Neon Tetras - Ideal Setup

**swales** · 01-29-2008, 03:11 AM

I have a 10 gallon tank in which I keep Neon Tetras and a couple Cory Cats. I am currently, trying to make their habitat as natural, or at least least stressful, as possible. I've read here and elsewhere that they prefer shade, as opposed to bright light, and the tetra primer in this forum mentioned black water extract as a means to this end. I also read that this changes the pH of the water. This is not something I wish to do. Are there any other ways to darken the water without changing the water chemistry in any significant ways?

Currently, I have the leaves from some plastic plants floating which provides a very little bit of shade. My HOB filter causes these to accumulate in the corners or at the edges which is sort of annoying.

I have lately been concerned that the Neons are under some sort of stress because they do not often go into middle or upper strata of the tank.. instead they are almost always near the bottom. I have a fair amount of hiding places in the tank - two overturned small terra-cotta pots, a small piece of wood, sparse fake plants. It seems Neons are always distributed vertically throughout tanks in stores. Perhaps it is because they don't have any decorations?

Thanks for any input.

**doug z** · 01-29-2008, 03:27 AM

Hmm..

I'd also like to know why they're sticking to the bottom..

This is the 3rd time I've heard of this, and I was always of the impression that they were middle tankers..

**Dave66** · 01-29-2008, 03:52 AM

Originally Posted by swales

I have a 10 gallon tank in which I keep Neon Tetras and a couple Cory Cats. I am currently, trying to make their habitat as natural, or at least least stressful, as possible. I've read here and elsewhere that they prefer shade, as opposed to bright light, and the tetra primer in this forum mentioned black water extract as a means to this end. I also read that this changes the pH of the water. This is not something I wish to do. Are there any other ways to darken the water without changing the water chemistry in any significant ways?

Currently, I have the leaves from some plastic plants floating which provides a very little bit of shade. My HOB filter causes these to accumulate in the corners or at the edges which is sort of annoying.

I have lately been concerned that the Neons are under some sort of stress because they do not often go into middle or upper strata of the tank.. instead they are almost always near the bottom. I have a fair amount of hiding places in the tank - two overturned small terra-cotta pots, a small piece of wood, sparse fake plants. It seems Neons are always distributed vertically throughout tanks in stores. Perhaps it is because they don't have any decorations?

Thanks for any input.

Neons prefer to school in the bottom third of aquariums, so that's natural for them. In shop tanks, the light and lack of cover causes them to scatter like that. They are stressed when they do that. I have many hundreds of tetras in my tanks. The larger tetras, like Lemons, prefer to stay about half-way up. Smaller ones, like neon-sized, school in the bottom third. I should mention that the tanks are well planted and thus highly lit. As I said in my post, I use Amazon frogbit primarily as a floating screen to diffuse the lights.
Black water extract doesn't drop pH more than a couple tenths of a point, like pH 7.2 to 7.1 or 7.0. Its the tannins in the BWE that Neons, which come from the dark tea color waters of the Rio Negro, are more comfortable in. I referred to using the BWE as an add to a successful spawning in my Tetra post, not as a day to day thing, though its perfectly fine to use it in your water regularly with tetras.
By the way, other than taking shelter in aquatic plants when pursued (by a net ;)) Tetras don't use cover. They school in schools of hundred of thousands or millions of their kind, using their strength in numbers and colors as their 'cover'.

Dave

**doug z** · 01-29-2008, 03:55 AM

Was wondering if it had to with the brightness of the lights..

Are Cardinal tetras the same (bottom thirders)?

**Dave66** · 01-29-2008, 04:01 AM

Originally Posted by doug z

Was wondering if it had to with the brightness of the lights..

Are Cardinal tetras the same (bottom thirders)?

Yes, and they are two members of Paracheridon, with P. simulans as the third in that Genus. All of them seem to congregate together in the bottom third.
I like keeping large schools of neon-sized tetras because they look like a glittering ribbon winding through the tank.

Dave

**doug z** · 01-29-2008, 04:17 AM

Hmm..

This is a concern, as I would prefer if all three thirds of the tank was utilized by it's inhabitants..

Otherwise the bottom, with the plants to boot, is going to be pretty crowded.. :(

Hopefully the swordtails I plan to get make use of the middle-top, if not the Cardinals..

And I don't want to bother with hatchet fish..

**swales** · 01-29-2008, 04:20 AM

Thanks for the replies. I may remove some of the 'decorations' I have in this tank, then. They seem to alternate between the ribbon of fish behavior and swimming in place as a group. I don't think I currently meet the lighting requirement of most plants. I will try adding more fake leaves to add more shade I guess.

**Dave66** · 01-29-2008, 09:13 AM

Originally Posted by doug z

Hmm..

This is a concern, as I would prefer if all three thirds of the tank was utilized by it's inhabitants..

Otherwise the bottom, with the plants to boot, is going to be pretty crowded.. :(

Hopefully the swordtails I plan to get make use of the middle-top, if not the Cardinals..

And I don't want to bother with hatchet fish..

Why not hatchets, Doug? A small group of larger tetra, say six or eight lemons, will hang out about midway up. The smaller tetras will be a few inches above the cories, the lemons four or five inches above them, and the hatchet four or five inches at the top.
If you end up with that 72, you can easily double the numbers of cories and tetras you plan to keep. I keep 12 Cory guapore in my 75, but could have kept twice that many as small as they are in a tank this size.

Dave

**hpt84** · 01-29-2008, 12:15 PM

Instead of using BWE, how about using pure peat moss. It will darken the water with tannins. It will also lower your pH and soften your water, which is the ideal water condition for neon. I have 10 of them, but you never see them until feeding. They usually swim close to the bottom, and hide in the plant and driftwood. I might upgrade to 20 to see if that will make them more confident and swim in the open.