How Many Neon Tetras In A 180l (over Filtered)

[for_my_fish]

Ok. I have a 180l juwel vision. Currently housing 8 platies and 5 apple snails. Tank is mature (4 yrs?). Over the past 12 months I've not replaced any loses as I have a thought to geting a decent shoal of neons.

The tank is very overfiltered with a tetratec ex1200 (lenghtened the spaybar to whole tank width to reduce churn) AND a tetratec ex700. No real plants (apple snails take care of that!)

How many neons could I put in here? are there fish of the same 'family' which would go together with neons.

 

[for_my_fish]

I also figure that within reason the different ph preferences for platties and neons for fish bred in capivity is a mute point? my current ph is just under 7.0 but not quite 6.8

Would cardinals be a better choice?

 

[OohFeeshy]

It's entirely up to you which species, I know many people prefer cardinals simply because they tend to be healthier and hardier. Again, school size is up to you- if you wanted just tetras you could easily go for a 20, 25 strong school, but equally you could have a few smaller groups of different species.

 

[for_my_fish]

Yep. To get them to shoal would they need to be added together? If so I probably need to do some daily water changes to let the filter bacteria catch up, do you think?

 

[OohFeeshy]

I wouldn't think so. For the benefit of avoiding spikes, perhaps try 6 at a time a few weeks apart. There's no reason they won't school together if added at different times.

 

[adamgreen240]

wow !!! thats alot of filtration!

if i was you i would get a shoal of 20 neons and 20 black neons - you will be able to watch them in seperatae shoals - i believe it looks quite gud.

thanks

adam

 

[OohFeeshy]

Didn't read the original post properly either- you could go for 30 or more considering the filtration. If it's schooling behaviour you're after, it might also be helpful to have something 'frightening'- a medium community cichlid or similar will not only draw the eye but also (hopefully) encourage schooling.

 

[-*-MicHAeL-*-]

Black neons and regular neons will shoal together rather than seperately.

 

[for_my_fish]

Yes its the schooling I like. I think a school of neons / cardinals looks fantastic. (As per how you see them at the LFS - though they are only there for a short time!) I built up the filtration to allow me to achieve this (I hope!). As it seems to be their natural behaviour, it is hopefully how to keep them happy also

 

[vinylman]

I'd go for the Cardinals - they're not prone to disease, unlike the Neons.

 

[Iron Man]

I've been seeing posts about cardinals being more hardy than neons. It must depend on where you live and what kind of fish you buy at the time, because I've had very good luck with neons, and very bad luck with cardinals.

That being said, I wouldn't put a whole lot in there as then they're going to fill up the tank, feel safe, and not school.

What ohfeeshy suggested was excellent....get something "frightening" and they will probably school nonstop even if you have a lot of them. Just make sure its not something that will attack them.

 

[: )]

does anybody else see the glaring contradiction between looking after our fish (which is what I hope we all want to do here) and keeping them scared?

 

[timmystood]

In my view Cardinals should only be kept on softwater. If your from the UK, then chances are you have hardwater so I would go for Neons to be honest. I would say 35-40 in a tank that size.

 

[LoveMaster1995]

Well id go for about 20 - 25 neon tetras or some other small tetra because they all swim in shallows/schools.

 

[cheesy feet]

timmystood he said he had a pH of just under 7 30-40 cardinals would be good.Maybe a ram or something ,as your pH is quite acidic(well more nuetral),to keep them shaoling?