Neons Not Eating

[Iron Man]

I moved into another house a couple weeks ago. The other day I bought some neons and put them in the 55 gallon which was setup when I moved into the house. So, the tank has been up and running for about 2 weeks before I added these fish.....and there's nothing else in there with them. The filter is an Eheim 2217.

All water parameters are 0 of course accept one thing is funny.....I have well water which usually has a high ph but this time its actually the most acidic I've ever seen come out of the sink. Its about 5.5. I know my test kit isn't bad because I tested my water just before I moved and it was 7.0 (city water).

So....my neons are not eating AT ALL since I put them in the tank. A couple of them were when I first put them in there but now none of them are doing it. Some of them go after it and peck at it but none of them, if they swallow anything, keep it down. They spit it right back out.

I have tried flakes, crumbled up algae discs, freeze dried bloodworms, and chopped green beans.

These fish look and behave SO healthy, they just don't hold down their food. Even though I acclimated them slowly to my water.....do you think it could be a little ph shock since my ph is so low?

 

[Chri$]

Seeing you only recently added them i wouldn't worry to much.

Usually they don't eat for a while, then they begin to try the flakes and spit them back out, then eventuly start to eat them when they become hungry enough.

 

[Iron Man]

OK that's cool I appreciate your response and help. They are still so new that's probably what it is.

 

[~T~]

Actually tetras being pretty basic fish should be feeding readily straight away.I even find tetras in the bag will try to get food while its floating.You say everything is zero but have you tested for nitrAte as high levels will defo cause your fish to lose their appitite.

 

[millym]

hi
if your nitrate & everything else is fine & the tetras dont appear to be sick as sadi they could just be settling in. but we have a group of 6 cardinal tetras & i hardly ever see them eating either, they must eat cos they are healthy & active & 4 of them have been with us for over 3 years. are you sure your teras arent pecking at the food once its dropped to the floor /rocks etc???
maybe having someone looking at them through the tank is putting them off/frightening them - theyre more interested in what that big dark shape they can see ( you) is doing for survival reasons than eating the food they can see.

how are they now??

 

[Iron Man]

They are still not eating anything that I can see. The water parameters are fine like I said. I suspect I will be getting traces of ammonia at some point as I've been feeding them everyday which they don't eat. It sits on the sand until I vacuum it out.

I'm considering them a lost cause, but will continue to try and feed them until they die. Don't know what else to do.

The only bright side to this is they were only a dollar a fish and it was like buying 12 zebras to give the 55 gallon a mild cycle s its not a total loss.

They were taken out of a tank full of zebras and neons and some of the neons were dead.....but I have bought tons of fish from this store in the past over the years and never got bad fish. Most of the other tanks had 0 dead fish and took those few dead neons as the typical overly sensitive neons.

I said these fish look healthy in everyway but some of them do have red gills. I took this to mean that's part of their color but it may be damage from ammonia that was in that fish store tank?

That tank water was cloudy as well now that I look back on it.

 

[fishboy619]

i wouldn't worry too much, i have 5 cardinal tetras in my 15 gallon along with platies abd i feed flakes,bloodworms,brineshrimp,veg,etc.. and i rarely see them eat but ive have them for 1 year now so they must be eating, probally ive left the room,also they are only small fish so only eat small amount and we probally dont notice how much they eat.

 

[Iron Man]

Good news! Many of them ate a little bit as I just fed them a while ago.

Guess they just got really traumatized by the move.