariest. They demand very clean water. I have a school of nine that I got today. They should be fine because I change the water in my tank every week. You made a wise choice for going with the cardinals. They are easier to take care of.

 

[Chri$]

Well neons should be for the more experiene aquariest. I am not saying you are not a experience aquariest. They demand very clean water. I have a school of nine that I got today. They should be fine because I change the water in my tank every week. You made a wise choice for going with the cardinals. They are easier to take care of.

Thanks for the advice