# Black neon tetras



## Mark Evans (24 Mar 2012)

I know George has used these in the past, so I thought I'd give them a whirl.  

Feel free to discuss the good and bad, personal experiences with this choice. 

That is all   


black-neons by saintly's pics, on Flickr


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## Tom (24 Mar 2012)

Very hardy fish


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## Antipofish (24 Mar 2012)

Tom said:
			
		

> Very hardy fish



I was about to say, thats the one thing I knew about them  Plus I like them more than regular neons.  I think a mix of black and green neons would look awesome Mark


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## darren636 (24 Mar 2012)

dont get me wrong but... all fish are hardy if their needs are met. it is not a plus point.  there must be something more praise worthy to mention about this fish? ..... no offence guys. my question is why you want to try them mark? as far as i have seen most  people use them only to be different to the usual neon/ cardy staple.


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## bogman (24 Mar 2012)

i have recently put a group of these in a 10 gallon tank, sand, leaves and wood and i have to say they are a very underrated fish, good to shoal, beautiful colors which i never really noticed before, the red above the eye is stunning and the tints from their body are really nice, even with all these extras colors their presence is still quite subtle in the tank .a 10 out of 10 fish


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## darren636 (24 Mar 2012)

bogman said:
			
		

> even with all these extras colors their presence is still quite subtle in the tank .a 10 out of 10 fish


total agreement, these and green neons are gems.


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## Ady34 (25 Mar 2012)

Hi,
i havnt kept black neaons before, but was thinking of using them in my next scape along with marbled hatchetfish, a much more subtle looking fish choice but with enough interest. I see them more in 'rustic', mature looking scapes such as Tony Swinney's island scape. However i can see your using them in a more vibrant setting and GF used them in his summer garden scape (sorry if thats not the correct name) to good effect also.
I think they are a good choice where trying to keep the focus on the plants and scaping rather than the fish.... they are good blending fish if you know what i mean?
Be good to know your feelings on them after homing them for a while.
Cheerio,
Ady.


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## niru (26 Mar 2012)

darren636 said:
			
		

> dont get me wrong but... all fish are hardy if their needs are met. it is not a plus point.  there must be something more praise worthy to mention about this fish? ..... no offence guys. my question is why you want to try them mark? as far as i have seen most  people use them only to be different to the usual neon/ cardy staple.



Hi

these are *real* hardy fish. I give 2 personal examples:

In my tank, once I had tetras: black, cardnials, neon. For some reason, neons caught fungus of the usual type (Saprolegnia??). Cardinals too caught it but the black tetras didnt. Later on the anti-fungal medication helped..

Recently I got H2O2 and instead of 3%, it was 30%. My bad that I didnt re-check this before puting it in the tank. All my cardinals and neons were dead in minutes. But none of the black tetras succumb. They didnt even show any sign of distress!! Swiming as usual!!

So this I call a strong hardy fish! I no doubt am in awe of their persistence and survival zeal.

cheers
niru


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## darren636 (26 Mar 2012)

James bond is hard to kill... But i Dont want him in my fish tank!


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## dw1305 (26 Mar 2012)

Hi all,
I like them, and think they are under-rated as a fish, their behaviour is much more interesting than Cardinals or Neons, and they are lot cheaper, and more forgiving of ill -treatment, than Rummy-noses. They are also potentially very long-lived.
They colour up really well with a good diet and softish water, then they get a real neon green "flash" and bright red eye mark. They are good dithers for dwarf cichlids as they stay well up in the water column, and they are easy to breed if you fancy having a go at a Tetra (conditioned with mosquito larvae, pair kept apart for about 10 days, and spawned in lightly tannin stained water with morning light and a wool spawning mop (or _Cabomba_/Java moss), adults removed and tank then the tank is kept very dim for the next 5-6 days). 

These were some I used as a dither and target fish a few years ago for _Apistogramma_ "Steel-blue", which is quite mellow for a cichlid, but aggressive for an _Apistogramma_.






cheers Darrel


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## danmullan (28 Mar 2012)

I think they can look fantastic in minimal/iwagumi style scapes. I never really liked them much until I saw the PFK article on Tony Swinney's tank, thought they were a great fish choice for that scape:





Looking good in yours too Mark, great photo.

That said, I don't think I would ever choose black neons over cardinals.


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## roadmaster (29 Mar 2012)

Much more hardy than neons which are rubbish these day's.
Another fish that doesn't seem to get it's due is Pristella tetra which is quite pretty and hardy as well.


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## curefan (29 Mar 2012)

roadmaster said:
			
		

> Much more hardy than neons which are rubbish these day's.
> Another fish that doesn't seem to get it's due is Pristella tetra which is quite pretty and hardy as well.




....agreed!


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