Are Black Neon Tetras As Hard To Keep As Regular Neons/cardinals?

I'm trying to decide between a saltwater tank or a discus tank (got another thread for that already, so not discussing it here) but if I go with discus, I think I want some sort of tetra to go with them. I like lemon tetras so far, but also really like cardinal tetras and black neons. I've always loved the appearance of cardinal tetras, even before I had a fish tank.

I don't know about the black neons, but I have read that many people have had their cardinal tetras die for no apparent reason. I've read this so much that I'm probably never going to try getting them, unless there is some 'secret' to keeping them alive.

So now I'm here to ask whether black neon tetras die as often as cardinals/regular neons. Or if there's nothing to worry about with cardinals either.

If I don't get cardinals, I'll consider black neons, but if I don't get those either, I'll stick with lemon tetras.

 

personally i've never had an issue with cardinals, neons or black neon's dieing without a good reason. They're a good community fish but tetras might become food for discus

 

I have lost ~25% of my cardinals during first week due to acclimation and/or shipping stress. Once settled in, I have good results. One year, still going strong. But I also have reasonable water parameters for them 0/0/20 for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, pH 6.4 and <6 dGH. It's frustrating to lose so many at the start but they are more disease resistant than neons.

 

Black Neons are much hardier than the Paracheirodon species. They are not as picky about pH and hardness, and will eat pretty much any food given to them. Not so sure about temperature compatibililty with Discus, though, as they are a Paraguay basin species, which generally tend to prefer slightly lower temperatures.

 

I currently have 9 black neons in my tank and they are funny little guys. I have only lost one from the beginning, but everyone else is doing just fine. I keep my tank at 75 for them and their future tank mates.

 

My tetra tank started with 19 neons and 12 black neons before I knew how to take care of them at all whatsoever - it ended with four neons (after I replaced about 10) and 9 black neons, so all in all I lost about 25 neons and 3 black neons in the exact same conditions. The water was toxic for about two months before I got everything under control which was when I lost the blacks, but the blues just kept dying slowly. I imagine the last four will be gone in the semi-near future because why wouldn't they, I'm just done replacing them... but the black neons are doing great. As was mentioned though, I don't know how they'd fare at the kinda of temps you'd want to keep discus at.

Others: would discus really eat black neons? Are we talking small ones or adults? I can't imagine a discus eating my big fat fish unless they ripped it to shreds first - I wasn't aware they were that violent if that's the case. Or do they have undercover giant mouths like angels?

 

I meant smaller ones, more particularly the neons. Full grown I don't think Discus would be able to get a mouth around them.....I could be wrong tho. Perhaps someone who keeps/has kept discus long term could help you more on that one.