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Neons: update -> actually has something to do with plants
Well... it has been a while since my massive die-off of neons. I've finally
personally replied to every who helped me with the neons (whoah! remind me
never to promise everyone a reply again. I got like 30 something messages!).
I'll share a couple of things I've learned.
In a healthy planted tank, nitrogen cycle bacteria count, expectingly, would
be much lower than "bio-loaded" tanks. The planted tank the neons went into,
most, if not all, ammonia produced is consumed by plants before bacteria get
a chance, thus there were virtually no bacteria in that tank. So when I
added the 70 neons, the multiplication rate of bacteria was not enough to
counterbalance to fish population. That is, assuming bacteria can double in
1 day, doubling the fish load in a well established tank with no plants will
be countered in that amount of time--no sweat. Doubling fish load in a
nitroge limited planted tank--big sweat! In my other bio-loaded tanks, I
have added similar amount of fish with no problem at all.
Never buy 70 neons from Petsmart on Fridays (or the day when they get new
arrivals) =) Or better yet, never buy from petsmart. 8^)
Neons are very delicate. Ammonia on top of stress from shipment, pet store
tank introduction, shipping again, and home tank intro would kill them.
A school of 70 healthy neons in a 60 gallon tank is very stunning.
Smiles,
Toan
Who still believes you can happily house 250 .5" neons in a 60 gallon tank.
hmmm... anyone want to buy 3 discus?
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