Cardinal v. Neons?

[Mofolepo]

Hijacking the post... but on a second account, one of my cardinals at work seem to be sick. His coloring is still alright, but he is not schooling with the other 8, and he is breathing heavily. Should I do a water change today? Is there any immediate solution that will help him without hurting my other inhabitants?

 

[jm1212]

IME, it depends where you get them. some neons are pretty tough, but others are very delicate. the same goes with cardinals.

 

[cohazard]

What I've noticed is that if cardinals are sold too small, they will be more fragile, but if sold over half an inch, they'll be hardier than neons of equal size.

Plus they look better.

 

[VFC]

I prefer the neon over the cardinal because of the shade of blue. One day I was lucky enough to be in a pet store that had neons and cardinals in tanks next to each other. While the cardinal had the body length red strip; the neon had a beautiful (IMO) slade of blue. The cardinal blue was closer to turquoise.

 

[5xevy]

I like the cardinals better for the longer red strip and the slightly larger size. I've read in a couple of places that they're also resistant to NTD and if that's true, that's all the more reason I like them.

 

[swany]

Cardinals seem to live longer than neons. they grow larger, the blue stripe is wider. I find them very hard to start but once you get them established they do very well. Neons seem easier to start.