# 5 Dead Tetra stuck to filter intake



## Jordin (Sep 14, 2011)

Hi,

Just looking for some thoughts and input...

I purchased a school of Cardinal and Rummy nose tetra today. I added 12 of them to my 65 gallon tank.

I have 5 angelfish and when i first added the tetra, the angels seemed to think they were food or just wanted to check out the new additions closely. After about 5 minutes, the angels lost interest and left them alone for the rest of the evening and didn't bother them. I also have a few black neon tetra already in the tank and they are fine.

The lights went out in the tank and before i came to bed I went to feed my black ghost knife fish his bloodworms. This is when I noticed 5 dead tetra stuck to the intake of my Aquaclear 70.... 

I am curious... Do you think the filter is too strong and these fish went to "sleep" when the lights went out, getting pulled onto and killed by the intake?

My only other concern is that maybe the angels picked them off oince the lights went out and their dead bodies got stuck?

I put a sponge filter over the intake for now as a pre-filter and I will get a proper one as soon as I get home from work. I feel badly to have lost 5 fish the day i brought them home... They are fairly small but the black neon tetra I have had for over a year are fine and I've never had any problems or lost a single one for any reason....

I've read a lot online saying these fish should not have any problems getting stuck to the intake so that makes me think maybe the angels were being naughty when the lights went out.... But then the angels left all the tetra alone after 5 minutes and they don't bother the black neons so that makes me doubt the angels also.... 

Any thoughts or opinions? 

Thanks,


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

Angels. Very territorial.


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## Jordin (Sep 14, 2011)

It just seemed odd that the angels left all the tetra alone after 5 minutes and didn't bother them at all for the rest of the evening.... I guess I'll have to wait and see over the next few days.

None of the bodies looked attacked or picked apart but I doubt it would take much for the angels to kill them if that was their goal...

I am also suspecting the angels of launching a night assault since the tetra would have been less active and easier targets. 

Why would they not bother the black neons already in the tank though?!?

I'll update over the next week or so...

Thanks,


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

sometimes when you buy fish they are still stressed from being shipped to the store and then being moved again to your tank can stress them even more. Also did you acclimate them properly, give it time for the temp to adjust, slowly add tank water so they get used to all the parameters such as temp, ph and so on?


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## Jordin (Sep 14, 2011)

pyrrolin said:


> sometimes when you buy fish they are still stressed from being shipped to the store and then being moved again to your tank can stress them even more. Also did you acclimate them properly, give it time for the temp to adjust, slowly add tank water so they get used to all the parameters such as temp, ph and so on?


Yes, they were acclimated. I floated the bags for an hour and kept the lights off in the tank. I added some tank water to the bags slowly and floated them for another 30 minutes before releasing them and keeping the lights off. All the fish had good coloring.

I just realized that it could have possibly been the black knife fish... He becomes very active as soon as the lights go out and he could easily have bit down on the tetra to test what they were..... I'll monitor them closely, hopefully I won't lose anymore.


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## Jordin (Sep 14, 2011)

I'm pretty sure it's the knife fish. The angels don't bother the tetra at all and have no interest in them. I have since lost a couple more and it is only at night when the knife fish becomes active.... I find it strange because the black tetra haven't been bothered... I believe the new tetra are still too small and I'll need to get some fully grown tetra to replace them.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

I wonder why it isn't eating them? Are there bite marks on them?


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## Jordin (Sep 14, 2011)

pyrrolin said:


> I wonder why it isn't eating them? Are there bite marks on them?


As of this morning, 4 more small tetra are totally missing. I found a head laying on the ground with a few bits of fish where the knife fish hangs out.....

I feel bad for the tetra... I am really confused because I have black neons in the tank and I haven't lost a single one of them and they've been in the tank for a year....

Possibly the new ones are just too small and the black neons are fully grown (2 inches) and just too big... I will have to keep a watchful eye on the knife fish, I am now thinking if he gets any bigger the black neons may become a target... He is currently around 7 - 8 inches.... If that happens and I start losing the full grown black neons I will get him his own tank.

I have 5 new tetra left around 1 inch mark, I am hoping they will survive.. I am considering moving them to my 10 gallon to grow and then re-add to the large tank when they are adult size.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

Better move them fast


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## Ryan.Wilton (Dec 12, 2012)

My best guess is the BGK. They're notorious for eating anything small enough to fit in their mouths. I'd say remove one or the other. The BGK is most likely going to continue this behavior since it's a natural one.


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## Jordin (Sep 14, 2011)

I have come to a conclusion as to what I really think may have happened... I will never know 100% for sure but I feel certain I know why they died now. I am posting this up for further consideration and to possibly help anyone in the future who may read this thread.

All the remaining Tetra are still alive and well. I haven't lost a single tetra since the first two days.

There are currently 6 little tetra still swimming about very happily alongside the angels and the BGK who could eat them anytime if he was inclined. I do not think the BGk or the angels had anything to do with it. Rather, I think it was my failure to properly acclimate the new fish to the tank.

My reasons:
- i had tetra in the tank for a year already without incident.
- The new tetra all died at once
- The tetra that survived are all doing fine and not being bothered by any other fish just like the previous tetra I already had.
- 1 tetra also died right after my first 50 % water change showing me they were sensitive to changes in water
- All the tetra were stuck to the intake with no signs of attack. None had been bitten or were missing any fins. Except for 1 which probably just fell near the BGK area and he picked at the dead fish which is understandable since I feed him bloodworms in that exact spot daily.

I thought I had acclimated them enough but now see that maybe I did not.
I could have given them more time to float in their bags of water from the fish store. I also should have done more little "sips" of tank water into the bag over a longer period of time. I also should have kept the lights off for the whole first night so they could adjust.

I feel the angelfish may have also caused them a lot of stress at the beginning since they chased them around for a little bit. This may have contributed to their demise in a new tank and having the shock of new water and a new environment.

That is what I think happened. I am glad that I have not lost anymore and I will take better care acclimating the smaller fishes in the future.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

Sounds like you have it figured out, just too much stress for some of them.


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## TorontoBoy (Mar 14, 2013)

You might consider the drip acclimation method that Ryan and others recommend. You can do this over a one hour period, or really as long as you wish to slowly dilute the LFS water with your own. Really, you could theoretically slow down the drip to an even longer period if you wish.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

There are some articles that say that today's farmed neon tetras are really suffering from problems due to inbreeding. This is because of the very large numbers that are farmed, and it can make them very weak, and much more likely to succumb to changes in conditions. 

I'm generally a fan of farm or tank raised fish over wild caught, because some of the methods used for wild catching really suck for the fish. But in some cases, wild caught may be the best bet overall, simply because you'll get better genetic makeup in the fish. Wild fish have a much larger gene pool to work with, so those that survive capture and shipping may very well be a lot hardier than farmed ones. This isn't true of all fish, but it may be true of neons, and inbreeding is certainly a problem with some other species as well. Zebra danios come to mind.. millions are bred yearly because they are so suitable for scientific study, being relatively transparent compared to some other fish that might otherwise suit this purpose. Very common to see thin or misshapen danios in a tankful of young ones.

Captive bred fish have only a limited gene pool to call on, even if the farms bring in new stock regularly, the sheer numbers bred are the problem. So the fish you lost may simply have been too weak to handle much stress, beyond what they already had to deal with in being shipped, etc. 

Inbreeding does not always have any visible characteristics, rather, I think it may be one of the main reasons behind a number of the 'mystery' deaths in our fish, due either to weakened immune systems or perhaps abnormalities in some other systems that aren't obvious from the outside.


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## Ryan.Wilton (Dec 12, 2012)

+1 to drip drip driparoo!

Sounds like the water may have been the issue, but I've used tetras to cycle my aquariums in the past because they're generally hardy. Perhaps the batch you got was infected with something internal already from the petstore.


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## Jordin (Sep 14, 2011)

I went and got some more cardinals and rummy nose. They have all settled in nicely and I haven't lost a single one. Even got a few Dwarf Rainbows because they looked so nice.....and a few more plants...

I took some extra time acclimating them, gave them smaller sips of tank water over time and also kept the lights out for a few hours. Seems to have worked.

The angels pestered the newcomers but only for a few minutes and not as much as the first batch.. The angles are super curious and inquisitive fish. They investigate and poke at anything new in the tank to see what it is.

Thanks for everyones input.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

glad it worked out this time


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