Is it just bad luck with tetras?

In the last 2 weeks I bought 18 tetras 10 phantom tetras and 8 cardinals. The phantoms went into a newly set up 75g the cards a recently set up 15. Now both tanks are correct with no water problems. Both were started with media from other tanks and water checked. Both sets started dying off day one. I’ve lost 50% of both sets. The phantoms started with one that had its face half gone when I got it. It lasted the day than 3 others bloated and died and yesterday another face problem. So down to 5. Also in the tank and newly added are 3 ottos and 4 sterbai corys. These are all doing fine. Next is the cards lost 3 the first day and the last five looked good. Next day one had a pink tail. It was dead by noon. Last 4 look great. All colored up and eating. They share the 15 with an SAE a cory and a small discus. All the others are fine.
So my question is. Is this normal and what to expect when buying tetras? Haven’t bought any in years. But am looking for dither fish and these were the best choices out there (went to 4 stores). Again these were the best looking I found.

 

Well, if it is bad luck, it is the WORST! And what i fully expect when i take the plunge into tetra land in near future

 

Also. Bought from 2 different stores. Same results.

 

Different stores but probably same supplier.

The fish carry Columnaris which lives on their slime coat and if they don't acclimatise well (to the shop as much as your tank) they can develop disease.

This is where the problem lies.

 

Well I guess that’s the worst news . Guessing I’d say that’s what the phantoms have. But the cards I think were just bad stock. So what to do now? Do I medicate or wait it out and see if only the dead ones had it?

 

Your best bet, since you are an experienced keeper, is to provide good conditions for your fish and check they have all recovered.

I believe that antibiotics mixed with the food can help. I bought some but my fish were already on the road to recovery so fortunately I didn't need it.

In my experience fish with minor symptoms can recover from them if kept in good conditions. I mean white patches of Columnaris on skin and fins.

Beginners may struggle to cure fish because it can take a while to learn how to provide good water quality and to gain the experience to recognise other stressors e.g. bullying, oxygenation etc..

Then you need to find a supplier who acclimates his fish well and does not have diseased ones in the shop.

I know of one shop that pulled 50 fish per day from the sale tanks before opening for business. To buy from this shop is to buy fish that may also die.

I know of another that carefully drip acclimates the fish overnight following delivery and his fish have always been healthy. They all come from the same wholesaler.

 

Yes that’s my problem now. My go to guy moved almost a year ago and is still setting up his fish room. The next place just isn’t getting the fish in. Said they don’t look good at the wholesaler. The 2 I bought from had nothing great (except the sterbai corys) and I wanted to get something in the tank before the discus. All the survivors look good now so I’m hopping no more problems. But I don’t have the numbers I wanted or the trust to buy more.
Thanks for the help it’s been years since I’ve bought tetras and back than they were reliable. Losing 50% from 2 different places was unheard of.

 

I have purchased many different kinds pf tetras from both my LFS and from Petsmart. I have had great luck with most. Lost my neons right away, and will not get them again. Instead I switched to Cardinals. I think I lost a few as a snack, but the rest are good. To me they mostly seem like hardy fish, as I do not have much experience....set my first tank up eight months ago. I do drip acclimate as well.

 

Maybe it is just the species of tetras that die while other species are much harder. I gave up on Neons years ago because I never could get any to live. A couple of months ago I decided to try Red Eye Tetras and have not had any problems with these. I bought ten and every time I count them they are all still there. They zip around the tank chasing each other and eat like hogs.

 

Well I take it as bad stock. Lost another phantom today. My fault I should never have bought from that store. The other fish in that tank I bought from different stores and they are all still doing good. The cards were a gamble they had just came in. I bought because I figured they would last till the weekend (would have been sold). But the 4 left do look good now.

 

Have you checked out Aqua Huna for your tetras? I have been reading some good reviews of fish bought from them. Even neons. I see they sell the neons in groups of 16 and several folks that bought them have reported all of them surviving. This company offers several different species of tetras. Unlike most other shippers these folks don't charge and arm and a leg for shipping.

 

I agree that it has more to do with the store than the stock. My local LFS is not so great about acclimation, and I have had 50/50 luck buying fish there at best. My diamond tetras came from this place and I didn't lose a single one, but I bought a blue 3-spot gourami that lasted less than 72 hours, I recently bought a firemouth that lasted ten days, I bought 2 Bolivian rams that are still alive but one is just....funky.... I actually have better luck with my local Petsmart than the LFS. I also know that they do "plop and drop" acclimation, and they will blatantly sell fish that are sick or sharing filtration systems with active ich infestations. I've never once seen a "not for sale" on their tanks. I try not to shop there but if you're looking for things besides Glofish or tiger barbs PetSmart can be hard to shop at.

 

Well I try to help the local stores. But I’m done with the one store. As stated they keep fish of all types together. There approach is to have so many different types of fish that more people will go there. Problem is they just don’t care how they do it. It could be a great store if they would just dedicate tanks to certain fish. But its all over the place. They got wild discus with angels and guppies. I knew I was going to regret it . But figured how could I go wrong with phantom tetras .

 

I've had good luck with cardinals. I picked up 5 from a dealer in wisc that is very very reliable and all 5 are doing fine but this was after buying 3 from the local lfs and having 2 die and one of my original stock immediately getting sick when i added these (yea yea i should qt but no space for qt tank - i was just grateful i only lost 1 - even if it was 2 years old). His stock was wild caught. I also got some white fin rosy red from petco a year ago (similar to phantom) and they all did well - but are now a year older - also got some otto and i had 0% die on me. Mind you every petco is different (even if the source is the same) and there are many petco i won't touch.
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One thing i wanted to ask was the tank temp.
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Anyway the answer to your question is good stock you should expect 0 out of 20 to die but bad stock they all can die. I had along chat with my lfs about that and they had recently gotten a shipment of cardinal after suffering a large die off from a previous vendor and they were shocked that only 1 out of something like 400 fishes died after suffering so many losses from another vendor. It truly depends on the stock.
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I give you the name of the guy in wi but he will only ship express which makes it way to expensive for just cardinals.

 

Well I try to help the local stores. But I’m done with the one store. As stated they keep fish of all types together. There approach is to have so many different types of fish that more people will go there. Problem is they just don’t care how they do it. It could be a great store if they would just dedicate tanks to certain fish. But its all over the place. They got wild discus with angels and guppies. I knew I was going to regret it . But figured how could I go wrong with phantom tetras .

I totally understand trying to buy fish locally but if the local store isn't doing all they can to assure selling healthy fish it is time to rethink buying from them. It sounds like the one store isn't doing their part to make sure you get healthy fish. It is great that you have a choice and can still get your fish from a more reliable store.

 

I've made several purchases from aqua huna this summer - not tetra. I would label many of their fishes B grade (they don't cull them for deformity). Health wise they've been fine. I have haven't lost any galaxy rasbora, kubota rasbora, forktail rainbows nor rams (yet). I purchased the rams in hope for a female since they were cheap and i was already ordering other stuff - they are healthy but again B grade - well one of them anyways. One actually very very nice but a worthless male. Anyway - sterbai i lost one of 4 but not 100% sure it was unhealthy - looked like it got stabbed by something. Oh yea i also ordered some kuhli - nothing special about them but again all of them are doing fine.
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So i guess for tetra they are probably fine but if you care about the fish disposition or will use it for breeding i would probably look else where. Also frequently the fishes are very very young. So be sure they will go in a tank with no predator. The rams were actually adults but everything else was in that 8 to 12 week range.

Have you checked out Aqua Huna for your tetras? I have been reading some good reviews of fish bought from them. Even neons. I see they sell the neons in groups of 16 and several folks that bought them have reported all of them surviving. This company offers several different species of tetras. Unlike most other shippers these folks don't charge and arm and a leg for shipping.

 

Even chain stores like Petco and Petsmart can change from store to store in the way they handle live fish.

I have been two two different Petcos of late and one was not a good place to shop for live fish, the employees there where all clueless about my hard questions. The fish there didn't look good to me and very little to choose from.

But the second one I visted was very professional in the way they handled their fish and answered my questions. When I asked the young lady about their water parameters she pulled out a book showing me all the water tests they run on the water in their tanks. This person really cared about her tanks and the stock in them and begin to ask questions about my tank and how long it had been up and running. I am very happy with everything I bought there, so this will be my goto store.

 

Sounds like your fish were sick from the store. A quarantine with broad spectrum treatment might have been in order.

For neons and cardinals, I used to have them die off slowly, but since I have gone to soft water (low GH) tanks for them they thrive and live full lives. Other folks have noted that they seem to be sensitive to salts (GH). This is a slow process, where they don't live that long if the GH is high. Neons and Cardinal Tetras seem to have this sensitivity to salts.

 

Most of mine are 2 years old - gh is 7 kh is 3 tds is aruond 130. high and low are relative numbers you should use numbers.

 

I keep my neons in water with GH of 3 and KH of 8 and pH of 7.8 and they are 7-8 years old and breed regularly. The population keeps going!

Nothing is cuter than baby neons.

In the past when I kept them in hard water with GH probably around 20, but I don't recall exactly, they would not thrive or live past a few years, and certainly would not breed.

 

The API hardness test also indicates soft water (GH 3) for neons.



Source: https://apifishcare.com/pdfs/products-us/gh-kh-test-kit/api-gh-&-kh-test-kit-instruction-manual.pdf

 

Your phantoms were definitely ill as the outbreak was already happening when you purchased at the store.

If there's one thing I've learned, source is probably the most important thing for me to consider. And even more so now that meds are no longer available. My LFS is prudent on this, he only buys from reputable sources and if they mess around they are off the list for good. As a result I generally pay more for my fish, but it's worth it to have them live 5 or more years instead of dying within the 1st month or even worse week!

I haven't bought new tetras for years with exception to flame tetras and a school of super blue kerri tetras. Oh and rummynose a few years ago. But the only thing I saw in the past on my tetras was ich from the store and they made a full recovery with salt and all lived 5+ years. I still have one of them! This beautiful female red phantom


So they can be healthy and long lived if they are healthy enough to begin with. She is at LEAST 7 years old!

But if I see any issue in the tank, I for sure won't buy any fish from that tank and maybe might even walk out without any fish from that store. I learned that with the rummynose I bought on a whim. Some of them (2 or 3) were having trouble keeping up with the school and had a white film on the dorsal. I wasn't familiar with columnaris at the time, but that was exactly what they had. I lost two or 3 a night the first week. I removed the ones with the white film and put them in a hospital tank, but I lost all of the worst looking ones. I actually had some gold tetras and a BN pleco in the tank too. So I dosed some Paraguard and did my daily WCs. The dying really slowed down in the QT tank and none of my own fish got sick at all and I still have them. I ultimately was able to return the rummynose and get my money back bc I was a known customer and it was obvious they had an issue with them at the store. So idk how the rest of the rummies did, but no issues with my healthy fish (which I thought was interesting). The moral of this story is to really observe the stock before buying. If I see anything ANYTHING wrong I pass.

The other issue was ordering fish in a shipment. The super blue kerris. They had internal parasites and anchor worm! Probably more issues bc they all passed except one which made it to a year old. Moral of that story, choose reputable sources you trust.

My flame tetras were great, I got them on sale for super cheap but no issues and I still have a nice school of 14. Flames were cheap and on sale, but I carefully watched them before buying and they are a common fish for that store.

Last word of advice, if you can, QT the fish at the store. If I can, I visit the store here and there to check the fish in mind for 2 weeks before I bring them home to make sure they all healthy.

 

Well all that were left were doing good till yesterday. Did a 50% wc and lost the cards. Before the wc I had lost all but 2 of the phantoms. Theyre still going as is everything else including the shrimp. So what kill the cards I have no clue. But if the shrimp had no problem there something wrong with the cards.

 

For what it's worth, I gave up on the so called delicate Tetras years ago. IMO, Columbians, Red Eyes & Buenos Aires Tetras are the most disease resistant, indestructible & long lived Tetras currently available.

 

You keep Buenos Aires Tetra in a planted tank ? Anyway my cardinals are doing well - i don't know if they are considered delicate or not. I've only had the oldest ones close to 2 years - the youngest I've had for about 6 weeks. One thing is for sure they don't touch the plants

For what it's worth, I gave up on the so called delicate Tetras years ago. IMO, Columbians, Red Eyes & Buenos Aires Tetras are the most disease resistant, indestructible & long lived Tetras currently available.

 

I kept Buenos Aires Tetras with the usual low light plants. They never showed an interest. IMO, the reputation of them being fin nippers & plant eaters is greatly exaggerated.

 

Have you checked out Aqua Huna for your tetras? I have been reading some good reviews of fish bought from them. Even neons. I see they sell the neons in groups of 16 and several folks that bought them have reported all of them surviving. This company offers several different species of tetras. Unlike most other shippers these folks don't charge and arm and a leg for shipping.

All with a grain of salt...I purchased Cardinals from Aquahuna and 50% arrived dead. Yes, they reimburse, but still.

 

How did the other 50% do ?

All with a grain of salt...I purchased Cardinals from Aquahuna and 50% arrived dead. Yes, they reimburse, but still.

 

My Buenos Aries tetras ate all my aponogeton. Yes they do eat plants I watched them.

 

How did the other 50% do ?

They did not survive neither. Though that may have been my beginner mistake as I wanted to get them out of the bag asap, and I did not drip acclimate.

 

I've been dealing with mouth fungus (columnaris maybe?) That I brought home from the fish store on Day 1 of my journey. I'm dosing my tank with Pimafix for the full 7 days this time with water changes and tannins. Might even do 10. Usually it goes away after 3 days but it always comes back consistently even after 2 months. I'll let you know if it works

 

Have you checked out Aqua Huna for your tetras? I have been reading some good reviews of fish bought from them.

I bought 20 lemon tetras from them in March, and I've got 20 lemon tetras, living their best little lemon tetra lives. Everyone's good, healthy appetites, all super active, and a good mix of boys / girls. I bought a flock of Kuhli's from them too (not tetras, but dither fish still), and they're all doing their hippy noodle thing. I'm getting ready to order a bunch of Sterbai from them in the fall (tank's been up and running, but letting it season and for plants to establish... slowly adding wood, leaf litter, and stone). I would absolutely recommend them for dithers. I say dithers, because you do need to be prepared to buy in bulk from them.