Neon tetra life expectancy

Hi,What is the longest that you have been able to keep neon tetras alive?.:bigsmile:

 

9 months (Started with 10 and now there are 5).

 

Mine have been going for 2+ years. They are almost as big as the cardinals in the tank.

 

My parents had some going for just less than 2 years. Then, you know, however many weeks/months they were alive before we bought them.

 

Do you know what the trick is to keep them going longer?

 

Well I fed them your food mainly when they were small. Or was that a rhetorical question?

 

Yes, good feeding is required, but this was not what I was getting at, there is another reason, can anyone guess?

 

I'm going to say that a batch that was bred with some wild caught ones will last longer.

 

No Firefly,

The trick is to keep them at cooler temps. In Singapore they are bred at maximum 22 C. If you keep them at 24-25 C you already severely reduce their lifespan. Folks don't realize this and the LFS owners advise 25 C. Well the fishes die off like flies and the public buy more so the LFS owner is happy. It is a sad story, but at 21-22 C they will live up to ten years!

Happy neon keeping,

Dirk

 

Thanks for the tip Prof. So we could keep some cooler water fish with them and they would be happy. That's nice to know.

 

Yes, that is perfectly correct. The other tetra that falls into the category is the red phantom tetra. Keep it at above 23 C and it dies within weeks, but it is really a little stunner and if you have a small tank with some neons and red phantoms this actually makes a most amazing display. In these days of high electricity costs it is really something to consider.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

@MarcHawke What is your heater temperature set at ?.

 

@DewaldC - Ouch! 27 degrees. No wonder they look like hell and are dying one by one. Maybe I should put them in a tank with some Red Phantoms as suggested by @Dirk or with White Cloud Minnows?

 

Ouch, that is like running around Colgate in the Namib Desert at 40 C, my china.

A combination with White Clouds makes a lot of sense. The neons and the red phantoms are bottom fishes and the White clouds at the top and the middle. Do you guys know that there is a new white cloud that comes from Vietnam, nice fishy, that one.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

This sounds like something to consider!!

Thanks @Dirk!

 

I've always wanted minnows but been put off by the temperature issue. I now know what I'm going to do with my 30l female guppy tank. Thanks.

 

@Dirk Mystery solved , I recently increased my temperature from 24C to 28C and that's when the problems started.:embarrest:

 

Google Tanichthys micagemmae for the new Vietnamese White Cloud, now we must just get @Moolis to get these for us.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Ok @Dirk. Show me the next fish I am going to die to have :cry:

 

See DewaldC,

that is why you need the prof....

Kind regards,

Dirk