Neon Tetras - another day...another way to die...WTH

[JackLantern]

yeah salt for ich, temporary
salt for brackish is to get the salinity there.

my comment was that i notice this store was putting the salt packs in ALL tanks, not only brackish. when i asked they said that is what they do to help with stress.

though the web seems all over the board on salt in freshwater, i found some consensus on not adding salt for tetra tanks.

 

[Vincenia]

I work in the fish department in a LFS and I never put salt in the tanks, only for the marine system we have. I know Tetras can handle salt, but not for long periods of time. To long they get stressed and tend to become sick before dying off.

 

[JackLantern]

well during the process i was doing a lot of water changes.

yesterday i realized that my tap water pH can swing pretty far.

e.g. saturday it was 8.2 - 8.4 (those API colors are hard to match up)
moday it read 7.4

i don't know what the tap water pH was when i was doing partials, but thinking that could have been a factor too if it was swinging.


? - how much of pH swing does it take to hurt fish?

 

[JackLantern]

so not only can my tap pH change from the city

it rises about 1 point over 6 to 12 hours.

i test it fresh it is 7.4, i test it 12 hrs later, 8.2, then later sometimes 8.4
result is repeatable

i was doing a lot of water changes, thinking it was good, maybe it wasn't

guess that is why people let water sit before using it.

my last tank was 110 gallons, maybe i was spoiled by the forgiving volume

 

[Rafini]

I got 6 for free a few weeks ago, only one survived more than a few days. the one thats left is hardy though. I would say stick with cardinals

 

[JackLantern]

my final neon died

wasn't even tempted to replace them when i saw them at store. the filter intake was lined with dead neons, apparently they can't keep them alive either.

 

[rufioman]

Neons....suck. Plus, salt should never be used in freshwater tanks. I wouldn't even use it for ich in a fw tank.