cardinal tetra

**d2hpeter** · 6th Mar 2004, 10:25

bought 11 cardinal from Y618 yesterday. [did not get too many with advice from you all]
They seem to feel at home, swimming happily.
Problem is when i tried to feed with tetramin baby [it is still quite small so smaller food may be good to get them started], they ignored it.
i am thinking the fishshop could be feeding them some other food.

need some advice on the kind of food to give.

**stocker** · 6th Mar 2004, 11:22

[quote:983f2c1afd="

hpeter"]bought 11 cardinal from Y618 yesterday. [did not get too many with advice from you all]
They seem to feel at home, swimming happily.
Problem is when i tried to feed with tetramin baby [it is still quite small so smaller food may be good to get them started], they ignored it.
i am thinking the fishshop could be feeding them some other food.

need some advice on the kind of food to give.[/quote:983f2c1afd]

Maybe you could try "starving" them for one or 2 days, I think typically, that'l help....

**crandf** · 6th Mar 2004, 11:42

or introduce some fish used to eating tetramin baby, and then hope they'll watch and learn; at least mine did.

**Jas** · 6th Mar 2004, 18:02

[quote:7f1249c27a="

hpeter"]bought 11 cardinal from Y618 yesterday. [did not get too many with advice from you all]
They seem to feel at home, swimming happily.
Problem is when i tried to feed with tetramin baby [it is still quite small so smaller food may be good to get them started], they ignored it.
i am thinking the fishshop could be feeding them some other food.

need some advice on the kind of food to give.[/quote:7f1249c27a]

I also bought 50 pcs from Y618 a few months back.....quite stable compare to other LFS. So far only 3 died.....

You can try TetraColor flakes.....i feed with this and very fast consume when i put a few flakes in.....

**Aeon** · 6th Mar 2004, 20:36

My cardinals eat everything, anything lol! even floating dead leaves.

**byronshoh** · 12th Mar 2004, 20:26

Guess they need time to get use to the environment. Mine did not eat much the first 3 days....then started eating pellets when they started sinking down...now I put the pellets in and they rush to the surface...

**imperial** · 12th Mar 2004, 23:57

i feed mine with tubifex. u should see how they scramble! like never see food b4. worse than my malawis.

**Blue Whale** · 13th Mar 2004, 14:19

Generally I am using mixed diet for all my tetras including Neon, Cardinal, Emperor, Black Emperor, glow lite.

Nightly, I will feed them with Red Worms (frozen), occassionally they eat HaiFeng BaoZhenHong. They have supplement food such as flake food which I will crumple them into smaller pieces. They take Baby Plankton No.2 food too.

Baby Plankton No.2 I got it for my guppy babies. But yes, the babies eat red worm too even though their size are very tiny...very cute to watch a baby trying to swallop 1 red worm..hee hee.

**d2hpeter** · 13th Mar 2004, 22:38

[quote:2d6ed59427="imperial"]i feed mine with tubifex. u should see how they scramble! like never see food b4. worse than my malawis.[/quote:2d6ed59427]

you mean live tubifex? ya, personally that was my favourite fish food...used to enjoy seeing fishes pulling the worms from the floating feeding cone dispenser. I think this is one that fishes like most too. But the problem is that i am concern about the possibility of disease-carrying organisms in them. I usually rinsed them thoroughly with tap water before dispensing. I think i should try going back to this food.

**cbong** · 13th Mar 2004, 22:48

I've read that Cardinals are generally more hardy than Neon Tetras. Cardinals are 'original' fishes from S America i.e. not cross-bred. Therefore the immunity is good. However, Neon are bred in South East Asia i.e. a variant of the Cardinals. As a result, the immunity for Neon has been affected by the cross-breeding. Found Neon to contract White-spots, Stomache bloats and Intestinal diseases easily.

**d2hpeter** · 13th Mar 2004, 23:09

[quote:2

a45cddc="cbong"]I've read that Cardinals are generally more hardy than Neon Tetras. Cardinals are 'original' fishes from S America i.e. not cross-bred. Therefore the immunity is good. However, Neon are bred in South East Asia i.e. a variant of the Cardinals. As a result, the immunity for Neon has been affected by the cross-breeding. Found Neon to contract White-spots, Stomache bloats and Intestinal diseases easily.[/quote:2

a45cddc]

is that right. I thought neon is also a native of the Amazon? according to my book, its main habitat is the upper Amazon region near the cities of Leticia and Tabatinga

**budak** · 13th Mar 2004, 23:20

Please get your facts right.

Paracheirodon axelrodi (cardinals) and P. innesi (neon tetras) are two totally separate species. Cardinals are found in the Brazilian Amazon, while neons are native to the Peruvian Amazon.

Because neons are relatively easier to breed, many farms in Asia produce them in large numbers. But probably due to the limited breeding stock used, in-breeding has resulted and the fish are therefore prone to physical defects, genetic problems etc.

**greenie** · 13th Mar 2004, 23:20

Neons native to amazon like cardinal. But the ones found at LFS are farm bred. Cardinals difficult to breed commercially, easier to take from wild. So most cardinal import from wild.

In a way, after a few generations of breeding, the neons r less immune to disease, IMO, becoz of the farm environment.

Example of not "original" fish are louhans and it's kind, as an example.