Help Cardinal Tetra Problem!

[banka01]

hi i have 5 Cardinal tetras 4 of them are always in a group one is always a loner is there something wrong with it, i noticed it is the smallest one too. i also have other fish in the tank. is it sick what can i do?

 

[Davidtq]

If its only problem is being a loner dont worry about it if its hanging around at the top or bottomof the tank looking ill or off colour then worry about it, Ive often found some fish are a bit more of a loner than the main school. Hadd it with all sorts of schooling fish that one just doesnt spend all its time with the crowd.

 

[banka01]

If its only problem is being a loner dont worry about it if its hanging around at the top or bottomof the tank looking ill or off colour then worry about it, Ive often found some fish are a bit more of a loner than the main school. Hadd it with all sorts of schooling fish that one just doesnt spend all its time with the crowd.

it is at the bottom of the rocks..

If its only problem is being a loner dont worry about it if its hanging around at the top or bottomof the tank looking ill or off colour then worry about it, Ive often found some fish are a bit more of a loner than the main school. Hadd it with all sorts of schooling fish that one just doesnt spend all its time with the crowd.

it is at the bottom of the rocks..

lying down on the rocks

 

[Davidtq]

If its only problem is being a loner dont worry about it if its hanging around at the top or bottomof the tank looking ill or off colour then worry about it, Ive often found some fish are a bit more of a loner than the main school. Hadd it with all sorts of schooling fish that one just doesnt spend all its time with the crowd.

it is at the bottom of the rocks..

If its only problem is being a loner dont worry about it if its hanging around at the top or bottomof the tank looking ill or off colour then worry about it, Ive often found some fish are a bit more of a loner than the main school. Hadd it with all sorts of schooling fish that one just doesnt spend all its time with the crowd.

it is at the bottom of the rocks..

lying down on the rocks

In that case you need to start looking at your water paramaters mainly nitrate ph temperature, you need to see if other fish are stressing it etc etc.

 

[banka01]

If its only problem is being a loner dont worry about it if its hanging around at the top or bottomof the tank looking ill or off colour then worry about it, Ive often found some fish are a bit more of a loner than the main school. Hadd it with all sorts of schooling fish that one just doesnt spend all its time with the crowd.

it is at the bottom of the rocks..

If its only problem is being a loner dont worry about it if its hanging around at the top or bottomof the tank looking ill or off colour then worry about it, Ive often found some fish are a bit more of a loner than the main school. Hadd it with all sorts of schooling fish that one just doesnt spend all its time with the crowd.

it is at the bottom of the rocks..

lying down on the rocks

In that case you need to start looking at your water paramaters mainly nitrate ph temperature, you need to see if other fish are stressing it etc etc.

how do i check that?

the temperature is 26 celcius....and wtf is a nitrate temperature?

 

[SuperColey1]

I would be surprised if they are properky schooling as a group of 4. I would guess they need friends and even then like the poster above says1 or 2 always tend to stay seperate. Its a case of some don't get on with the rest. lol

If they feel threatened the loner will soon go back to the other numbers, so I would assume they are OK.

6 is really the minimum. I have 17 and they don't all stay together. If they did I would suspect some trouble in the tank. Sometimes a large group of them will play swimming up and down the tank but never all 17 together.

andy

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

and wtf is a nitrate temperature?

There is no "nitrate temperature"...they were listing off things.

You should have a liquid test kit that lets you test things like:
Ammonia - should be 0 in a cycled tank... more than .25 ppm (parts per million) means you need to do a water change
Nitrite - should be 0 in a cycled tank... more than .25 ppm means you need to do a water change
Nitrate - is the by product of your biological filter (the bacteria that consume Ammonia and Nitrite)... keep as low as possible
pH - how acidic or alkaline your water is. The pH of your tank should be stable, and dropping pH means acids are building up in your tank

"Laying down on the rocks" is not a good sign. Yes some fish will be loners at times, but lethargic behavior is a sign of a sick fish. Has the fish lost some of it's color? Is it interested in eating? Are the gills discolored? Is it breathing rapidly?

 

[banka01]

and wtf is a nitrate temperature?

There is no "nitrate temperature"...they were listing off things.

You should have a liquid test kit that lets you test things like:
Ammonia - should be 0 in a cycled tank... more than .25 ppm (parts per million) means you need to do a water change
Nitrite - should be 0 in a cycled tank... more than .25 ppm means you need to do a water change
Nitrate - is the by product of your biological filter (the bacteria that consume Ammonia and Nitrite)... keep as low as possible
pH - how acidic or alkaline your water is. The pH of your tank should be stable, and dropping pH means acids are building up in your tank

"Laying down on the rocks" is not a good sign. Yes some fish will be loners at times, but lethargic behavior is a sign of a sick fish. Has the fish lost some of it's color? Is it interested in eating? Are the gills discolored? Is it breathing rapidly?

yes it is.

its not eating tho