My Cardinal Tetras are dying?!?

[plateletboy]

Help! I bought 8 small (less than inch) Cardinal Tetras at the weekend, and one by one three have died since then. The first two constantly hid behind the filter in the dark and then seemed to lose all swim control - vertical swimming for a bit then kinda swimming okay, etc - dying a couple of days after getting them. The third swam around in the tank but didn't associate with the other five which have schooled from the start. Its died this morning after getting pinned to the filter inlet. The other five seem fine, darting around with each other and associating with the other 4 zebra danios, and taking food - albeit after its sunk, and not at the top with the zebras.

Do some fish just not cope with the initial stress of being moved? I did everything i thought i should - equalising bag, feeding old tank mates before, keeping light off.

This maybe unrelated but i seem to have some white sheet like film growing in the corner behind the filter - which doesnt get much circulation. could this be fungus or a bacterial bloom or something more sinister??

Its a relatively new tank, ~3 weeks old, but all the readings seem okay. Its only a 40L, but i dont intend to put a lot more in.

any ideas thought help would be much appreciated..............
PB

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Hey, cardinal tetra are very sensitive and are not recommended until a tank is 6 months old. Even then they are still sensitive to disease and can take a long time to recover.

 

[tstenback]

I agree with Miss Cheese Specialist ... Cardinals and neons are very easy to stress. I have seen these fish stress over a cleaning of the gravel and never recover. They are beautiful fish but they are they fragile. I hope the rest make out OK. but dont add anymore to the tank until it is well established 6-8 months with no major problems. It is a long time to wait but it is worth it for these fish. I envy anyone who can get them. They are my favourite and i cant get any here in my neck of the woods.. Good luck

 

[plateletboy]

Thanks for your advice. The guy in the LFS seemed to think they would be okay, but after reading everything i can on the net i think this was a terrible suggestion!!

In the future i will not buy anything on someone elses recommendation alone, only when ive had a good surf - what would we do without t'internet??
the remaining five seem fine at the moment - fingers crossed.....
pb