Timid behaviour of Cardinal tetras

[mackeith]

i been into shrimp+planted tanks for a few months now and recently just decided to introduce cardinal tetras into my tank. though i managed to get around 10 of them, they are always very timid and hide among the plants even when feeding time or the lights are dimmed down... they don't even school together and are usually in group of 3 or 4... should i introduce more? if so, can i mix neon tetra with cardinal?

[Leeson]

how big is your tank?

[gummynut]

there is no problem in mixing neon tetra and cardinal tetra, i fyour tank is big enough to house them. Just do a quarantine for neon terta before introducing them into your tank.

[mackeith]

my tanksize is 1.5ft. too small for the cardinals?

[Heiko Bleher]

Hello Mackeith,

healthy and happy new year. My name is heiko Blehr and I just read about the problems you have with cardinals.
Please remember, for certain your cardinals are wild collected, and they do NOT know, nor associate with, shrimps in nature. Therefore it is wrong to keep them with shrimps, also because they may well frighten your cardinals.
I also would not suggest to mix them with neon tetras, as neons come from totally different habitat (in nature), water parameters, etc. See also in my website www.aquapress-bleher.com in the part of "Publications" or directly to
http://www.aquapress-bleher.com/inde...id=6&Itemid=22
and unter www.hagen.com please jut go to Nutrafin Aquatic news number one and you find everything you ever wanted to know about cardinals and neons tetras.

And your tank is not to small, but keep either the shrimps OR the cardinals.

best regards

Heiko Bleher

[Leeson]

i find that cardinals and neon tetras do not usually school very well in smaller tanks. they might exhibit some form of schooling behavior once in a while or just generally hang out in a bunch especially in planted tanks. so i will say that your cardinals are not behaving abnormally.

[Shaihulud]

Its my observation that Cardinal tetras like to hide in the grass when given sufficient cover. They school when feeling threatened.

[KeIgO86]

From past experience, the behaviour of cardinal tetras is affected by the layout of the planted tank. They seem relatively timid when the tank layout is open. I had just a small mount of nanas and crypts in the middle of the 2ft tank. 3/4 of the surface of the tank is HC. They will hide other whatever cover they can find (the mount of nanas/crypts) the whole day. Hardly see them.

When I rescaped the tank and have the layout with thick plants at the sides and back of the tank, with an open area in the middle and front of the tank, they were always swimming around in the open area.

And yes, they were the exact same cardinals that were extra timid in the previous scape.

[Heiko Bleher]

Hi,

here again Heiko Bleher and I wanted to ad in regards to Cardinals they school also if in larger groups as in nature. One has to have at least 25 or 30 in an aquarium, than for sure they school most of the time. Smaller groups rarely.

I have a friend, he has 2000 in one aquarium )very large= and they school all the time...

Best regards

Heiko Bleher

[mackeith]

Thanks for all the great comments. guess i need to look into a bigger tank or sell my current 10 cardinals away. kinda sad to see such beautiful creature hidden from view.

[Leeson]

i don't see the need to sell them. you may consider rescaping to push them into the forefront of the tank if you really need to look at them all the time