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Glad you got a credit for the tetras! Around here, unfortunately, you can't wait a week or more for them to sit at the store to make sure they're healthy...the fish get sold as quick as them come in! (we only have 2 small stores here) I would love to get some cardinals, maybe one day after I'm more experienced...

How long did you take to acclimate them? Also, the source could just be bad. Cardinals are really hardy fish and shouldn't die off quickly like that unless there is some sort of disease or just a bad source. I even keep mine up in the 7.4-7.6 range pH wise. I think it could have something to do with how long you acclimated them for.

1 hour acclimation.

I went to the LFS I bought them from and they said a lot of the Cards died right after I bought them.

There's only 2 left and if they manage to survice, I'll get 4 more. I bought 3 Dwarf Gouramis to *replace* them but if the 2 Cards do indeed survice, I'll get more. Though my tank will probably be a little overstocked. although it may be fine because I have more than adequate filtration.

-6 Leopard Cories
-2 Bolivian Rams
-3 Dwarf Gouramis
-4 Amano Shrimps
-2 Cardinals

Ok, there's only 1 left!

Oh well...:%)

i think you're fated not to own cardinals - but i think it's the source, not you - there's nothing worse than buying something just before/as it develops a problem!! my last purchase of cardinals (24 of them)developed white spot within 24 hrs, as did the whole tank they were in at the lfs - 600 cardinals with white spot!! thank heavens mine were in a q-tank - only lost one and it wasn't really to the whitespot...

So you're saying it could be some kind of disease that may spread to my other fish?

[span class="edited"][Edited by sly 2004-08-09 08:43][/span]

diseases can be annoyingly non-descript, and pleasingly species-specific. is there a disease in your tank now? no idea. if yes, could it spread to the others? no idea. that's part of the huge responsibility/onus when we play god by owning/maintaining a totally contained ecosystem. do you have a quarantine tank? if not, i would get one if at all possible.

Ok, I am DEFINATELY not an expert, but I am interested in getting cardinals also, and my lfs told me that they are VERY touchy fish. They won't sell them for 2 weeks after they get them in, so that they can stabilize them, and he usually guarantees all the fish he sells, so if they die on you at home within a certain period of time he will replace them, but he told me he will not guarantee cardinals because they are so touchy. hope that helps, I think they are a beautiful fish, and because I want angels that's what I was hoping to put with them, but at $6.00 per fish, that's a mighty big risk to be taking... (for me anyways)

Cardinals for me cost only $2-3 USD here and they're supposed to be hardy. Thats was one of the reasons I decided Cardinals over other tetras. I've concluded that the cause of the death was my LFS not me because of they recently got them. Its defintely a good idea to buy fish that have been with the LFS for a couple weeks or possible longer to ensure that they are truely heathly and likely to survive. I guess thats the lesson I learned from this.

There's still one tiny Cardinal that appears to be doing well. Always a full belly so he's getting his food. If he manages to live after my 10 day vacation, I'll buy 5 more for him to swim with.


[font color="#BF791F"]PS.[/font] I got refunds on the dead Cardinals and used it to buy 3 Dwarf Gouramis from the same LFS (which had been at the LFS for about a month) and they are doing great so far



[span class="edited"][Edited by sly 2004-08-10 07:40][/span]

I actually did 2 roughly 10% water changes on the first two days I got them. Perhaps I'll do another..

I have never had a problem with cardinals; in fact I have used them to cycle tanks. Even when my power went out ant the temp dropped to 63 degrees F. I couldn't kill them. I love 'em. I find them much hardier than, say, neons. What is the temperature of your tank? Find out what the water parameters are at the LFS. I don't recommend a one hour acclimation unless the lfs water is way off your water; once the bag that they are sold in has been opened the fish should only be in it for 15 minutes max. There's a huge chemical reason for this but suffice it to say one hour, unless you are doing drip acclimation, may be overkill. They do like soft water, and seem to prefer slow moving water, and lots of plants (live or fake doesn't matter).

I'm so adjective, I verb nouns!

It's probably not wise to do daily water changes after first acclimating a relatively touchy fish such as cardinals. While they may be hardy with respect to temperatures/water quality, they are not, at least in my experience, fond of drastic changes in water chemistry.

hmmm - please list all the symptoms you saw prior to the death of the fish, preferably in order, but I'm not fussy Include any "weirdneses" which you arent sure are symptoms or not, funny swimming angles, lack of appetite, that sorta thing.

There are several nasty diseases which have become prevalent in tetra populations, including NTD and other protazoan diseases. It would be worth ruling these out as a cause of death, as unless you do, you may find that you continually lose tetras introduced to that tank.

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

Could it possibly be this?

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/neondisease.htm

Ok, I just got back from 11 days vacation and all the fish survived, including the lone Cardinal! In fact, it has gotten much larger now. I will go out and buy 5 more Cardinals ]

As I mentioned before, I problem was probably due to something on the LFS side not mine. Most likely, the ones that survived will continue to thrive.

I say try them again. It could have been just that batch of cardinals that had the problem. I have 10 cardinals and they,ve been great since day 1 in a ph of 7. Just four days ago, however, I bought 8 black neons (supposed to be quite hardy). I now have only one left and I have never seen fish die so fast. All other cardinals and 8 rummy-nose are fine. Go figure!!

I got 6 more Cardinals from a different LFS. This time around, the LFS had them longer (3 weeks as opposed to 1 week from the original store) and they are "jumbo" sized. Which means they should do fine since they are more matured (basically adult size) and after a day, they look very good. They are not as shy as the first batch.

There's one other place that have them, so I'm not worried.

It's a possibility. Cardinals prefer a ph from 5 to 6. I don't know if that would have killed them though, as I have never kept cardinals.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."