Hi all - I have a 30 gallon tank (30L x 12D x 18H) that is still cycling at the moment, and I've been thinking a lot about what I want to stock it with. I've decided on going with neons, but I had a few questions:
1.)Will regular neons or cardinals school with black neons, or would each type be their own school? I would like to get one school of black neons and one school of either standard neons OR Cardinal tetras, if that would work.
2.)How many would be a good number to have total? I would just split them 50/50 and have two equal schools...I just don't want to overload the tank.
3.)I will also be adding some shrimp, either red cherry or painted fire reds. How much would they affect the number of tetras I can have in there?
I have read a LOT about compatability between neons and shrimp, and it's pretty divided as to whether or not it will work, so I figure I'll give it a whirl and see how it goes. I have a few plants in there now, some fake rocks, and a piece of driftwood with moss tied to it, so there will be places for shrimp to hang out once everything gets going. I wouldn't be adding the shrimp until after having the tank going for a while with the fish in it. If things don't work out, I will get a second tank and make it shrimp-only. Thanks in advance for any input!
each of those species will school with their own kind, not with each other (if you had only one or a few of each they'd probably school but that would not be the ideal situation). You could easily have two schools of a dozen each... and that's being conservative. Shrimp add next to nothing to bioload.
A lot of people report that everything eats shrimp, but I've had good luck with them. I have a healthy breeding colony of RCS in a tank with community fish (see signature). I have lots of hiding places and dense plant growth but the shrimp walk around the exposed parts of the tank without fear. When the tank is newer the fish would catch and eat a shrimp every now and then but I haven't seen it happen in months and even when it did happen it was not nearly often enough to harm the overall shrimp population. Seems to me the fish learn that catching a shrimp is just far too much work when nice immobile pellets get dropped into the tank twice a day.
300 gallon mega tank: sailfin pleco, clown loaches, silver dollars, roseline sharks, congo tetras, new world cichlids 125 gallon office tank: Africian cichlids, synodontis catfih 75 gallon community tank: bolivian rams, black skirt tetras, dwarf neon rainbowfish, corys, harlequin rasboras, otos, bristlenose and bulldog plecos, assassin snails, various shrimp
60 gallon goldfish tank: fancy goldfish
I have neons, harleiqum rasbora and shrimp in my tank. The shrimp are fine. I also had a 29 with nothing but neons. I also have the black neons but was not overly fond of them. Not sure why they are called neons other than because they are small.
If your new to keeping fish go with Neon's they are hardier than Cardinals but not realy a bigginer fish either. The Black Neons are hardier than the other two and will stay in the upper part of you tank where the other two will stay in the middle. The Black Neon makes a nice contrast from the other two.
Buy a Dz of each and you will do fine. I've never kept schrimp so I have to differ to my fellow forum members.
Thanks for the info everybody. I finally got my tank cycled and put in 12 black neons and 14 standard neons. I really want to get a good look at them in there, but they're all hiding in one corner of the tank and I have the lights off so they can settle in. Tomorrow will be my first real look at the tank actually being populated!
Good on you for having the patience to wait before turning on the lights.
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I have both black neons and regular neons. They don't school with each other, and mostly they don't school at all, but they still look pretty awesome scattered all over the tank... The only thing is, the black neons are easily two or three times the size of the "regular" neons - they are much deeper in the body, and a little longer - they look very different to neons and cardinals when they grow up. Not sure if that is the look you are going for.
Standard neons, Cardinals, and black neons...
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