Neon Tetra

[reiben]

I always had trouble getting neons out of the holding place the store gives me and into my tank. Many times they die in a couple of hours. Any suggestions how to handle them carefully?

 

[cometcattle]

I'm sorry, What do you mean by "holding place"? The bag from the pet store?

 

[mike45]

If you mean the bag from the fish store then I don't think its a matter of handling them carefully. What are your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings? Because neons are pretty sensitive fish.

 

[tstenback]

Neons typically do not like being moved. To help them survive this give them lots of time before adding them to the tank. I usually let them flaot for about 30 mins first. Then i add some of my tank water to their bag. Let them sit another 15 mins and repeat this until there is anequal amount of my water and LFS water. When i get to this point i let them sit another 15 mins and then quickly net them into the tank. HTH

 

[reiben]

Thanks I meant the bag the stores give you so thanks for the info... I will get back to you on all the readings

 

[Sky042]

neons are delicate. depending on the strain you buy they can die just while being netted. I've bought them and had them die in the bag on the way home. I've about given up on the little buggers. They're pretty but if the dammned things can't survive being netted and bagged then they're not for me.

 

[NEON98101]

Yes, I know Neon got some bad reputation. I blame some of it to the South Asian mass produce operation. You know they sell those Neon for several pennies each if you buy like a thousand of them.
Anyway, if you are looking for high quality Neon, you should avoid one of those big chain pet store. Odds are, they are getting Neon from S Asia. Or sometime from Florida. Either way, they can't be strong. It's a simple economic that fish value is not high, they can't and won't spend money to raise them. It is a sad situation but that is the way of Neon.
I know Neon can be hardy if you buy from the reliable souce. Maybe you can find some from aquarium society in your city. They usually have meeting and auction sometime. Or locate the local breeder near you. Although this is really unlikely since Neon's price is so cheap that it just not make sense to breed for profit especially considering all the trouble raising tiny tetra frys. But some aqualist do for the sense of accomplishment. Also if you are lucky, your neighbor small local pet store got them from some hobbyist who bred them.
And try to get the young small one before they grow up in the mass chemical dosed environment. It is better for you to grow them to adult. It won't take long anyhow.
And if you are able breeder, you can get the 2nd generation. And they would become much hardier since they would be under your attentive care. As long as they do not have some genetic weakness.
I have my 2nd generation in my tank and they are doing fine. I should make 3rd generation but don't have time.

So get the high quality Neon and they would be much hardier than the one you find at the giant pet store chain. Also ----- tstenback ----- 's suggestion would help. You can always ask the cleck of the store where they are getting the fish. Although not always you get the answer, some simply do not know.

 

[fluffyh]

I love my tetras and although we boiught them as testers in a new set up have only lost one out of the 6 originals, bought 2 new ones sat to replace this one and the other one we thought we might loose. however the one orginial which we nearly lost and now appears to be recovering, but one of the new ones who has appeared sickly from the start seems to have ICH. (oh bother) I will be starting treatment on sunday as we have been using abntibiotics for the last week. I am not totally for all the treatments but it happens everytime we add new fish.

the tank seems stable and we are doing regular water changes. we have catfish so cannot add salt. any other tips on disease control?

fluffy

 

[schzaam]

go 2 ur LFS ask them fr a transport box they should have 1 they wont chare ya