What do you feed cardinal tetras?

I have 8 cardinal tetras that I bought about 2 days ago and I really haven't seen them ewat anything. I have been giving them Omega One color flakes. the flakes are kindof big should I make them smaller? they are in a 50 gallon tank and don't seem to swim more than halfway up in the water? should I give them more time?

 

I know that I feed mine granuals that are meant for small fish, as well as frozen blood worms, frozen brine shrimp and some other small fish foods. It took them about a week before I could approach the tank without them swimming and hiding in a corner. So just give them time and try other foods to see what they like and don't like. Remember, as long as there are live plants in there, they will have food to eat whether it is from you or not.
Tom

 

ok cool. I ahve omega onw shrimp pellets and color flakes aswell as hakarI freezedried blood worms and frozen bloodworms too. so ill just keep trying different things but they are quite skittish. I'm going to be adding more fish so itll probally be a good idea to wait a little longer than normal to introduce some other fish? I was thinking 2 small angels and 2 really small german rams 1 gold one blue

 

Mine are still pretty skitish and they have been here for about 2-3 weeks. If you just finished cycling the tank, angels and rams would be best to wait for a little while. What are you going to do for algae eaters/clean up crew? So far you are making our tanks the same, with the South American theme.
Tom

 

I feed my cardinal tetras what the Discus get. They do love flakes tho. Just crush some up in little pieces for them they will find it fine. They eat any of the other fish food as long as its small, tho they do not eat the pellets, as those are hard and too large. When I feed the other fish, I just add in some crushed Omega One flakes for them.But they eat the brine shrimp as well as krill. they are not fussy eaters and my cardinals have really grown out well.
If your cardinal are really small, I would be very careful about adding angelfish at this point. When I introduced the cardinal tetras to the tank with angels and Discus, the angels thought they were lunch and went right after them. Once things calmed down it was ok, but those small cardinals are too much temptation to an angel fish. Unless your angelfish are also small to begin with then I guess it will be ok.
~ kate

 

my cards are about an inch long. I have corys and a small pleco for now. but I was going south american theme. my total stocking list would be
8 cardinals 16
2 angels 12
2 rams 6
6 corys 18
= 52 inches

 

my cards are about an inch long. I have corys and a small pleco for now. but I was going south american theme. my total stocking list would be
8 cardinals 16
2 angels 12
2 rams 6
6 corys 18
= 52 inches

From what I have read, cardinals have the ability to grow too 2", but 90% of the time, even in a large tank, they will get to 1.5" in total.
Tom

 

cool maybe ill add another cory or something lol

I got 3 lonfinned german blue rams look!

 

I got 3 lonfinned german blue rams look!

Those look like the regular GBRs to me.
Tom

 

Virtually all the cardinals in petstores are captured in the wild, where they never saw flakes. In this way they're quite different than Neon Tetras.

They need similar water conditions as they came from, including quite warm water, and appreciate lots of cover in the way of plants and dark substrate.

Try feeding them frozen food for now, to get close to what they recognize as food.

 

ive been giving them bloodworms and they seem ok with it and I think the mlae is a long fin GBR not sure of the females if that is indeed what I got 1 m 2 f can you tell tom?

 

ive been giving them bloodworms and they seem ok with it and I think the mlae is a long fin GBR not sure of the females if that is indeed what I got 1 m 2 f can you tell tom?

Wonderful GBRs! I'm no expert for sure, but the tell tale sign of the blue dots around the black spot make me think that you have at least two females there, not sure about the last one tho, it may be a male or another female.
They are beautiful fish... Congrats!
~ kate

 

ive been giving them bloodworms and they seem ok with it and I think the mlae is a long fin GBR not sure of the females if that is indeed what I got 1 m 2 f can you tell tom?

In your pick, the top ons looks like a female. The others I can't tell because the fins are covered up in the spots to tell. Sorry. If you could get some clearer pics of each ones fins, that would be great.
Tom

 

The first one is a male. The second is the same as the first, just a few seconds later. The bottom two are more focused on the plants making the ram pics difficult to determine.
Tom

here is one of the little guys, they are so hard to take pictures of!

This is a female.

here is the seccond one

This is a male.

here is the last one that has much bigger fins

This one is a hi-fin but can't tell gender since teh fins are still clamped.
Tom

I tried to get better pictures of the third one x

Still pretty hard to tell but looks like a male, I may be wrong, if you could show some pics of it's fins, that would do it for sure.
Tom

 

ok I finally got a good picture of it I hope I don't have to bother you anymore about this,

 

ok I finally got a good picture of it I hope I don't have to bother you anymore about this,

You're not bothering me, it's fun and I get to see more pics of your beautiful GBRs. It looks like a female, but again, the fins aren't the clearest in the pic. Don't worry, the fins are usually the hardest to draw. Have you seen the 'Sexing GBR' thread? It really helps with sexing them, or at least it has for other people.
Tom

 

I have not seen it, which fins do you need to see? the side fins?

 

You look at the dorsal and analfins. Didn't I make that clear?
Tom