FishMagnet

New to this forum so hello to any and all.

I'd to like to ask a generic question about my favorite freshwater fish the neon and cardinal tetras in regards to my tank size.

I'm in the process of cycling my 75gal tank and aside from the "standard cleaner" fish I'd like some input on what tetras to add and how many.

I plan on a large school of Neons and Cardinals and one or two smaller schools of another type of tetra.

So the question is what would be a good "large" size (number) school of Neon/Cardinal and have fun suggesting compatible other tetras for color, water column, or just because. They don't have to be Tetras.

Thank you!

ABCDemily

Well, a good rule to use for a smaller species of fish is "an inch of fish per gallon of water"
This only works for little fish like the tetras

What clean-up crew are you thinking? If you were thinking Corydoras, I'd reccomend about eight, so that'd be at three inches per fish, about 24 inches.

Now you have 51 inches to play with. You could probably have twenty of each, maybe fifteen of each.

This will be such an awsome tank once you're done!

aquarist48

Welcome to Fish Lore. Hope you can share some pictures once you're up and running!

bolivianbaby

What about a school of pristella tetras in addition to your stocking? That would add a little color as well.

dking271

Rummynose Tetra's would look great with a large school of Cardinals. They tend to school in tighter shoals and are more active than Neon or Cardinals. I use both Cardinals and Rummynose as dither fish for my more skittish Cichlids. The Rummynose do a much better job IMO as a true dither. If they are out and feel safe, everyone else seems more comfortable.

FishMagnet

Thanks, good suggestions.

I need to decide on a middle to top of the tank fish. Suggestions on those?

bolivianbaby

Most tetras will occupy the middle to the top of the tank. Since your tank is so large, you could even go with Congo tetras, which get pretty big. Maybe search the internet on tetras and see what you like.

Good luck and please keep us posted!

grimly024

I have Congo Tetras and Emperor Tetras in my 55g. They are both very large tetras and school together almost constantly. I get alot of compliments on my Congos as they are almost a metallic rainbow color with powder white fins. They are quite exotic looking, are always active and occupy the top half of tank.

If you can find some I would strongly suggest it, especially since you have such a large tank - you could get a bunch of em!

snakestorm526

My vote is for rummynose also... I have a school of 6 rummynose swimming with my school of 18 neons and 10 galaxy rasboras

Jeff Varszegi

Some nice smaller fish I found in a recent search (I have seen some but not all of these in person before):

blue tetra
green fire tetra
ember tetra
glowlight tetra
silver tip tetra
jelly bean tetra
sundadanio / rasbora axelrodi blue
Rasbora vaterifloris (a.k.a. Singhalese fire barb)
galaxy rasbora
green neon rasbora
Microdevario kubotai (a.k.a. Burma Yellow Neon Rasbora)
Microrasbora erythromic(r)on / danio erythromic(r)on
Microrasbora rubescens (a.k.a. Asian Cardinal rasbora)
orange spotless australe killifish
Sparkle-eye Whitecloud
celestial pearl danio
pearl danio
(longfin) blue danio
danio roseus