viking47

I have had two cardinal tetras die in the past week. They didn't show any signs of illness when I went to bed, but awoke to find ghost shrimp eating them in the morning. Is it possible that the ghost shrimp killed them at night. I have heard they will get small fry. The tetras are about 1" to 1.5" and sleep low in the plants at night but stay in the middle of the tank in the day.

susitna-flower

I doubt it, the tetras are probably dying from something else, and the shrimp eat anything dead in the tank....I have a tank with cardinals and two types of shrimp....never a problem.

Cardinals like neons are very susceptible to water conditions, and stress.....

Lucy

Cardinals are so pretty. That's what I was orignally going to start with, but no one carries them around here. I hear they aren't very hardy.

viking47

Thanks for the response...I didn't think a ghost shrimp could take out a cardinal tetra. Just in the past when a fish died, I recognized them geting ill well in advance. These two deaths caught me off guard.

The cardinals aren't very hardy. From what I have read else where, most are wild caught. So they go through a tremendous amount of stress being shipped from S.America prior to arriving in your tank. I have had to replace a few, but I think I have a pretty healthy shoal now. Hopefully the ghost shrimp won't cause any problems when the lights are out.