Cardinals or Neons

Which is your personal preference?

Don't let me influence your decision but I'm having trouble deciding if I should put 10 cardinals@R20each or 20 neons@R10each in my new 1.2m tank.

 

Buy 10 neons and 2 might survive.(Stress,bad line-breeding by easter breeders.)
Buy 10 cardinals and 8 might survive.(More hardy IMO)
You do the maths.......

 

Green neons!if you find them..they awesome

 

cardinals are much classier imo.. they look better and they school better too.. but if u mix neons and cardinals they school together too..

 

If you buy cardinals, make sure you quarantine them before putting them in your tank. Most of our cardinals we get are from the wild and carry parasites and moogies that your other tank mates might not be immune to.

 

ummmm guys - lets first start. how old is the tank? Wild (good quality) cardinals wont survive in a new tank..... If you can get good neons - keep them alive before you move onto the more demanding fish. As i always say on marine sites - 1st keep nemo alive before you start with the complicates stuff

 

Wow dude your lfs is seriously expensive! I just bought the first 10 of a planned school of 20 neons at R4.50 a fish. Oh and its been 2 weeks and all are still alive

 

I gave the cheapest price, some sell neons @ R20 each! As for the cardinals, how long do I need to let the new tank mature before adding them?

 

atleast 6 months to a year. They are right up there with discus....

 

They are both stunning fish. Also check out how the lfs treats the tanks and fish. Personal preference really.

 

Cardinals and Neons are very very very prone to ich so make sure to QT them even if they show no signs when you buy them.

 

I've got a combination of Cardinals and neons in my 550mm cube. They do school together, but if I had to choose again I wouldnt go with either of them. Like Vis stated they are prone to ich, I experienced this. They are generally not hardy so be prepared to lose a few fish.
I recently bought some harlequin rasboras and in my opinion are so much better. Has anyone else seen how they beautiful they colour up in optimal conditions?! The orange and black combo is really striking. At the LFS they look rather drab. Worth a look.

 

They can be very stunning little fish.

 

Ive never kept them before, but I'm trying to keep the new tank as close to South American species as possible.