Neon tetras

[Airbrusher]

After reading alot of stuff on various forums about the poor quality of the neon tetra market I was leary of buying any, but took the plunge recently when the wife went out of town and stopped at a lfs in a larger town to get a couple of items I needed....while she was there I told her to pick up something cheap to put in a 10 gal tank i'd had set up for a couple of months with plants but no livestock....she brought home a half dozen neons. I'm proud to say we still have all six of them a week later....lol....I know that doesn't sound like much, but after reading thread after thread of stories about folks that brought neons home only to watch them die off at the rate of 1-2 per day was disheartening to say the least. I always loved those little fish and didn't want to watch the same thing happen...... I don't know why ours are still going strong but i'm quite happy about it.

Isn't crazy how $3 worth of tiny fish can make a grown man smile?.. ...lol

On a bad note, I also asked the wife to pick up an Otto or two since my cleaning crew in our main tank was in need of refurbishment after our pleco died......I was upset when she came home with a gold CAE, after specifically noting that I didn't want one of those.....she claims the lady working the mom and pop style fish store looked in a book and told her the CAE was in the same genius family as the Otto, so it was basicly the same fish.....the wife didn't know the difference so she took the ladies word....I just hate it when that happens If it wasn't an hours drive to the store i'd take the fish back but it wasn't worth the $4 to return it and i'll just deal with him for now and see how he does.....Oh well.

[godscreaturespetshop]

Well at least I know it was not my store, My prices are better than that! lol

[mewickham]

A couple of years ago, I special ordered 200 neons from Petco in Rogers. They came in loaded with Pleistophora, an untreatable microsporidian. The fish started dropping like flies almost immediately. They are still buying neons from the same source apparently, because I haven't seen a good batch in the store since. I've seen similar in other stores, too, so they must all be ordering neons from the same source. It makes me suspect, too, that they are wild fish being held longterm in holding ponds. It's the only way I could imagine such a high infection rate. I don't recall seeing Pleistophora problems in the tank-raised neons from the Asian breeders.

[Airbrusher]

Well at least I know it was not my store, My prices are better than that! lol

When you say your prices are "better" do you mean cheaper or higher?....lol. I intentionally didn't mention store names in case the owners are members here. I think the store was a bit too far south to fall into your group but I didn't want to start anything over my post just in case. My intent was not to slam someones business but to talk about our purchase.

[mewickham]

Just in case it wasn't clear from my earlier post, I wasn't slamming the quality of Petco's fish. Overall, they seem to be quite good and I would have no problem recommending that people buy there. But there does seem to be an issue with their neons and the neons in some other local stores. Again, this is probably due the stores buying from the same wholesaler who is buying neons from an infected source.

[Airbrusher]

this is probably due the stores buying from the same wholesaler who is buying neons from an infected source.

This was my understanding as well....the source of the unhealthy neons most likely stems from the mega breaders.

[godscreaturespetshop]

I was just being funny, I know you were not trying to slam someones store.
Tetra's have been bad for a while.
Whats funny though is I get the black neons because they do alot better.

[etheonut]

I have noticed that lately a lot more stores have been carrying cardinal tetras, but not neons.

Kevin

[sumpnfishy]

That's because cardinals are still wild caught and don't suffer the breeding problems that neons do. I've even seen false neons (Paracheirodon simulans) for sale a lot more than I used to.