Mixing neon and cardinal tetras

Im going to get a school of 12-15 neon, cardinal or a mix. With only these two fish, is there a big difference appearance wise? Does the school look off? Or does the school look perfectly fine and you cant tell the difference? Thanks.

 

I wouldn't mix these two. They are not temp compatible. Neon tetras prefer cooler temps and cardinals like it warmer.

Just go with one big school of the same species. The two species don't tend to school together on their own in nature, so they don't do it in tanks either.

 

They won't school together. The Cardinals are all blue and red no white. The Neons have white and are smaller.

 

I wouldn't mix them for the mentioned reasons. Als in my opinion they have different shoaling behaviour as well.
Get a big shoal of Cardinals.

 

Im going to get a school of 12-15 neon, cardinal or a mix. With only these two fish, is there a big difference appearance wise? Does the school look off? Or does the school look perfectly fine and you cant tell the difference? Thanks.

I think you'd get a better show of the red on blue with cardinals. And if you mix the cardinals with say Harlequin Rasbora or Serpae Tetra or possibly Golden Barbs you'd get a complimentary contrast. Or slap at least 6 corydoras in the bottom of the tank for some real entertainment. We recently put some Adolfo's Corydoras in my daughters tank. They are highly active and love to play in the airwalls. Whilst they aren't in the same tank as the cardinals they would contrast well with them.

I think the only part better than planning which fish to put in a tank is the bit where they go in and you can start watching them. We stick to simple fish as we have limited experience. Colour plays a lot in the choice of fish.

But cardinals do have a stunning show when shoaling.

Just a small side note. I have read that in a planted tank or tank with "hiding places" many shoaling fish will not school as much. This is put down to them not feeling threatened. It's seen as a survival behaviour. Certainly the cardinals and Rasboras don't school so much. But the golden barbs and Adolfo's corydoras seem to school much more. They are in her new tank though and it's not completely planted yet. I think it may be worth researching this a bit more? If you want the fish to shoal you may have to consider the tank environment a little more closely?

AiYn'U