Which is harder, Neons or Cardinels? I am still not very good at keeping my Neons alive, but I wanted Cardinels, But I wanted to ask first before I buy them, Because if they are more sensitive than Neons then I don't want to bother getting them.
Neons Vs Cardinels
- Thread starter bleechme
- Start date
wendywc
Rocking a crabshell for a hat.
Supposedly taking care of neons is easier than taking care of cardinals. But if your water's pH is harder than 7.0 (i.e., more like 7.5), cardinals are more suitable than neons.
Neon info here and cardinal info here.
Neon info here and cardinal info here.
millym
Fish Herder
hi
we used to have a big shoal of neons a few years ago & sadly lost all of them eventually to what appeared to be ntd. we were wary of getting cardinals cos id actually read they could be v sensitive & difficult. anyway we got a little group & apart from one who died suddenly in the first week (? cause) we've now had this group for over 3 years with no problems.
theyre both gorgeous fish but we just gave up on the neons as we were sick of watching the poor things get sick & die & despite using so called treatments for ntd they just didnt work.
our tapwater pH is usually around 7.8 -8.0 & again id read cardinals need softer water but ours have always seemed quite happy & we've never had any problems with ours.
we used to have a big shoal of neons a few years ago & sadly lost all of them eventually to what appeared to be ntd. we were wary of getting cardinals cos id actually read they could be v sensitive & difficult. anyway we got a little group & apart from one who died suddenly in the first week (? cause) we've now had this group for over 3 years with no problems.
theyre both gorgeous fish but we just gave up on the neons as we were sick of watching the poor things get sick & die & despite using so called treatments for ntd they just didnt work.
our tapwater pH is usually around 7.8 -8.0 & again id read cardinals need softer water but ours have always seemed quite happy & we've never had any problems with ours.
nmonks
A stroke of the brush does not guarantee art from
I've never had any luck keeping neons alive, but I do have a nice school of cardinals in my soft water aquarium.
Neons -- commercially bred ones anyway -- seem to have neon tetra disease built-in, and the moment you take them out of an antibiotically treated aquarium, they start to die. Cardinals, being wild caught, less often have neon tetra disease, and if they do get it, it's usually at the retailer. So assuming you have soft to only moderately hard water (pH 6 to 7, but no higher) then cardinals are, on balance, more reliable.
Regardless of which you get, accept that neither will do well in hard, alkaline water, and both should live for up to 4 years. Anyone who says they had neons in hard water and they were fine, but the neons all died in a year or two, well, treat their advice with caution.
Also, be ruthless about removing sick fish. Neon tetra disease is usually transmitted from a corpse to the next fish, usually because the fishes peck at the corpse of the dead fish. So as soon as you see a neon or cardinal turn pale or remove itself from the school and hide in a corner, then act at once! Remove the fish, and, frankly, kill it because it isn't going to recover. Sometimes people save these fish by treating with preparations such as Octozin, but the track record of results is poor.
Cheers,
Neale
Neons -- commercially bred ones anyway -- seem to have neon tetra disease built-in, and the moment you take them out of an antibiotically treated aquarium, they start to die. Cardinals, being wild caught, less often have neon tetra disease, and if they do get it, it's usually at the retailer. So assuming you have soft to only moderately hard water (pH 6 to 7, but no higher) then cardinals are, on balance, more reliable.
Regardless of which you get, accept that neither will do well in hard, alkaline water, and both should live for up to 4 years. Anyone who says they had neons in hard water and they were fine, but the neons all died in a year or two, well, treat their advice with caution.
Also, be ruthless about removing sick fish. Neon tetra disease is usually transmitted from a corpse to the next fish, usually because the fishes peck at the corpse of the dead fish. So as soon as you see a neon or cardinal turn pale or remove itself from the school and hide in a corner, then act at once! Remove the fish, and, frankly, kill it because it isn't going to recover. Sometimes people save these fish by treating with preparations such as Octozin, but the track record of results is poor.
Cheers,
Neale
morgan
Fish Herder
Hi, I have a school of 10 Cardinal Tetras. I read that if they survive the first 3 weeks they should be ok. Also when you buy them they are probably part way through their rather short life. Having said the negative bit they are very colourful! I had Neons before and IMO the Cardinals are nicer to look at. 
I don't know about Neon Tetra Disease, mine died due to serious water problems (I was a newbie and didn't know what to do and wasn't on the internet).
I don't know about Neon Tetra Disease, mine died due to serious water problems (I was a newbie and didn't know what to do and wasn't on the internet).
nmonks
A stroke of the brush does not guarantee art from
Neon Tetra Disease is caused by a protozoan (like whitespot) that infects a variety of fish, but especially neon tetras. The Latin name of the protozoan is Pleistophora hyphessobryconis if you want to read up on it.
The symptoms are first a loss of colour (the red fades) and the fish stops behaving properly (it doesn't school with the others). Eventually the entire fish goes off-colour, starts to swim badly, and then eventually dies.
There is no reliable cure.
It is only slightly contagious in the aquarium water, but very contagious if healthy fish eat an infected one (or its corpse). Hence, the advice is to remove sick fish at once, before there is the greatest risk of cross infection.
There is some debate about where the disease comes from. Some aquarists think virtually all neons have it because of the way they are mass produced. Neons are farmed in the fish equivalent of battery chickens or hog confinement, and as with those situations, prescription antibiotics are essential because of the hig risk of diseases and parasites moving between animals. Once the neons are taken to the retailer or the home aquarium, they stop getting the antibiotics and the latent parasites in their bodies spring into life, miltiplying rapidly, and eventually causing sickness.
(This is, incidentally, much the same curse that afflicts dwarf gouramis.)
Other aquarists consider Neon Tetra Disease to be more about poor husbandry, i.e., if the fish are cared for properly, the parasites, if present, won't do any harm.
In the wild neons are basically annual fish, as are cardinals, so it is difficult to say whether they are merely life expired if they die after a few months in our aquariums. Neons have been known to live for 4 years in aquaria. I'd suggest that if they last for 1-2 years, grow to full size, and then all start dying at once, then old age may be the factor. But if you have small neons that are dying one at a time every couple of weeks after buying them, then Neon Tetra Disease or improper care are more probably the things to think about.
As for which is best, neons are usually cheaper and they also seem to have more tolerant personalities, getting along quite well in busy community tanks provided they aren't actually bullied (or eaten). Cardinals have more colour, it is true, but they are usually more expensive, which puts people off getting the 12 or more you really need for them to be happy. They also seem a bit shy compared with neons.
Cheers,
Neale
The symptoms are first a loss of colour (the red fades) and the fish stops behaving properly (it doesn't school with the others). Eventually the entire fish goes off-colour, starts to swim badly, and then eventually dies.
There is no reliable cure.
It is only slightly contagious in the aquarium water, but very contagious if healthy fish eat an infected one (or its corpse). Hence, the advice is to remove sick fish at once, before there is the greatest risk of cross infection.
There is some debate about where the disease comes from. Some aquarists think virtually all neons have it because of the way they are mass produced. Neons are farmed in the fish equivalent of battery chickens or hog confinement, and as with those situations, prescription antibiotics are essential because of the hig risk of diseases and parasites moving between animals. Once the neons are taken to the retailer or the home aquarium, they stop getting the antibiotics and the latent parasites in their bodies spring into life, miltiplying rapidly, and eventually causing sickness.
(This is, incidentally, much the same curse that afflicts dwarf gouramis.)
Other aquarists consider Neon Tetra Disease to be more about poor husbandry, i.e., if the fish are cared for properly, the parasites, if present, won't do any harm.
In the wild neons are basically annual fish, as are cardinals, so it is difficult to say whether they are merely life expired if they die after a few months in our aquariums. Neons have been known to live for 4 years in aquaria. I'd suggest that if they last for 1-2 years, grow to full size, and then all start dying at once, then old age may be the factor. But if you have small neons that are dying one at a time every couple of weeks after buying them, then Neon Tetra Disease or improper care are more probably the things to think about.
As for which is best, neons are usually cheaper and they also seem to have more tolerant personalities, getting along quite well in busy community tanks provided they aren't actually bullied (or eaten). Cardinals have more colour, it is true, but they are usually more expensive, which puts people off getting the 12 or more you really need for them to be happy. They also seem a bit shy compared with neons.
Cheers,
Neale
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