Neon Tetras dropping like flies

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S

Soggy

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 27, 2010
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Seattle
I have a 20 gal in my room and I had a single Johanni cichlid in the tank for a few months but he was boring in there alone always hiding so I moved him to my 55 with the rest of my cichlids. I went and got 9 1" Neon Tetras and an amazon sword plant to try and start a nice planted tank. That was on Saturday. Today after getting home from work I only counted 6 neons, I found one dead on the bottom and 2 dead in the filter intake. As I sat trying to figure out what killed them 2 more started swimming badly, going to the top of the water (to tiny to tell if they are gasping) and swimming upside down and the like. I turned my back and they ended up dead in the filter intake. Now I have 4 left and one is starting to look a bit tipsy and was fighting the current of the intake so I turned off the filter. I'm at a loss as to what is killing them, I'm used to cichlids that don't die at the drop of a hat.

ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites all read 0. ph is around 6.5. temp is 78.

Do tiny Neon tetras die easily? I'm using an Aqueon 20 125GPH filter is it to strong? are my parameters wrong?
 
could just be shock from switching tanks, Neon's are pretty fickle because of their size. I had some fine for 6 months in a 20 gallon, I had to move my tank and within a week they were all dead.
 
They are kinda finicky when changing tanks in my experience, too. I never had great luck with them myself. Asking about the deaths at the LFS I bought them at, they told me they had the same problem when they got the fresh neons in, they would lose a lot of them. I have found White Cloud minnows to be better, if you do not mind the color difference from the neons, they will work better for you (along with Rosey barbs, Lemon Tetras and other heartier small fish).
 
kevinfleming21;4596645; said:
sounds like the tank is not cycled if Nitrates are 0, they should be in the 10-20 ppm
Click to expand...

THIS but I doubt your test results
Using the quick dip strips?
Invest in some liquid test kits


125gph / 20gal = 6.25 turns

perfect.
 
ar0wan;4596662; said:
THIS but I doubt your test results
Using the quick dip strips?
Invest in some liquid test kits


125gph / 20gal = 6.25 turns

perfect.
Click to expand...

Yeah I am using quick dip strips and some of the tests don't seem to color at very low values. I put a sponge filter on the filter intake to protect the fish and slow down the flow a bit and the remaining 4 fish are doing ok.
 
I've always had problems with this type of fish, it's always a megadeath as soon as they hit any of my tanks.
 
finicky fish, ive had troubles with them in my gf 20G tank, her tank is running awesome for months we add in 6 neons and they just cant seem to survive . everyone els is ok...just the fish im sure you did nothing wrong
 
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