Neon tetras won't eat

[FishyWarrior]

How do you guys feel about play sand from home depot? i hear so many polarizing opinions of it and i don't know whether it's safe for fish or not But the cheap price is really appealing after spending so much on substrate already.
I just don't think i want to go with all gravel since i know my cories loved the sand. Is there a darker sand (not black) that i could go with if play sand isn't a good option? Something red in color would be great if possible.

 

[fishorama]

I only tried play sand once & didn't like it at all. It was very dirty & of slightly different size grains. It seemed to compact.

Do you have a Tractor Supply near you? You might like black diamond blasting sand. It's pretty fine with a shiny look. I just saw it again on Sat. in a club friend's tank & I liked it. He grew plants & had pygmy corys, they're pretty much mid water swimmers but I think you'd be fine.

 

[FishyWarrior]

Unfortunately the closest tractor supply store is about 4 hours away haha. I'm so scared to try anything not advertised for aquariums, but now it seems like i can't even trust those either.

So many people who've used that same black sand as me are telling me they experienced the same problems with mysterious fish deaths and that just infuriates me.

 

[fishorama]

You might try contacting the Co. that makes it & if it's from a big retailer, them too. It probably won't do anything but let you vent.

There's also Estes Marine sand, I haven't tried it. Their gravel is epoxy covered for color, it eventually wears off. I don't if the sand is like that too.

 

[FishyWarrior]

I'll keep looking around, i guess i'm not in as big a hurry to get the thing set up since i have to wait for new carpet to be put down first.

With my fish now a lot of them still aren't eating. They're behavior is drastically different and they are definitely far more interested in the food than before. but they still can't seem to keep it down. Is that a side effect of them being practically emaciated from not eating for so long? What can i do about that? I'm losing some of the incredibly thin ones now probably because of hunger but i can't get them to eat again.

 

[fishorama]

Yes, new carpet can off-gas possibly not good chemicals, so wait a while.

Crap, I'm sorry your neons are still not eating. I was hoping, as were you, they'd start in QT again. Don't give up, keep changing water & trying foods. Without any other sign than not eating I don't know what to suggest next.

 

[FishyWarrior]

I had better luck today with bloodworms, several of them were eating those. I'm going to try giving them a little bit of frozen brine shrimp too since that might be easier for them to swallow. A good number of them are starting to round out again but that select few are still so thin...

The cories are doing great though, they're very quick to clean up whatever the tetras don't eat and they're all getting pretty fat now.

 

[fishorama]

That's great news!

If bloodworms seem too big, you can kinda "shave/slice off" little bits of neon sized bites of food.
Whatever you can do to tempt them to eat...do it. Garlic juice may make everything taste good & have a tiny bit of therapeutic effect.

 

[FishyWarrior]

When i look up how to use the garlic guard i have it's always very vague about how much to use. Like is it only a few drops in a cup with the food? Much more than that? Can too much make it taste bad for the fish or be bad to put into the tank?

 

[fishorama]

Does it have a strong smell? I've never used that product or fresh garlic "juice", just a couple foods that have garlic as an ingredient. I can't remember but I may have added fresh to homemade seafood & beef heart foods when I had discus. They were so spoiled, it's likely I did.

Were you thinking trying it on the frozen brine shrimp & bloodworms? Or something else? My New Life Spectrum small fish pellets have garlic in it. It might be a mess on flakes.

I'd guess a drop or 2 on a day's (or 2 days) amount of food & minimal water. I try not to add much water from frozen food to my tanks, it just adds pollution IMO. Refrigerate & use up by the next day.

I think your corys are getting fat cleaning up all the leftover neon food but that's ok too.