# loosing cardinals



## Anafranil (Mar 15, 2005)

One more time I tried to keep cardinals in my new planted tank.One more time I failed.It has been years since I lost a single fish and this happens only with this species,I am very frustrated and I knew from the begining that I was going to loose each of the 20 I bought,one by one by one by one and so forth.The first fish I lost was an hour after I bought them and died with jercky movements and a white patch on its back and some torn fins,I noticed that some of the others had torn fins and cotton mouths so I immediadly run to the shop to check the rest of the fish there and they were all fine.The gye there suggested me an antibacterial infection treatment which had no results,by now probably all my fish are dead,while the shop's ones are fine.
Anyone else having troubles with its cardinals??
I am pretty sure ](*,)


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

Yes, I've had problems with them in the past. They tend to be sensitive to changes in their environment and will quickly succomb to infection. Here's what I would suggest.

Get the water parameters from your LFS and compare them to yours. Are they very different?

Set up a quarantine tank just for the incoming fish. Use prophilactic medication in it. Increase the temperature to speed the life cycle of infections. Don't purchase so many fish at once.

Once they are eating well and free of infection, slowly change the water to that of your tank and transfer them over.


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## Anafranil (Mar 15, 2005)

When you say infection are you referring on bacterial infections or other paracites?Is mouth rot medication the on to use in such cases?


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

In the quarantine tank, treat for both as you are not sure what they may have. There is good information on quarantine tanks here at APC (do a search) and on the Internet. It has been so long, I don't recall off hand.


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## Anafranil (Mar 15, 2005)

Thanks a lot,I'll do my research


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

I have some cardinals in one of my tanks and when I buy them I always ask the store when they received them. I won't buy them if they haven't had them in their tanks for at least 5 days. I learned that the hard way. I used to have similar experiences with them as you have, but have had much better luck buying more acclimated fish, so to speak.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Opposite from Bert, I prefer to buy fish from the LFS before they have been released from their shipping bag! I don't trust most LFS's water sources and I believe this gives the fish one less stressful transition between different water sources. That said, I rarely purchase fish from any LFS anymore as the fish's health never seems very good.

I just moved a 5g tank into my son's bedroom. I purchased 2 guppies from a local Pet*mart. I tested the water in the bag prior to releasing the fish. The pH was 8.6 and the TDS was over 1400. Those must be some hardy little fish! I didn't bother with any other tests and slowly transitioned the fish to the water in the 5g.


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## Anafranil (Mar 15, 2005)

In fact they were acclimated for 5 or more days,I called the person from the shop to see how the rest of the fish were going,he told me they were fine but he started loosing the neons in another tank with their own popular method,one by one........ ](*,) ](*,)


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Cardinals can be sensitive fish to get acclimated. One of the problems when they come from the fish store is that they've had so many stressful transfers before they get to your house - from the breeder, to possibly a trans-shipper, to the stores supplier, to the store and once again netted and bagged to go to your house. That many moves is hard on any fish, and when you get to the sensitive ones it just gets to be too much. 
Like Art said, if your water is much different than the stores, that can also be the last straw for them after all they've already been through.

Just because the store didn't have a problem with the fungus, it doesn't mean the fish didn't have a start of it when you got them. Again, any stresses they've had makes them weak and that's when things like fungus are going to rear their ugly head.

Do you have any other fish in the tank, or do you have any idea why the fins are frayed? If the fins are frayed, chances are they've been bumped around somewhere, and those things can easily fungus.

To finally answer your question, I haven't had any trouble with new Cardinals, but I've ordered them directly from a guy at AquaBid or gotten them from a friend, so it's much less stressful.


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## Anafranil (Mar 15, 2005)

I think I should state my water parameters(gh=3,ph=6.5)and dealer's(gh=17-20,ph=8.5)
Any comments on this?


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

JanS said:


> To finally answer your question, I haven't had any trouble with new Cardinals, but I've ordered them directly from a guy at AquaBid or gotten them from a friend, so it's much less stressful.


That is exactly why I buy from Aquabid! The fish seem so much more colorful and aclimate so much quicker, there really isn't any comprison! All of my purchses from LFS's have been very por to say the least.



Anafranil said:


> I think I should state my water parameters(gh=3,ph=6.5)and dealer's(gh=17-20,ph=8.5)
> Any comments on this?


That is quite a difference in water parameters! I'm not sure if it really has any merit but I have read that Cardinals prefer a GH below 10 dGH. After loosing 8 out of 12 in my 75g with a GH of 10, I moved them to my 30g with a GH of ~3 and they have done fine ever since. They were experiencing a slow painful death, dropping one by one for the first week or two. I also wonder if the high LFS pH isn't what caused the fins to fray.


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