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I know that Cardinal Tetras are delicate fish, afterall they’re transported through quite a few middlemen from South America. I’ve read stories about them dying single file, etc, but I had no idea the mortality rate was quite as high as I’ve been experiencing.

I bought 10 Cardinals on Thursday. I wanted 7, so I bought 3 extra to cover “expected” losses. Two were dead upon arrival home, two died by morning. One died midday on Friday. I bought 5 more, all survived the trip home, but come morning two were dead. One died this morning, one died midday, and it looks like another is pretty close to death right now. Generally if they’re acting at all different from the rest they’ll be dead within a couple hours. 66% mortality… that’s also $20 thrown down the toilet.

It should really go without saying, but the water parameters are perfect and every single fish had an hour of drip aclimation. I’m glad I set up the quarantine tank, if for no other reason than it being easy to pick up the dead ones.

I did notice one of the Cardinals losing balance, whirling around… which could be a protozoan, Myxospora, which is (duh!) lethal, but it could also spread to my two Blue Rams also in quarantine. I sincerely hope not, but… it’s really a toss up, they cost $10, it costs $10 in gas to get to ‘That Fish Place’ … so if they die within the five day quarantine, it’s break-even. Of course, they’d likely not die, they’d show no symptoms, and eventually once they’re in the show tank infect the others… and someday down the line I’d have an entire tank of dead or almost dead, but whirling about, fish.

So, folks, if you’re thinking about Cardinals, even if you get them from a supplier foolish enough to even bother with offering a ’stay alive’ on them, please reconsider. Hell, you’d be better off with the “poor man’s Cardinal” aka the Neon Tetra… purchased from Walmart… they have a 90 day (omg!) ’stay alive’ guarantee.

Money aside, it’s depressing too, waking up every morning to find dead fish.