# Neon Tetra feeding schedule?



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Once a day should be fine, no more than they'll eat in a few minutes.

I'd plan some scavengers for the tank- Cory cats, shrimp, snails all work well. 

Don't add them for at least a week, though- make sure that your tank is ready.

You should also check your ammonia and nitrite today, in case adding the fish caused a spike.

If you don't have test kits, I'd do a 50% water change to be on the safe side.


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## alvagoldbook (Dec 25, 2010)

well, I added some biological agent to the tank after they were introduced, and the water clarity hasn't changed. I had my water tested at the pet store yesterday before I brought these guys home, and it checked out fine. 

they all seem to be along the bottom of the tank eating whatever left over flakes they can get at. I just fed them a pinch.

I plan on bringing home some red cherry shrimp in a week or two, but for now I have a few small snails in there that keep breeding like mad, despite my best efforts to get rid of them.


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## Cuchulainn (Nov 2, 2010)

Just a pinch is perfect. Like Laura mentioned-no more than what they will eat in a few minutes. Doesn't hurt them at all to take a day off from feeding them or any fish-so every 6 out of 7 days


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

You can't go by water clarity. 

It sounds to me very likely that your tank is experiencing an ammonia spike.

Did you do anything else to cycle the tank other than using an in-a-bottle product?

I'd definitely recommend doing a water change today.

And get your own test kits.


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## Fahnell (Jan 20, 2011)

for fry and young fish - 4 times a day in small portions
mature ones 1-2 times a day 
flakes as staple. and bloodworms/daphina/tubifex/brine shrimp as a treat 2-3 times a week,,,,more if you want to breed them

5 neons is not a shoal. get at least 15
keep them at 22-24 C.
dim the light


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## alvagoldbook (Dec 25, 2010)

Well I did a water change (round abouts 33%-50%) and they seem to have responded well. What I've also noticed is that they seem to like to stay near the bottom of the tank, but become more active once the light is off. I think I'm going to have to get some bigger plants and some floating plants, which should be on the way Monday. I didn't want to get too many tetras at once because I feared an ammonia spike, so next week I plan to get about 5 more. I don't want to overcrowd the tank since it's only a 15 gallon. I did cycle the tank just by adding the biological agent.


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## Fahnell (Jan 20, 2011)

than you are on the right way perfect


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Some of the bottled cycling products seem to work OK, but some don't at all. I'd keep a very close eye on your water parameters.

Keep doing water changes (it may need to be daily or even 2x/day) to make sure that the ammonia and nitrite levels stay under 0.25 ppm.

You're doing well to stock slowly.


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## alvagoldbook (Dec 25, 2010)

I've gotten into the habit of doing twice a week water changes, but I can do once a day. I like the water to stay clear, and I'm able to fill it without kicking up too much substrate. I don't have anything to check my water at the moment, are there any particular behaviors I should look out for that would indicate a possible nitrite/ammonia spike?


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

There's lots of different symptoms of ammonia and nitrite problems (red gills, faded colors, hiding or at the surface gasping, etc)- but the issue is, by the time the symptoms are present, damage has been done to the fish already.

Test kits aren't extremely expensive: http://www.bigalsonline.com/Fish_Wa...water-Master-Test-Kit_8435713_82.html?tc=fish

I'd go without water changes for a few days and then take in some water to your LFS for testing before you get more fish for the tank.


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## alvagoldbook (Dec 25, 2010)

So I did a water change this morning, and everything seemed fine. My tetras still didn't seem happy with the light on, and became far more active once the light was turned off. 

About an hour after the water change, I look in the tank and one of them seem to be missing. After some searching, I found one of my tetras dead. I have no idea what could have happened to the poor little guy. During acclimation, one of the tetras didn't seem to be handling it well, and would dart around quickly when adding water from my tank. I have no way of knowing if this was the same one. 

So now one of the tetras seem to stay by itself not doing much behind the driftwood, and the other 3 seem to be healthy, but they seem to be fighting when I turn the lights off. With the lights on they seem to stay at the bottom of the tank looking around at the dwarf baby tears. 

What should I do?


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## Fahnell (Jan 20, 2011)

now it depends. how strong is your light?
neons prefer a dimmer light (floating plants, large leaf plants over them). BTW The blue line is made of guanine crystals and it is their way to "comunicate" and to notice each other in Amazonian area waters . sooo.. that bright color has to make up for a darker water & dimmer light right?
it is plausible that your lights are a bit to strong but let us know
also neons are a little bit shy in their first days in the tank.
1 dead fish is not the end of the world...but if another dies these days we have a problem. keep up with WC daily for a period and aim for 22-24C for neons


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## alvagoldbook (Dec 25, 2010)

I have two t5's NO. one is that blue color. It's a 12 inch high tank, with the light sitting on the hood. I've thought of putting my light in front of the tank, because some of my dwarf baby tears I think could use a little more light, and that would allow the tetras to hide behind the driftwood where it would make a dark shadow.

I've got some frogbit being shipped, and I just bought two large amazon swords because I don't have any particularly tall plants in this tank. I hoping that will make them more comfortable. 

The temperature in the tank is at about 76 degrees.


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## Fahnell (Jan 20, 2011)

amazons are great. 76 is ok.
i keep mine at work at 27C (the central heating unit in the building is set to 27) . and they are fine
once adapted neons and cardinals are very hardy
also take a look at NTD . that is a illness to affect tetras . must be aware of it if you plan to keep neons for a long time
anyway the first sign that something is not ok with tetras in general is the loss of color (rummy nose are well known - and they warn an aquarist about water problems in that way). how are the colors of your neons?

The neons are ok from 22-25. For breeding a long long period in a water of 25 can reduce the number of fry resulted from spawning (a polish institute conducted an experiment regarding that). but i do not suppose that you want to breed them on a large scale . so anything from 22-25 will be perfect for them. if you want to know more about your fish you can try the links

http://fishweb.ifas.ufl.edu/Faculty Pubs/Chapman Pubs/ChapmanTetra.pdf

and the polish book

http://versita.metapress.com/content/g7tm757454276833/


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Sounds like acclimation issues. How did you acclimate them to your tank when you first got them?

Changes are very hard on small fish.

Hopefully once you get the larger plants and the fish have more places to hide they'll be more comfortable in the tank.

My fish tend to dart into the shadows when my tank lights come on. It's the same effect of being thrust from a dark room into bright sunlight- hurts the eyes and takes a little time to adjust. It can help if a room gets some indirect light (window or lamp) before the tank lights come on. 

Your fixture sounds like a saltwater fixture. Blue bulbs are actinic, and for saltwater corals. If you like the way the light looks, it's not a big deal. If you want to swap out the actinic bulb for another, that'd make your tank a "medium light" level and you'd need CO2 for the plants.


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## alvagoldbook (Dec 25, 2010)

Well, I adjusted my light so that only half the fixture is shining into the tank, and it created a kind of low light shadow tank. I saw a video once of some tetras in their natural environment, and as best as I can judge from the video, this looks much like their natural state. Since doing this, all four seem to be hanging out with each other, and freely investigating the tank. 

3 of my tetras have very good deep blue color. One of them looks a bit pale, but it's a bit larger than the others, and seems to be comfortable. 

I've thought of switching out the blue bulb (actinic I believe), but I do like having the option of switching between both of them on or one or the other. 

When I acclimated them I put them in a big glass bowl with the lights as dim as possible. I added a very small amount of water from the tank to the bowl (only 1 ml at first) for 5 minutes. After that, I slowly increased the amount of tank water added to the bowl every 5 minutes. I estimated that after about 40 minutes of doing this, there was about a 50%/50% ratio of tank water in the bowl. I then lowered the glass bowl into the tank, tipped it so there was minimal current, and let them swim into the tank. I was trying to be as gentle as possible since I'm new to this, and don't really know what I'm doing.  I use this glass bowl displacement method to do water changes without kicking up too much substrate or uprooting plants. 

I'm running DIY CO2 from an airstone. Not much diffusion happening, and a lot of it is wasted, but it's sitting right under my filter outlet, so hopefully some of it gets a little diffused that way. I'm adding Flourish and Flourish Excel, and along with the water changes, the plants have really perked up over the last few days. I put a bubbler in there too with a air pump. I figure it'll provide the plants and fish with more O2 and CO2. I had to put a needle valve on the air pump to turn the flow down a bit to make things a bit calmer in there.


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## Fahnell (Jan 20, 2011)

you know what?
once i cycled a 15 gls tank with 15 neons.that is cruel..i know. but int he end i did not have any dead fish. so they are pretty hardy
anyway. your actions are perfect for a responsable aquarist. this is the way to go. i am sure you will not have another dead fish
btw, neons (the well kept ones) can live up to 10 years or so (5 years on a more regular basis). anyway even 5 is A LOT for such an small fish. in the wild they live for about 1 year..at best 
so you may have them around for a long period from now


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## alvagoldbook (Dec 25, 2010)

I just wanted to give everyone an update. Tomorrow will be 1 week since I've brought my tetras home, and with 4 now, I've noticed that one of them seems to be rather territorial. So with the daily water changes, and the rest of them at least appearing healthy, and my plants really taking off and even pearling quite a bit, I figured it was time to add 5 more tetras to my tank. 

The good news is that the acclimation process seems to have gone better this time. All 5 of them took well to things. As soon as they were introduced to the tank, they met up with my other 4 and they're all happily schooling. As far as I can tell so far, the territorial behavior of that one has stopped. 

You guys have no idea how much you have helped me! Thanks so much!


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