Neon Tetras keep dying please help.

[Chrissyb0528]

My husband and I just set up our new 75 gallon tank, its freshwater and the water is as followed:
Ph: 6.5-7
Gh: 30
Kh: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Our water is a steady 84, we have live plants, driftwood, and decorations. Our current was very hard at first but we did the bottle trick, cut the ends off of a soda bottle and tape it the filter and let part of the bottle in the water to help the current. We originally had, 1 angelfish, 5 female bettas( they are only aggressive to each other I've never seen them nip at anyone else), 5 head and tail tetras, we had 5 velvet swordtails, 1 male the rest female but our male died in our other tank. Now we have 4 plecos, we had 6 neon tetras but 3 of them died already, we got them today, and 2 more angelfish. My question is, could the water hardness be killing the neons or is it any of the other fish? The 3 fish bodies don't look bit or anything. I can take a pic of them or the tank if anyone thinks it could be anything else. Please help. I don't want to lose anymore. Thank you,
Christina

 

[FreshyFresh]

Chrissy, welcome!! Sounds like you've got a nice setup going. 75's are great. Good sized tank, nice footprint, but not too huge.

The fact you indicate no nitrates could mean you don't have a proper nitrogen cycle going in the tank, or you're not following the nitrate test instructions to a "T". Hopefully you're using the API Master Test Kit. A healthy, established tank should show nothing but nitrates and nitrates should creep up over the course of the week, between your weekly water changes (that hopefully you are doing). We try to keep nitrates no more than 20ppm, Prolonged exposure to greater than 40ppm leads to health issues and early death.

That is a pretty low pH, but the main thing is that your tank's pH is kept so it matches your tap water's pH. Let some tap water sit overnight and measure it to make sure your tank and tap are the same. you don't want to use pH altering products to chase your tank's pH up/down.

It's not uncommon to loose some neon tetras given the way they are bred, packaged and shipped, but one common overlooked thing with neons is they prefer cooler water. Much cooler than 84F (which is too warm IMO). Neons do best in 67-72F water temps. If you like the neon look, go with cardinal tetras. Cardinals seem to be much hardier and can tolerate higher water temps.

FWIW, I keep my tanks at ~75F, although in the heat of the summer they can hit 80F.

Re-measure and watch those water parameters and keep up with your weekly water changes.

 

[Chrissyb0528]

Chrissy, welcome!! Sounds like you've got a nice setup going. 75's are great. Good sized tank, nice footprint, but not too huge.

The fact you indicate no nitrates could mean you don't have a proper nitrogen cycle going in the tank, or you're not following the nitrate test instructions to a "T". Hopefully you're using the API Master Test Kit. A healthy, established tank should show nothing but nitrates and nitrates should creep up over the course of the week, between your weekly water changes (that hopefully you are doing). We try to keep nitrates no more than 20ppm, Prolonged exposure to greater than 40ppm leads to health issues and early death.

That is a pretty low pH, but the main thing is that your tank's pH is kept so it matches your tap water's pH. Let some tap water sit overnight and measure it to make sure your tank and tap are the same. you don't want to use pH altering products to chase your tank's pH up/down.

It's not uncommon to loose some neon tetras given the way they are bred, packaged and shipped, but one common overlooked thing with neons is they prefer cooler water. Much cooler than 84F (which is too warm IMO). Neons do best in 67-72F water temps. If you like the neon look, go with cardinal tetras. Cardinals seem to be much hardier and can tolerate higher water temps.

FWIW, I keep my tanks at ~75F, although in the heat of the summer they can hit 80F.

Re-measure and watch those water parameters and keep up with your weekly water changes.

Well I just took two more of the bodies out and the two do look like some fish has bitten them and maybe even tried eating them. I'm not sure if that's because they were stuck to the filter or not. Our nitrate is 20 today and nitrite is .5 and our PH is now 7.5. We keep the waters worm because I live in Maine and it gets very very cold in our home so we kee it wormer then in our home which is like 75/80(our heating system sucks lol) I'm gonna look online to see how much a nitrogen system is and where we can get one. If it is the fish, if their in a bigger school would they be safer or would they still keep getting attacked? Thank you for your help.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Neons are sensitive little buggers, especially when first added. You may do best to let the tank mature a bit before adding more. Ideally if the neons had been at the store a bit to be acclimated to their conditions, that is helpful. Local stores tend to have water conditions similar to yours - same local water supply. Also ask what temp they keep their tanks at - if they are pretty far apart from yours, you may want to warm them up more slowly than normal (either more water in their bags or have them only partway submerged so the water doesn't equalize quite so quickly).

The bettas could nip at the neons but I think that's unlikely. If it was the angels the neons would be eaten, no bodies to find.

 

[Chrissyb0528]

Neons are sensitive little buggers, especially when first added. You may do best to let the tank mature a bit before adding more. Ideally if the neons had been at the store a bit to be acclimated to their conditions, that is helpful. Local stores tend to have water conditions similar to yours - same local water supply. Also ask what temp they keep their tanks at - if they are pretty far apart from yours, you may want to warm them up more slowly than normal (either more water in their bags or have them only partway submerged so the water doesn't equalize quite so quickly).

The bettas could nip at the neons but I think that's unlikely. If it was the angels the neons would be eaten, no bodies to find.

That's why I was almost 100% positive none of the fish were trying to eat them. We have well water so we treat it before putting the fish in it. We turned the heat down. We have 2 survivors. I found another dead one today Our Bettas are actually friendly with the other fish and our angelfish are peaceful too. We had one and he was kind of grumpy for a while but once we got his buddies he's happy as can be. Il call the pet store we got them from tomorrow. Thank you so much!