# Lonely Cardinals



## Mr. Scruples (Apr 20, 2012)

Hi All,

First post here for me, and it's a melancholy one 

I started up a tank for my son recently, and unfortunately, the Cardinals I brought home came with a bout of ich -- of the six we started out with, only two are left, which is very upsetting.

These two seem to be rallying nicely now that I've got a cure underway (elevated temperatures for the next ~10 days + 1/2 tsp of salt/gallon), but since they're the only two living creatures in the tank, they're very obviously lonely and skittish, and I'd love to be able to do something more for them..

I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I figured I'd throw this out there anyway and see what people think:

Now that I'm treating the tank for ich, would it be completely stupid to bring in a few more Cardinals so that these guys aren't so lonely?

Or is this just me having a case of new fish-parent syndrome, and they'll be fine on their own until the ich clears up?


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## df001 (Nov 13, 2007)

I would get more cardinals eventually - but wait till you're 100% sure the ich is sorted out. if all you have is cardinals - there's really no need to turn the heat back down - they like the water warmer.

6 is the absolute minimum number I'd keep together - depending on your tank size, I'd look at buying another group of six.

Good luck and welcome to the forum, sorry your first post had to be a melancholic one.


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## Holidays (Apr 18, 2010)

Hey Gabriel, glad you started on setting up the tank quickly, correct me if I am wrong but if your tank is still fairly new and you didn't use a filter from an old and establish tank I wouldn't put alot of fish in it yet. You might got an amonia spike and it can kill the fish too, don't overfeed them, just once a day in the morning sparingly. Check the water parameters, ick is easy to get rid of just raise the temp to 86. Leave the fish you have in there, be patient let the tank cycle properly. I wouldn't suggest adding more fishes if your filtration is new.


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## Mr. Scruples (Apr 20, 2012)

df001 said:


> I would get more cardinals eventually - but wait till you're 100% sure the ich is sorted out. if all you have is cardinals - there's really no need to turn the heat back down - they like the water warmer.
> 
> 6 is the absolute minimum number I'd keep together - depending on your tank size, I'd look at buying another group of six.
> 
> Good luck and welcome to the forum, sorry your first post had to be a melancholic one.





Holidays said:


> Hey Gabriel, glad you started on setting up the tank quickly, correct me if I am wrong but if your tank is still fairly new and you didn't use a filter from an old and establish tank I wouldn't put alot of fish in it yet. You might got an amonia spike and it can kill the fish too, don't overfeed them, just once a day in the morning sparingly. Check the water parameters, ick is easy to get rid of just raise the temp to 86. Leave the fish you have in there, be patient let the tank cycle properly. I wouldn't suggest adding more fishes if your filtration is new.


Thanks, guys. That's what I thought, but I needed to hear from the experts.

Gerald -- we're loving the tank, thanks again for the great deal! I definitely take the blame for this predicament. I know I was over-eager to get things going, and the Cardinals suffered because of it. I feel terrible for that; they certainly didn't deserve it 

I _tried_ to do everything right -- I did get a squeeze of filter-juice from a neighbour to seed the tank with, and I've been buffering the bacteria with Seachem Stabilize as well as using Prime to keep ammonia and nitrite levels in check, etc.. Water parameters have consistently been right where I'd hoped they'd be as well (except for the Toronto water pH), but I totally get that it's not as simple as all that.

I think they might have been fine adapting to the new tank if not for the ich, but that complication just put things right over the edge and it took me too long to realize what was going on.. In the future I certainly won't be so cavalier in my approach.

Anyway, I'm grateful for the feedback. It's nice to know there are cooler heads to turn to in times like this.


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## Kerohime (Jan 10, 2011)

You should put all your tank specs and water parameters here, because if they had ich they may get it again regardless of whether you add more fish or not. 

Cardinals are known to be a bit finicky of the tetras, especially if they are wild caught, and they actually prefer higher temperature water. My cardinals were amazing until one of my thermometers stop working and the temp dropped, and they got ich... as soon as I put in a new thermometer, I hiked the heat back up to about 28C and they are doing fine now, didnt even have to medicate the tank.

And its not a silly idea to want to keep cardinals in a group, they prefer to shoal together, and even look alot nicer in the tank that way. With only 2 left I'd either trade them to someone who has more cardinals or add more eventually.


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## Mr. Scruples (Apr 20, 2012)

Kerohime said:


> You should put all your tank specs and water parameters here, because if they had ich they may get it again regardless of whether you add more fish or not.
> 
> Cardinals are known to be a bit finicky of the tetras, especially if they are wild caught, and they actually prefer higher temperature water. My cardinals were amazing until one of my thermometers stop working and the temp dropped, and they got ich... as soon as I put in a new thermometer, I hiked the heat back up to about 28C and they are doing fine now, didnt even have to medicate the tank.
> 
> And its not a silly idea to want to keep cardinals in a group, they prefer to shoal together, and even look alot nicer in the tank that way. With only 2 left I'd either trade them to someone who has more cardinals or add more eventually.


Thanks, Kerohime.

I've had the temperature in the tank up at 30 degrees since a day or two before I made my original post, and you're absolutely right -- the Cardinals seem to love it, so I'll probably just leave it at 30 to keep the ich from coming back.

All the ich spots dropped off on the 5th, and there hasn't been another infection, so I'm fairly certain it's under control.. I'm going to give it another day or so and then get these poor little guys some more friends. Ultimately I'd like to have about 8 Cardinals in there, possibly 10.


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