5 dead cardinals the morning after purchase

[ccbeauch]

I'm going to go and say the ammonia is probably due to the 6 Cardinals sitting in the little container on the ride over to petsmart. The reading is at 0ppm when I take it directly from my tank. Forgot to mention that in the earlier post about that difference.

[dmagerl]

Are you running CO2? I had horrible cardinal loses with CO2. I learned that I had to turn off the CO2 the day before introducing cardinals to let the tank outgas, then turn it back on a day later after adding the cardinals.

No losses after doing that.

[ccbeauch]

Originally Posted by jake

When I first tried cardinals, I had them drop like flies. I got them right off the truck, special order at the lfs. I talked to an old-timer hobbyist who told me to feed them baby brine shrimp, preferably live, but frozen would do.

I tried them again, same lfs, feeding frozen bbs starting the second day, and had no losses.

That was just my experience.

Sent from my nerd device.

I've been feeding the discus frozen brine shrimp and sometimes the Cardinals grab one. Same with the blood worms that I give them. This was my first try so maybe next time I'll do a quar. tank and try harder not to kill them.

[ccbeauch]

Originally Posted by dmagerl

Are you running CO2? I had horrible cardinal loses with CO2. I learned that I had to turn off the CO2 the day before introducing cardinals to let the tank outgas, then turn it back on a day later after adding the cardinals.

No losses after doing that.

Hmmm. I do have a CO2 diffuser but I don't think it really works anyway cus it is stuck behind the foxtail. I do dose with excell so that might be the problem. Thanks for that idea.

[jtfromcharlotte]

Cardinals are generally wild caught. This can make them very sensitive to anything but ideal conditions. Don't be surprised if you end up losing half or more. How big is your tank? Unless it's 100+ gallons, adding 18 all at once is also not smart.

[ccbeauch]

lol thanks! I just needed you a little sooner... lol, I have had the same 6 since then all doing great with beautiful color. (they sneek the stray blood worms from the discus). I did wake up one morning and my group went from 7 to 6 with no sign of a body?! I was guessing one discus had a midnight snack...

[pelicanincident]

1ppm of ammonia is bad bad bad. That is definitely your problem. Might not have enough beneficial bacteria to handle your bioload, meaning your BB cannot keep up with the amount of ammo being produced by your fish.

[gSTiTcH]

Slow and steady, my friend. Adding that much fish at once to a system is bad bad news. You're asking for marathon performance from your biofilter when it's used to leisurely strolls to the corner market.

[Chulios66]

I rarely buy fish from petsmart unless I feel sorry for them. Right now, their is a fish with a deformed tail and no one has bought it yet even though its been their for over a month. Planning on giving it a better home on Saturday.