# Neons and Cardinals - together at last?



## malajulinka (Mar 29, 2008)

So I went to a local well-respected pet-shop this aft to pick up some new fish for an established 10-gallon that's housed nothing but plants and an ever-growing accumulation of snails for a few months.

They had a tank of teeny-tiny fishes that were labelled "Local-Bred Cardinal Tetras", but they looked like neons. I asked the fish guy, and he looked and said, "Well whattya know, they *are* neons."

Anyway, I bought six. Brought them home, and now that I'm looking at them, four are definitely neons, but two of them are just as definitely cardinals. Is this okay? Can they be a happy school together? Or do both groups need more same-kind buddies?

There's nothing else in the tank except for three algae shrimp and the aforementioned snails (which I bought an assassin to hopefully help with), and it's got a strong filter, so space-wise I could probably add a few more of each/either species if I had to.

Please advise. Thanks!


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## RevoBuda (Sep 3, 2011)

They will be fine, I had two schools of cardinals and neons, the cardinals all died except one and four neons lived. Together the 5 of them school and interact without a problem. Enjoy!


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

They should be fine together, so long as you keep the water temperature at 75F. It's my understanding that neons prefer a slightly cooler water, while cardinals can be comfortable in discus-temp waters (over 80F).


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## malajulinka (Mar 29, 2008)

*Thanks guys*

Thanks guys. I'll keep an eye on the little boogers and if I see them specifically keeping to their own kind I'll head on back to the shop and get them some more buddies. Right now they're sticking together - they're so teeny! I have ramshorn snails in there bigger than they are!


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