Why do Cardinals/Neons have such a high death rate?

[FluffySackson]

Out of 10 cardinals I buy and add to a planted tank, 6 of them die. Same with the neons unfortunately, this was 4 years ago but my tanks were fully established and 0 ammonia and nitrite were present in these tanks. Rummynoses and black neons are the opposite, they never die even in tanks where I used them as cycling fish. Can anyone tell me why these fish die so easily? I'm planning on keeping tetras again in a 30 gallon planted tank after the turtles and cichlids in there reach a certain size before moving them to my 240 gallon.

 

[joe jaskot]

They usually die due to improper handling. Often hundreds of them are shipped in a bag. If you can find healthy stock, they are quite hardy.

 

[chris1990]

osmotic shock maybe ?!, if they are wild caught , they usually come from very soft mineral low water . putting them in aquarium water that is maybe even a little harder may stress their physiology maybe , adding up with the shipping trauma this may be too much to bear for their little bodies.

 

[Oxymus]

If you want those Cardinal/Neon Tetra (I would ignore Neon and getting Cardinal Tetra only cause its look much better than Neon), don't buy them from your LFS cause 99% of those fish will die cause poor water in their store and diseases and usually they don't ever give you any guarantee on those Neon or Cardinals so online order with guarantee none DoA policy is better choice. In general most folks easy to overstocking their tank especially small aquarium, it's hard to keep things stable in small tank cause everything happen and effect your aquarium almost instantly and cause your fish die very fast too.

Edit: those cardinal/neon tetra required excellent water and don't trust anyone that said its a beginner fish...it's more like expert experiences to keep them happy and long live.

 

[Aquanero]

Most if not all the Cardinas you come across are wild fish. They are shipped and handeled extensivly and overly stressed. Propper acclamation along with lower Ph, soft water and higher temps are required to succesfully acclamate them. These fish often suffer high mortality rates do to inexperianced fish keepers not understanding the different requirments of the two species. Neons while largly farm raised fish suffer from the same stresses and handling, they don't require the low ph and higher temps that Cardinals do but still require carful acclamation to prevent losses.