a death and a disappearance - murder??

D

DirtyGreek

New Fish
#1
Oct 22, 2002
3
0
0
#1
Ok, my tank was cycled by the 3 serpae tetras that I had for a few weeks.  It was time to get some new fish, so I went yesterday and bought 2 neon tetras and 2 cardinal tetras.  Well, everything went fine yesterday, but today I woke up and saw one of the cardinals swimming (he actually was swimming) at the top, when theyd spent all their time at the bottom before.

Well, a few minutes later.. he wasnt swimming anymore :(  I put the net in to fish him out, and he started swimming again!  Then, he fell over again like dead.  He did this for a few minutes before i figured he must be dying, so i took him out and put him in a plastic container with some of the water, where he promptly died.

Then, I realized that the other cardinal was just gone! I cant find him anywhere-ive checked under all the rocks and all the hiding places, and hes just completely awol

should i be suspecting the serpaes? I thought tetras were fine with other tetras? they arent really so big that they could eat the guy whole i dont think... it's a mystery
 

Matt Nace

Matt Nace

Superstar Fish
#2
Oct 22, 2002
1,470
1
38
Pennsylvania
#2
Sounds to me like those card just did not aclimate well to your water.

Cardinals used to be mostly wild caught(not sure anymore or where your LFS get theirs from) In wild cases like those, it is harder to acclimate them, and being more true to their original waters is better to have.

Cardinals , the ones I used to have to by, were wild caught, and disliked hard water with disolved minerals in it. It actually harmed them. Just a thought on that.

Not all tetras wil get along. I don't know if the serpaes would actually attack them though. Are they attacking the neons that you see?

How long were they at the LFS?

Are your nitrAtes low?(under 30)
Your cycled, so your ammonia and NitrItes are 0 Correct?
How long did you acclimate before adding the new fish?
 

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