clicknd

Hey all. I was wondering how cardinal tetras would hold up in a 20 gallon aquarium. i am planning on making it a tank solely for the purpose of housing cardinals. How many could Iput in this tank? What kind of a habbitat should they have? I absolutely love these fish and would like as much information about them as possible. thank you all very much for your time.

Tom

Please read my post in the other one.
Tom

P.S. Please try and post only one of the same and just in one section. If it is in the wrong section, we will move it. Thanks for trying though.

MrWaxhead

Hey hey cardinal tetras thrive in low pH 6.0 to to 6.5 or even lower if you want them to breed. They also like very soft water, and thrive in a heavily planted tank. They will get about 2 inches in lenght, so you could go with 10 to 12 of them. I would suggest adding some shrimp like amano etc, to do algae work. In a well planted tank you could add about 6 amano with the cardinals and should be fine for bio load.

Also cardinals can be very sensitive to change, so you want to very slowly let them into the water, take at least a hour of floating and every 10 min or so let a bit of your water into the bag until the bag is a good mix of your water and the bags water. I would add 6 and then add 6 a couple weeks later and not all 12 at once.

Also they need a mature tank, if your tank is still new, I would plant it very heavy (this will take some of the load of ammonia and nitrites etc off your tank) And add the shrimp once all your levels are good 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 10 to 20 nitrate. Then make sure everything is stable for a few weeks, then start the phases of Cardinals (granted a few weeks after cycle is not really mature, but the plants will aid in the mature health of the tank). If you try to add cardinals to a non mature tank there is a large chance they will die. Once your tank is mature and running strong Cardinals are quite hardy, but they will non last long if you try and put them in a tank that is non ready for them.

Some people say Cardinals will adapt to higher ph and harder water, but the chances of loss are much higher in those conditions. They also tend to like water on the warmer side, 78 to 81 degrees, I have yet to loose a single cardinal in my tanks that are low ph soft water and in that temp range other then to old age.

They are beautiful fish and look amazing in a planted tank, and really need good numbers to stay happy, its a great choice to go the route your going and stick with a Cardinal tank rather then a few of them and a few other fish etc.

Amnagrla

EDIT: lol MrWaxHead beat me to it! lol I wouldn't have gone into so much detail if he didn't start typing his response at the same time.....

I would do your own research on this, especially since you love them so much! But I will tell you what I know

They like a little bit warmer water, so 80F. You will want to have at least 6 for them to be happy and thrive.. I'd say for your 20gallon you could go 6 to 8 of them safely. You want to make sure that you acclimate them slowly by letting a little tank water into the bag a little at a time. Also, make sure that once you set up your tank, let it go through the nitrogen cycle before putting them in. (If you don't know what that is, http://www.fishlore.com/Beginners.htm )

As far as what to put in... they like fine-leaved plants such as Cabomba though other plants such as Amazon Swordplants and Vallisneria are equally suitable. They like some floating plants to provide shade. That would also help with breeding. They like lots of bogwood, live plants, dark substrate color, and low lighting.

They also like varied food, flakes, daphnia, blood worms, etc.

I must stress that you let your tank COMPLETELY cycle because they are a bit sensitive, especially to new tanks.

Anyways, I hope that I helped!!

Tom

I know I had 7 cardinals and they were introduced to hard water with a somewhat high pH(7.0-7.5) and they are doing great now, but one got eaten by my angels. Other than that, Mr.Waxhead is right.
Tom

MrWaxhead

Ya Tom they can get used to alkaline water even more so if they were captive breed. I just really find them to be healthier in soft acidic water over the long haul. But yes I too know people that have kept them in 7 ph + water and they lived long happy lifes. I just think over all its better on the acidic side for them. I peat filter all my tanks that house cardinals, just to help with the ph a bit and give them a tea stained tanin coloured water to be more like their home water.

Tom

Mine are wild-caught though. At first I had the tank with no peat, but now I have it filtering through peat and they seem to look better than ever.
Tom

clicknd

Thanks all for your very detailed answers it helped me tremendously. i have one last question. Would cardinals be ok in a highly planted tank in which the plants were fake?

Tom

I think they would, but they would prefer them to be live since it would remind the majority of them of home(the rivers they come from), but if you get lots of fake silk plants, that should do if you can't budget live plants at the moment. I would advise filling the tank with plants first, waiting a few weeks/a month, add some other small fish, i.e. corys, and then a few weeks later, add the cardinals.
Tom