Black Neon personalities?

[XenoMorph2049]

After weeding through tetras with my wife, she has decided that she likes Black Neons over the standard Cardinal/Neon. How will these school in a group of ~12 and are the just a docile as the Cards/Neons? If not, how about the Blue Neons? Thanks in advance.

[esarkipato]

I've had black neons for a couple years. Very hardy...survived even a 100% substrate change. I also really like how the black/white coloring contrasts the green/red of the plants.

I'm down to 5 in a 29g....and they are very docile and not too active. I would think a school of 12 would look very nice.

The frequency and nature of their schooling will depend largely on what tankmates they have and how big the tank is. If they feel safe all the time, they won't school much at all.

[conduct]

I also have some black neon and they are great. Most of the time they stick around with each other. Sometimes you might find one hanging out by themselves in the plants. During feeding though they group up and take out anything I feed them. Never had a die off from water changes and they seem to never get stressed.

[Canoe2Can]

Black neons are pretty typical of a small tetra: docile and schooling. A group of 12 would probably be good. Wouldn't go much less if you want a good chance of good schooling behavior.

Not sure what you mean by "blue neon." A scientific name would help. Sometimes P. simulans is sold as a "green neon." If so, they're pretty much the same as P. innesi or P. axelrodi in terms of behavior and hardiness.

[spdskr]

Black neons are one of my favorite tetra species. I find them to be more hardy than cardinals and other neons. The dark bodies with green stripes look great in a planted tank.

[XenoMorph2049]

Originally Posted by Canoe2Can

Not sure what you mean by "blue neon." A scientific name would help.

Aye, my mistake. Its a Blue Tetra, not Neon. Boehlkea fredcochui as AZ Gardens has it. This was the shock to me.... The wife chose something NOT blue..... Go figure. So of course the back up HAS to be blue.

[Canoe2Can]

Originally Posted by spdskr

Black neons are one of my favorite tetra species. I find them to be more hardy than cardinals and other neons.

Could be because they're not a "neon" species. Neons, cardinals, and "green neons" are all in the Paracheirodon genus. I think black neons are in the Hemianthus genus. Could be wrong about that second one though, and I don't have time to go looking it up, but I know they're from a different genus.

This is the whole problem with common names: They're too common. But they're fine if everyone knows what you're talking about, as with some really common species (ram, angelfish, cardinal, etc).

[Overfloater]

I am considering black neons for my Iwagumi tank. I really dig their colors and they seem to school pretty well from what I have seen.

[Betowess]

Yeah, they are cheap and captive bred and terrific swimmers in current. For months I had one who liked to swim in harder current and every evening would just swim for hours there with some juvi Rainbows, or by itself. I find they tend to school better than most species and are very hardy. Definately one of my favorites and very entertaining.

[CardBoardBoxProcessor]

Right now I have mine under numbered.. 3 and 4.. soon I hope to join these shoals.. but.. currently they are pretty aggresive.. they fight my SAEs and each other.. they attack my arm when when I put it in the tank.. -sigh-

[GreenerSideofLIfe]

I swear my black tetras are immortal. LOL those things lived through monsterious conditions with thier former owner, three major power outages with me during the middle of the winter in bellow freezing temps and they alone came out of it unscathed. These guys are like ... "BRING IT ON!" lol

Anyone want some slightly abused black neons? LOL

[XenoMorph2049]

Just an update. Picked up the dozen Black Neons from *cringe* PetSmart 2 days ago, along with two Otto's. I drip acclimated them for three hours (all fourteen fish) and dumped them into the tank. At first I thought I had gotten the wrong fishbecause all of them were so pale they could have been albino. Not 5 minutes later they looked AWSOME. The wife really digs them. But there was an oddity. With all my experiences, Ive NEVER seen two types of fish school together, with the exception of danios. Low and behold, I had a nice little school of 14........12 Neons and 2 Otto's......For some reason the Ottos were schooling with the Neons. Im thinking they need friends so 4 more Otto's are due in shortly. To make it even MORE bizzare, the Neons now school where ever the Otto's go, including to accompany them to do a sweep on the floor of the tank. The Otto's will find a spot worth grazing and the Neons will just hang out while they munch. Kinda cool.

[esarkipato]

That is hilarious. Wish mine would do that

[CardBoardBoxProcessor]

Originally Posted by XenoMorph2049

Just an update. Picked up the dozen Black Neons from *cringe* PetSmart 2 days ago, along with two Otto's. I drip acclimated them for three hours (all fourteen fish) and dumped them into the tank. At first I thought I had gotten the wrong fishbecause all of them were so pale they could have been albino. Not 5 minutes later they looked AWSOME. The wife really digs them. But there was an oddity. With all my experiences, Ive NEVER seen two types of fish school together, with the exception of danios. Low and behold, I had a nice little school of 14........12 Neons and 2 Otto's......For some reason the Ottos were schooling with the Neons. Im thinking they need friends so 4 more Otto's are due in shortly. To make it even MORE bizzare, the Neons now school where ever the Otto's go, including to accompany them to do a sweep on the floor of the tank. The Otto's will find a spot worth grazing and the Neons will just hang out while they munch. Kinda cool.

I think Neons are jsut plain dumb haha.. mine shool wiht my SAEs haha

[Betowess]

My Black Neons school with both my juvi Rainbows and Clown loaches fairly frequently (all at the same time together). Its a comedy/three ring circus in this community tanks at times, but the clown loaches are the show's stars. And I love Black Neons. I think they are a way under appreciated species.