# How long can cardinal tetras live?



## mr_convitbau

Some sources say that they can live upto 4 years. Meanwhile, the other say that they can only live for 1 year. If the cardinal tetras sold in store were caught from the nature, they would already have spent quite a long time out of their lifespan. I mean, they were kind of old already when we bought them, so they would not survive for so long (less than 1 year for the worst). I assumed all the requirements and living conditions for them were met.

Any thoughts on that? How long can you keep them in your aquarium?


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## houseofcards

I have some cardinals that have been in my tank over 3 years.


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## CrownMan

I have 3 Cardinal Tetras at least 6 years old.


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## mr_convitbau

By the way, I have heard a lot of people saying that it is tough to introduce the cardinal tetras into a new aquarium and keep them survive since a large amount of them often die after a short time period. The survivals however would become quite hardy.

My question is how many percent can you keep your tetras survive when introducing them into your new aquarium? If your percent was high, what was the method that you used for acclimation?


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## taekwondodo

I always kill all my fish at least once a year - it's a difficult thing to do, but I'm successful at it (OD w/CO2).

I've had some cardinals live through it, they made it to three years - until my last overgassing. The only thing that made it through that time was 3 GBRs ...

- Jeff


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## fishfry

I have three green neon tetras which are very similar to cardinals (same genus) that are 5+ years old. I got them over two years ago from a hobbyist that had already had them for several years in his display, I did not expect them to live an additional 2+ years and still be alive now. 

Very rarely I see some enormous cardinal tetras available that are 2-3 times larger than the average cardinal offered for sale, I think I have only seen these twice in the last five years or so. Are the fish we keep not reaching full size?? Variations due to the collecting locale?? Does anyone know what I am talking about with the JUMBO cardinal tetras?


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## vancat

I had some HUGE cardinals...just ask TexEx. I think they scared him once.


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## galettojm

mr_convitbau said:


> By the way, I have heard a lot of people saying that it is tough to introduce the cardinal tetras into a new aquarium and keep them survive since a large amount of them often die after a short time period. The survivals however would become quite hardy.
> 
> My question is how many percent can you keep your tetras survive when introducing them into your new aquarium? If your percent was high, what was the method that you used for acclimation?


I bought 23 cardinal tetras on September 2007.

Now I still have 23 tetras. Surprisingly no one has died yet.

I think is probably because my tank has very soft and acid water (PH 5).

Bye !

Juan


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## vancat

I had no problem with them, I use a drip.
I agree that it probably has to do with whether or not they like your water, not necessarily how you acclimate them.

Unfortunately they are an altum's favorite snack. That's what happened to mine eventually.


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## BryceM

10 years isn't unheard of - rare, but it can happen.

If mine survive the first month they usually go for years.


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## ed seeley

mr_convitbau said:


> If the cardinal tetras sold in store were caught from the nature, they would already have spent quite a long time out of their lifespan. I mean, they were kind of old already when we bought them, so they would not survive for so long (less than 1 year for the worst).


Not true. In the wild cardinals are effectively annual fish that grow and spawn in their first year. They usually get eaten before they get the chance to spawn again! So, even assuming your fish were caught after they'd spawned they are likely to be a year old.



mr_convitbau said:


> How long can you keep them in your aquarium?


I've had most of the ones I spawned live for just over 5 years so that age is definitely possible.


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## DanD5303

We've had some go for several years, at least four. I acclimate them very slowly, taking at least an hour, usually closer to two. Then we feed baby brine shrimp a couple of times a week for at least a month. After that, they are tough fish, even in fairly hard water. Right now I'm using flightless fruit flies for live food, but bbs would work much better at first.


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## mr_convitbau

Would neon tetras have the same lifespan like cardinal tetras?


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## vancat

My guess would be yes.
Not as pretty though!


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## Dennis Quaresma

Didn't get something...

taekwondodo,



> I always kill all my fish at least once a year - it's a difficult thing to do, but I'm successful at it (OD w/CO2).


So, you kill all your fish once a year? Why do you do this?


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## Anafranil

I always had trouble keeping cardinal tetras..


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## Newt

I have some left from a batch of tank bred stock I purchased when the tank was set up in Sept 2001. All from that batch lasted at least 5 to 6 years


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## mr_convitbau

I just purchased a school of 20 cardinal tetras from a local fish store. According to the store owner, the tetras have been in his store for 2 weeks after their arrival. 

He charged me for $1.50 each. I think that is pretty cheap comparing to Petco and Petsmart where they sell them for $4.00 each.

Right now I am acclimating them to my tank. No rush here, hoping they will all survive.


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## Akaizhar

I just recently got a batch of cardinal tetras from my LFS, (16) and they're all doing rather well.


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## Bettatail

dont know about cardinal, but some of my neon tetras had short lives.
11 neons, 3 perished in first week after tranfered from Petsmart, now the rest on their 5th week. yesterday one of them got hack by betta, lost its left eye, but still kicking, always right turn, right turn, grasp a piece of food, right turn, another bite, right turn.. Hope it can survive. Others join school of zebra dianos and aggressively fighting over a piece shrimp meat which suppose to be betta's. The betta now under close observation since I believe its aggressiveness is provoked by one of the feeder koi(koi is out of the tank, and betta suffering a tail damage, by koi)

I had neon tetras in the pass, the most sucessful one lived about 2 and a half year.


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## Bettatail

He charged me for $1.50 each. I think that is pretty cheap comparing to Petco and Petsmart where they sell them for $4.00 each.

convitbau, that is really low price. $3.99 here, in Petsmart, and $1.99 in another independent local fish store. Priceless in Aqua Forest Aquarium(an aquascape specialize store, in SF, carry a lot of jumbo size cardinal tetras in their show tank, but not for sale.)


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## Bettatail

dont know about cardinal, but some of my neon tetras had short lives.
11 neons, 3 perished in first week after tranfered from Petsmart, now the rest on their 5th week. yesterday one of them got hack by betta, lost its left eye, but still kicking, always right turn, right turn, grasp a piece of food, right turn, another bite, right turn.. Hope it can survive. Others join school of zebra dianos and aggressively fighting over a piece shrimp meat which suppose to be betta's. The betta now under close observation since I believe its aggressiveness is provoked by one of the feeder koi(koi is out of the tank, and betta suffering a tail damage, by koi)

I had neon tetras in the pass, the most sucessful one lived about 2 and a half year.


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## fish dork

My school of 15 is almost at a year. They came from Pets Beautiful in Vancouver, flown to me and no casualties. Good stock; I drip acclimated them for about 4 hours. They also survived a recent tank teardown, they lived in rubbermade tub overnight.


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## tetra4040

The only parameter I check is pH. lots of old cypress drift wood in a 125 gallon tank. 200 hundred maybe less 2 inch long cardinal tetras. substrate which is 6 inches deep came from White Lake North Carolina, pure white sand without any carbonate hardness.
water change only when pH drops below 5.0. i use Sera peat to filter change out water for two days prior to adding to display tank. I usually change 60 gallons every three to four months. No filtration just two low output power heads for circulation.
oak tree leaf litter on the bottom. collected from the wild and replaced maybe every 2 months may be longer. temp 72 to 80 degrees F. These wild caught cardinals were purchased in 2001.


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## tetra4040

From tetra4040. I need to post a correction. My altums were purchased in 2001 and the cardinals were purchased in end 2002, therefore I've had them for 11 years.


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## totziens

I believe I had bad batch of cardinal tetras. The salesperson at the LFS actually warned me. They lasted for less than 5 days for me. I told myself cardinal tetras were not my cup of tea and never bother to purchase any ever since. The batch that went to heaven was purchased for my office's tank that my colleague and I sponsored ourselves. My colleague was the one who preferred cardinal tetras. I personally disliked them because they're too common in this hobby.

I don't have very good luck with neon tetras either. The oldest is about 1 year old.

I have better luck with other tetras such as ember tetra, pristella tetra (extremely hardy), black phantom tetra, pretty tetra, black neon tetra, etc. They can last 2 years and beyond if nothing goes wrong in the tank.


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