Elleric

Kind of a long story about my new cardinals

So my tank was all set up, the cycle finished and i went out to buy some fish. My fiance picked out 6 cardinal tertas and two honey dwarf gouramis. We got them home and acclimated them very slowly over the course of about 2 hours and let them swim off.

Then an odd thing happened, we only saw 4 tertas. I looked all over, even going so far as to take appart the filter quickly to see if they had been sucked up and to scoure the area around the tank ot make sure they hadnt fallen out. after a half hour of searching with no luck, she and i went out to dinner.

We got home and poof, there were now 5 tertas swimming about. We spent about 20 minutes wondering where the 5th had been hiding and searching for the still missing 6th, with no luck.

We went to sleep and woke up the next morning to find... 6 tetras *boggle* no idea where they came from! but everyone was home now and the little school was swimming about.

*sad part* over the next day or two though, two of the tetras started to look a bit run down, falling behind the group and unfortunately they died leaving 4 tetras in the tank. now i have no way to know but id imagine these two were the two who were lost and the trauma of being stuck or lost got the best of them.*/sad part*

The remaining 4 became very shy and skiddish, to the point where they refused to leave the corner of the tank to eat. The gouramis loved this because any food they missed at the top of the tank that would normally be eaten by the tetras was waiting for them at the bottom of the tank as a kind of desert (little pigs they area)

The lack of eating had me worried so yesterday i decided to go out and get a few more to add to the school. I went and got 4 more cardinal tetras on my way home from work. I got home to find one of the honey gourami, who was missing his front fins had died. I had been keeping an eye on him for a few days because he had been missing the fins since we got him from the petstore and was a bit slow in swimming and had some unusual habits about him.

At first i was leary about adding the tetras to the tank, but really saw no other option. and after another 2 hours of dripping water, in they went.

To start off, they formed two little 4 fish schools on opposite sides of the tank. I was waiting for west side story to break out, but eventually they grouped up together.

This morning they are doing very well, darting about the entire tank with much less skiddishness. and when i fed them, they had no problem coming to the front of the tank as little food flakes slowly sank. They even went after the same food as the gourami. He took a bite out of a larger flake and as he released it the tetras pounced and took it away from him.

So after a few sad bits, so far, so good.

Jess

The Cardinals take time to adjust. I have a group of 15. You were right to get more to form a school. They think "safety in numbers". Sometimes mine will split, and form two schools but they do rejoin as yours did.

capekate

Hello elleric
Cardinal tetras are wonderful little fish. I have had many over the years and have lost many due to a faulty heater. I only have three left but they have been with me for over a year now.
they are pretty sensitive fish as you know and you acclimated them the right way! good for you. Sometimes a few just do not make the transition from shop to bag to tank. Its almost a given that you can tend to lose at least one or two. Im glad to see that they are all happy now. For such a tiny fish they do have a big impact on the look of the tank!

David593

good job for adding more cardinals. They really like being in schools.

THE MORE THE MERRIER!