Taking the Neon Plunge....

[theSaj]

I finally did it, picked up a school of 19 Neons for my tank.

Nice little school...was leery they'd become food for my Rainbows, African Butterfly, or catfish.

So far, none of them have even made any aggression toward the Neons. The Rainbows swam and check them out at first but did not make any attacks or nips.  And due to the larger fish my Neons are schooling beautifully.

It will be interesting to see what happens and I will give an update in a week or two.

- Jason(theSaj)

PS - On the flip side, my pH keeps dropping so I add buffering agents every few weeks.  I have live plants, 3 pieces of driftwood, and some rocks. So I figure those are the likely reason.  So for now, I just add a little buffering every few weeks. Any thoughts, advice, or am I pretty much doing exactly what I should?

 

[Troy-N-Eli]

Would keep an eye on the count of neons.  Catfish might be having hors d'ouevres when you're sleeping.  Neons sleep close to the bottom and don't rouse easily, making them easy prey for nocturnal fish.  

 

[NickM]

Troy, I thought hors d'ouevres were fish eggs, not the fish themselves.   :  ;D

 

[Troy-N-Eli]

Believe me, anything can be a hors d'ouerve with a fish of the right size.  Our syno proved that after we noticed neons disppearing very slowly w/ no traces of leftovers.

 

[NickM]

LOL   I haven't upgraded to carnivores yet.  lol  

But I would say your syno got a treat.  

 

[Troy-N-Eli]

Sad thing is, synos aren't carnivores...at least this one isn't supposed to be...supposed to be a bottom feeder.  Problem is, neons go into this trancelike state and don't move when getting gobbled up...go figure.  Oh well, live and learn...syno got relocated and the neons back to their regular population, only to be decimated again.  Nertz!

 

[luvfishies]

Any fish will eat anything that will fit in it's mouth. catfish are notorious for this.

If the neon count drops, blame the catfish.

 

[NickM]

Thats like blaming El Nino for anything bad that happens.

Uh oh, liver fall out?  Blame El Nino!    8)

 

[Ratbag]

Don't be so sure of the culprit. I had 12 Zebra Danios in a community tank with amongst others, 2 Butterflies. The Danios were dissapearing at a rate of 1 every 2-3 days.  ???

Couldn't work out who it was, but suspected the Silver Shark as he was the biggest fish in there by a long way.

One evening I was showing a mate how impressive the "predatory style" feeding regime of the butterflies was and he called me over to the tank to point out the tail fins of a Danio in the mouth of the bigger butterfly!  *crazysmiley* *crazysmiley*

Needless to say I no longer have the butterflies and the LFS was only too happy to exchange them when he realised how much money I'd spent replacing the Danio's!  >

 

[theSaj]

I have a defective African Butterfly....

I drop 10 crickets in the tank, he got one or two, the rainbows snagged most of the rest... *LOL*

So far, doesn't seem like I am missing any....

In fact, my swordtails/mollies just had some babies and I've got at least one half the size of a neon swimming around and another that well is so tiny he's about 5 times the size of a sea monkey.

*LOL*

I think I got super-docile fish.... *shrug*