Maybe try Cards? Neons are said to prefer lower temps, not sure if this is a concern right now in the middle of Summer.

 

Hi Jahn I feel your pain. I tried with two batches in the last year. First from petco and then a very reputable online fish store. Both terrible experience! I tried every single thing to save / help them. I pretty much give up on hoping to have any. Which is weird since 20 years ago tetras were all my folks had (and angle fish) I don't recall it being a problem way back when....

 

If this is in your 20G, it could well be the other fish. I've kept neons on and off for the better part of a decade and was never successful in a community, even though there was never any visible altercations. When I finally keep a school as the main feature of a tank (with only cats and ottos as tank mates) they thrived for many years.

My understanding of more or less ideal conditions for them are slightly elevated temps, 78ish, and slightly acidic water, though my last successful effort was with decidedly hard water.

 

I, for one, have had the same problem with cardinal AND neon tetras. So I feel your pain. They'll be fine one day and bam! Stuck on the filter the next. Neon tetra disease? Well, they claim the cardinals aren't susceptible to them but they died out of the blue too. And yes, all the other fish are perfectly healthy. I can't say I've got it solved for fear of angering lady luck, the fish gods, or fate but I can say what might have helped is softer water and finding the right fish store. What's the right one? They say that it's the one that lets their neons/cardinals recover from their shipping stress before selling them. The ones that let their neons/cardinals grow a little over time first before selling them. Anyway, to some, neons/cardinals are easy and common, but to me, they've been so hard that I now prize them quite a bit. Good luck. Just hang in there.

 

I have lost many fish over the last year but the 13 neons I bought are still going strong. They seem to be the ultimate survivors in my tank. Maybe I'm just lucky.

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I have to admit i never had this problem. I have 5 that i added 3-4 months ago and all are still here in my community tank. I got them in a 5 for 10 deal. I guess i got really lucky or my lfs did a great job buying healthy ones or something. I did take almost an hour to acclimatize them though. I have a dwarf gourami, zebra danios, platies, mollies, guppies, a ghost shrimp and an ottocinclus in there. All them get along ok. Except one platy chases the others in the tank rarely.

 

I've gone through the same thing. All in all I've bought about 20, just to be able to have a school of five. It doesn't bother me, though, they only cost $1.00 a piece at pets mart.

 

I had that experience with cardinals (hard, alkaline water), but I bought 19 neons months ago hoping to end up with 10 or so (expected them to die off like my cardinals always have). I did a count earlier today, and there are still 19 neons in that tank - nice and big and healthy!

 

I have been lucky I see now. I have a school of 8 with 1 cardinal. Most have been with me since the beginning and I had no clue what I was doing.
What is your ph? I keep my water at 80 and ph around 7.2.
They are cheap at only a dollar but you do have to inspect. At my petsmart the other day it did look like at least 5 had neon tetra disease losing color at base of dorsal fin. One was dead. At least 100 more neons in that tank. When I showed the girl working there she had no clue what I was talking about and said she will get to them later.
Good luck. They are cool little fish when you get a good school going. You might also want to make sure u QT them.

 

Might be worth testing your water.

I've had about the same or worse luck with Neons. I'm pretty sure the last pod of Neons I brought home, had some fungus illness that killed all but two of my blood fin tetra and and hammered my other fish, until heavy meds got involved. My Cardinals are fairing much better. There are only three Neons left and one has me worried.

Does anyone think this might be a farm raised vs wild caught issue?

 

I'm just now cycling my tank, but I've read so many conflicting horror stories about both species that I'm shying away from both of them.

One thread will say "cardinals are wild-caught and sensitive, neons are tank-raised and adaptable to more water conditions." The next will say "cardinals are hardy if transported and acclimated properly, while neons are inbred and unhealthy." One thread will talk about Neon Tetra Disease and then the next says "Neon Tetra Disease is actually pretty rare."

Certainly cardinals want softer, less alkaline water than I can provide without getting into RO. But still, I've dropped both species off my list. I'll probably keep pristellas and black neons.

 

I've heard all sorts of generalizations too...here's another. From my limited experience working at a LFS, neons had one of the worst rates of survival after acclimation. But, in theory, if you wait a little while after the store receives them (after the initial die off) you may end up with individuals that are more hardy and have a better chance of then making it in your tank.

 

I just had 13 in a tank and I am down to 2. This happens to me everytime I try neons. I'm done with them.

 

That's why I went with green neons, even though I had to special order them. Even then I lost one to fungus and one to ich. But they're beautiful little fish.

 

I'm actually taking my collection of frozen corpses back to the LFS tonight for an exchange. I hope to find somethign colorful to use instead of the neons.

 

I've had varying degrees of success with both neons and cardinals. The two biggest survival factors I've noticed are the health of the fish you buy (sickly looking fish are probably just about dead anyway and the stress of being transported is usually enough to kill them off within a week) and the acclimation process. I've noticed the slower I acclimate them (I like the drip method, but don't always do it) the less I lose. I think a stable aquarium is important, too. I don't think they like changing conditions very much.

 

I have about 19 I bought from petsmart when they went on sale for 80 cents. I originally bought ten and it wasn't even close to enough in my 90 Gal. I lost a few so when they went back on sale i bought 15 more and lost 1-2. The pet store told me that it wasn't a good idea to add so many fish at one time. Maybe thats why you are loosing so many.

 

I have never had luck with neons, bought about 25 from different sources over time and none of them lived more than a few weeks.

I did buy 15 cardinals from petsmart (only because they were mislabeled as neons and $2 a piece) and had half of them die off after a few days, but the 7 i have left have been in there over 6 months and have survived two nasty columnaris outbreaks and are still going strong.

my water is fairly hard and high ph, too.

 

I used to be scared of getting neons due to the half a dozen times of failures in the past. But the current batch (4 of them) had survived for a month now. Which was actually longer than all the others combined. I'm considering increasing them in the next couple of weeks.

 

I've never had problem with either. maybe it's the stock you are buying from.

 

I asked the manager at my lfs how long theyve had thier neons and she told me they've had them for a while and that they don't die very often so I felt pretty comfortable in buying 6 of them that was a couple months ago and they're all still living!

 

Well I posted this almost a month ago when I lost another to fungus, down to two left. But those two are still alive so I guess I'll just let them pair up and live on together- still not going to buy any more though, it was indeed stressful seeing all the others drop like flies so quickly!

 

I've usually had good luck with Neons in the past. Might lose a couple from each batch of 5+ or so though

 

Got 5 from PetSupermarket a few weeks ago and so far everyone is thriving