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i have black neons tetras with neon tetras and a two black phantom on my tank.
8 black neons
7 neons
2 phantom black tetras (i'm going to get 4 more this week)
i've see
i've seen tanks with neons and black neons but some profiles says that they aren't compatible together. i need advice

btw, the tanks where i got my black neons are in with neons but i don't know if that helps

The only possible problem I can see -- and it's unlikely -- is that Neons prefer water a few degrees cooler than Black Neons. But the difference is so small that I doubt it would make any difference; a temperature of about 75 deg F (24 C) should be fine for all your proposed fish. Certainly I've never seen or heard of them showing any aggression toward each other; they're all very peaceful fish.

One possible problem, though, whenever you have Neons under any circumstances: look out for Neon Tetra Disease! It's very common now in store-bought neons (probably becaue they're bred and raised together on mass fish farms); it's deadly; it affects a lot of fish besides Neons (including many non-tetras); and it's damned hard to get out of your tank.

If you see signs of it (notably: pale patches on the fish plus staggering, spiralling swimming), get that fish out of your tank and euthanize it IMMEDIATELY -- a fish can't possibly be saved once it shows visible symptoms, and other fish eating its corpse is the biggest way the disease is spread. Then add a mixture of Nalidixic Acid -- only half the dose recommended on the package, for this medicine can itself easily be deadly to fish -- with the other half of the recommended Nalidixic Acid replaced by Neomycin. Some very experienced people at my LFS who have had experience dealing with this disease swear that this 50-50 mixture will wipe out the free-swimming organism in a few days, so that you'll lose only a few more fish. (Alternatively, if you want to minimize the chances that you'll ever have to deal with this damned disease in the first place, substitute Cardinal Tetras for Neons -- they're wild-caught and thus far less likely to carry it, and they actually seem somewhat more resistant to it.)

Sounds fine to me as well. Each of the tetra species on your list is somewhat adaptable as far as temperatures go, so being a little bit off the preferred mark won't hurt anyone.

---

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

hey thanks for the replies=)
i've had my 7 neons in a 10 gallon for about 4 months now i transfered them to my 45gal and i think they are in good condition, the black neons that I got in wal mart i picked 8 of them individualy, they show no signs of any diseases that i know of, all are eating and forming a school together.
i'm just concerned about the compatability since the black neons are a little bit bigger than my neons.

Hmm, let's see ... 45 gallons?

If the Tetras are the ONLY fishes in there, you have some room for manouevre.

Bump up your Neon and Black Neon shoals to 12 each, and bring the Black Phantoms to 6 if you want to keep the Black Phantoms. Otherwise, I'd swap them for 8 Lemons for colour contrast.

With decent planting, that display will be stunning. And you'll still have room for 8 habrosus Corys at the bottom.

Note that I chose a small Cory species for your bottom feeder with that mix of Tetras. Bronze Corys get to be pretty big (I've recently seen some utter whoppers at my LFS, practically big enough to be pan fried ) and would place a heavier loading on your biofilter than would be safe. With something small like habrosus, on the other hand, you'd have a nice happy social group of Corys and happy social groups of your Tetras too.

The above, however, is contingent on what else is in there. If you already have other fishes in there besides the Tetras, I'd think carefully about adding more stock. Post full stocking details and I'll see what sort of revisions might be appropriate.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

my current stock on my 45 is
7 neons
7 black neons
2 black phantom
a single gold spotted pleco,

i was planning on getting about 4 more phantom tetras
and 5 bronze cories and a pair of keyhole ciclids.
should i replace the bronze cories with a different type of corries? and bolivian rams instead of keyholes?