Cardinal Tetras - Unexplained Deaths

[Mark Webb]

Recently stripped down a very well established Jewel 60 and took out the internal filter. I installed the filter (very well matured with original uncleaned filter) into a temporary 10 gallon tank.

Transferred inhabitants into the 10 gallon - 10 Cardinal Tetra, 3 Glowlight Tetra, 3 Amano Shrimp and about 30 Crystal Red Shrimp, along with some Moss and a couple of other plants. All been fine for 4-5 days. Just been away for the weekend (Saturday till Monday) and returned to find all the Cardinals dead. Shrimps are all fine and so are the Glowlights. Have not tested water yet but I would have thought if anything were wrong the Shrimp would be first to suffer.

Any ideas please?

 

[Ed Seeley]

Cardinals are very sensitive to wastes or disturbances so it could be either of those. I agree though I would have expected the shrimp to succumb first too.

 

[Steve Smith]

I'd be concerned that 10 gallon might be too small for housing that many fish for any length of time, without regular water changes.

Any amonia readings?

 

[Mark Webb]

Ammonia appears to be zero.

 

[SunnyP]

My first fish were cardinal tetras and black phantom tetras. I found that the cardinal tetras were prone to a motor neurone disease which meant them losing control of muscular motion, if I'm thinking about the right fish of course.

 

[davidcmadrid]

I love Tetras but as a beginner i hated them as they are such proxy for the state of their environment even stress factors , anything goes wrong and they croak it. I can tell if something is wrong in the tank just watching how they behave . e.g swim together or apart ,, hide etc. Good luck getting to the bottom of it. Incidentally they are a great read on the 02 levels in the tank too from watching how fast they " breathe ".