Will 3 neon tetras survive for 3 weeks?

Today, one of my neon tetras died. I used to have 5 but one of them died about 2 months ago, and today, another died. Yesterday, I water changed, and added more live/fake plants. I think that this was maybe the reason why he died, from the shock. He was swimming as usual with his other neon tetras this morning though.

The thing is, now I have 3 neon tetras. For them to live a happier life, I should get more neon tetras. Im going to get the new neon tetras as soon as possible so they won't get stressed out, but the new tetras need to go to a 2 week quarantine in another tank. Meaning that there will only be three neon tetras in my main tank for 2 weeks. I feel like this might stress the 3 neon tetras, and eventually die. Also, the neon tetras in my tank are bigger, about 1.5 times as the ones being sold in the petshop. So I was thinking of feeding the new ones for a little bit, so they won't be bullied by size. So my question is, will the 3 neon tetras be okay for 2 weeks(quarantine of new fish) + 1 week (feeding to get bigger = no bullying)?

 

There's risk both ways, but I'd think there's less if you quarantine and feed the new fish for at least a few weeks.

 

There's risk both ways, but I'd think there's less if you quarantine and feed the new fish for at least a few weeks.

So can the neon tetras survive being in a school of 3 for 3 weeks (while the new ones are being quarantined and fed)?

 

Yes they can. You could keep the light off to reduce stress, but they will be fine. How big is the tank?

 

Yes they can. You could keep the light off to reduce stress, but they will be fine. How big is the tank?

20 gallon high tank. There's also a betta inside, but trust me, he does not attack the neon tetras. The betta is one year old and I bought it as a male, but from the tails, I think it is a female.

 

Today, one of my neon tetras died. I used to have 5 but one of them died about 2 months ago, and today, another died. Yesterday, I water changed, and added more live/fake plants. I think that this was maybe the reason why he died, from the shock.

the shock of what? the water change or the new plants? what was shocking about the water change?

might be worth trying to troubleshoot the death in order to stop it from happening to other fish in the future. A water change or adding new plants shouldn't be shocking, stressful or kill fish.

 

You could have more than 5 IMO. A bigger school = happier Neons.

 

the shock of what? the water change or the new plants? what was shocking about the water change?

might be worth trying to troubleshoot the death in order to stop it from happening to other fish in the future. A water change or adding new plants shouldn't be shocking, stressful or kill fish.

The water change and the adding of new plants. I do remember that yesterday, my hands slipped while putting the new water in after the water change, causing a little splash. I'm thinking that this sudden splash, and vibration maybe affected that neon tetra since they're really sensitive and fragile.

 

So can the neon tetras survive being in a school of 3 for 3 weeks (while the new ones are being quarantined and fed)?

I don't see why not. Of course I can't promise they'll survive, but if they don't I don't think it will be because of only three of them being in the tank.

The water change and the adding of new plants. I do remember that yesterday, my hands slipped while putting the new water in after the water change, causing a little splash. I'm thinking that this sudden splash, and vibration maybe affected that neon tetra since they're really sensitive and fragile.

I'd be very surprised if that caused deaths. I suspect there's something else going on. Neon tetras have become more fragile in recent years, but I don't think it's that bad yet.

 

The water change and the adding of new plants. I do remember that yesterday, my hands slipped while putting the new water in after the water change, causing a little splash. I'm thinking that this sudden splash, and vibration maybe affected that neon tetra since they're really sensitive and fragile.

Not really, something like that shouldn't do anything to them, no worse than running from predator occasionally would do to them. Something else going on here than that. was it a big water change or a long time between changes?

 

Not really, something like that shouldn't do anything to them, no worse than running from predator occasionally would do to them. Something else going on here than that. was it a big water change or a long time between changes?

It was a long time between changes. I was in vacation, and I wasn't able to clean it for 3 weeks.

 

It was a long time between changes. I was in vacation, and I wasn't able to clean it for 3 weeks.

this is the likely cause of the death, they get used to the changes in the water and build ups slowly over time and a water change changes it back quickly, especially if it was a larger than usual water change and weaker fish can't adjust to the change. Some fish can take it well, some can't., and it's variable by species and individual fish. Discus, neons and cardinal tetras being 3 of the ones that like water consistency and not much quick changes at least in an aquarium setting.
Always best to do daily small water changes until it's back in order to avoid it changing anything too quickly on them and someone going into shock, and always good to do small changes as a best practice so the water doesn't change much and is consistently good when you can.
But if you can't regularly do that, like on vacation, small changes to get it back in order again is the way to avoid a fish stressing a big change in water and dying.

I had this problem with the weaker runt angelfish juveniles also when growing them out from fry. Smaller water changes more often slowed losses compared to bigger water changes less frequently considerably. I lost like 3-5 a day from 300 fry doing big changes, with small changes it dropped to 1 or none for days.
The water was consistently a better quality and smaller changes did less in terms of changing water parameters or temperature on them. It was easy for them to stay stress free and adjusted, and it even spooked them less with the siphon and my hand going in and out of there all the time to clean up, it became normal to them, like the light coming on or turning off, and a non-threat situation they didn't have to worry about.