rummies vs cardinals

[jphan]

which one is easier to keep? i recently got 11 rummys for a Really cheap price and i lost almost all of them but 4. they started dieing one by one. I haver never lost this much fish before. The only times i lose fish is when they either get eaten or get killed by another fish which only happens in my african cichlid tank. I do never do any tests or deloriante my water or anything. I use straight out tap water and all my fish seem fine until i tried rummies. Even my ottos adapted well to them. So yea are cardinals a lot easier than rummies?

[Blue Ridge Reef]

Nope. If you don't maintain your aquarium any better than that, you should stay away from cardinals, too.

[lopez_316us]

Cardinals and Rummys need excellent conditions and they do best in low PH. What are your parameters?

[CobraGuppy]

the reason is probably because you dont dechlor your water.

Chlorine is like a poison to fish gills.

[EricSilver]

Originally Posted by jphan

I use straight out tap water and all my fish seem fine until i tried rummies. Even my ottos adapted well to them.

Your tap water quality must be excellent if you can get away with that.

Ottos are pretty sensitive, but rummies are even more so. Since you have never lost that many fish before, perhaps consider acclimating them for a longer period, and testing the water to be sure all is well.

[revkev]

Rummies and cardinals need acid water PH 6.5 temp 88-90f.
You must add some of your tank water to the water you got them in very slow ie when you have doubled the water in the container this should take about 3/4 - 1 hour.
Rummy nose tetras are a good indicator of the tank conditions ie nice red noses = good water .... pale noses check the water.

[mrbman7]

loosing so many could also be an indicator that the fish were already sick when you got them.

I lost 7(all) gold white clouds I purchased once. Took them back for a refund and got another batch a couple of weeks later. The second batch all survived.

One question I have is: what size tank were you adding them to? If it was a small tank, increasing the bioload suddenly could cause ammo problems too which would stress fish (some to the point of death). considering they just underwent the stress of moving from the store from your home, it might not have taken much more to push them over the edge

As far as the tap water goes, I don't dechlorinate my tap water and I keep a school of rummy's. I happen to know that my water is very good straight out of the tap. But if you don't know what your water is like out of the tap then you should always dechlorinate

[bra_van_drakh]

i never dechlorinate my water, but yet 5 out of 6 cardinals that i bought last week lived till today [the 1 died was already dizzy and dying anyhows. . ..]

yeah. . .i think cardinals are just a bit harder to keep rather than rummy nose, although i know that rummy noses are hard to keep too [got 6 back in indonesia] and yes, rummies are a good water indicator, hhahahahhaha, just like a water parameter tester. . ..

and it'll make you extremely happy if they develop a bright red nose just like mrbman7's pict. . .. great pict anyhow, mate^^

[lauraleellbp]

Originally Posted by revkev

Rummies and cardinals need acid water PH 6.5 temp 88-90f.

Whoa that's a good way to boil some fish! lol

Both these species are usually fine as long as the temps are in the high 70s to mid 80s.

As long as you drip-acclimate them, they also are pretty adaptable, once intially acclimated. Getting good stock can be very difficult, though.

Dechlorinated water is a must, along with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrItes, and nitrAtes under 20ppm at most. They need established tanks. Rainwater is ideal.

[revkev]

I keep my cardinals & rummy nose tetras with discus temp 29-30c ph 6.3 -6.5

[bra_van_drakh]

whow. . . .dont they die off that 30'C temp ??? i think even my praecox died of the 30'C back in indonesia when i accidentally put a 150watts heater inside a 20gal. . ..

but my cardinals are doing great in the 20 gal long in indo with 21'~26'C. . .

[jphan]

o yea forgot to mention taht the rummies noses looks not even red when i got them. but when i put them in they turned bright red instantly! but yea it could be my temp the tank temp is 78 degrees. i also was surprised that i had success with cherry shrimp. i bought four just to see if they would survive and they are still alive and its been 1 month

[jphan]

well my friend got 3 from the same store too and he lost all 3 within 3 days and he declorinates and everything so iono... i think im gunna try to get cardinals later on when i plan to redo my african cichlid tank into a planted and declorinate and test and stuff. the reason why my tank is 78 degrees cause i had it on 86 once and almost half my plants died so i lowered it but my blue ram does not color up as nice though =(

[aznkonner]

jphan it's partly the fish and partly the fact that it's water. i got 5 of them recently at the same store (hell for a buck it's not too bad) and already i have one acting like it has seizures. my tank is being a bit weird lately but personally i think cardinals are easier to keep. they do really well in my tank while rummy noses are dying off slowly. did u put any salt or anythign in there? i'm almost sure taht my recent deaths are due to salt. last time i added salt to my tanks i lost nearly all my rummy noses. i've been putting in low amounts of salt to save another fish (can't catch the fish because gonna cause too much stress).

anyways try keeping the rummy nose in pristine water with no salts or chemicals. at least do that until they completely adapt to the tank.

[fishscale]

I think you should invest in a test kit. Just because you've been lucky doesn't mean you shouldn't have one. I would also invest in dechlorinator, in case of large water changes. You can get away with not having dechlorinator for small changes. I would use a quarantine tank for new fish; you don't want to infect your main tank.

It's best not to keep fish in the same tank when one can eat the other. It sounds like you put something small in the cichlid tank.

pH is not as important as good clean stable water. People keep and even breed discus in all sorts of high pH water. It is really not very hard to keep good water conditions, but it is necessary to be patient and not be greedy with the amount of fish kept.

According to google, 30 C is 86 F, which is on the high end for tetras, but perfect for discus. I'd say the tetras would be fine, if not more active.