Red Spot Glass Cardinal fish

Cleo642 · Jan 27, 2016

I see these all the time on Divers Den, and I am sure they are a great starter fish. Does anyone have these, or has experience with them?

Oscaror · Jan 27, 2016

remind me of neon tetras. Look pretty cool, how big do they get?

Cleo642 · Jan 27, 2016

Oscaror said:
remind me of neon tetras. Look pretty cool, how big do they get?

1 1\2" and live aquaria always sells them in groups of five.

Smite · Jan 27, 2016

I kept a group of 10 in my 66g that I got from divers den. They stay under 2" and will actually school/free swim. In my experience they aren't aggressive to one another. Unfortunately I lost the group to a velvet outbreak in my DT. Before that I lost 1 by it jumping out.

Since I have tried a group of 17 from my LFS.......1 survived. I tried 2 from another LFS neither survived qt. They have a reputation of being difficult and I believe it's from not being collected well.

Once I get some funds I plan on ordering another group of 10 from DD to accompany my lone survivor. That is the only source I would attempt them from again.

Daniel@R2R · Jan 27, 2016

@melev just bought a lot of them, and I think @chopsie has kept them as well. Maybe they'll chime in. I definitely want some of these in my next tank.

Cleo642 · Jan 27, 2016

Smite said:
I kept a group of 10 in my 66g that I got from divers den. They stay under 2" and will actually school/free swim. In my experience they aren't aggressive to one another. Unfortunately I lost the group to a velvet outbreak in my DT. Before that I lost 1 by it jumping out.

Since I have tried a group of 17 from my LFS.......1 survived. I tried 2 from another LFS neither survived qt. They have a reputation of being difficult and I believe it's from not being collected well.

Once I get some funds I plan on ordering another group of 10 from DD to accompany my lone survivor. That is the only source I would attempt them from again.

I plan on trying a group from DD one a day, I was thinking they would like the first fish to go in the tank, whenever that finally happens. They do seem like tetras.

GOSKN5 · Jan 27, 2016

I had a group of 5 once from DD and like so many others they just seemed to dissappear... 1 by 1 until I had no more over about 6 months time or so... they are really pretty and natural looking in a reef... but seem to be short lived

melev · Jan 28, 2016

Mine were acclimated tonight, and I'm just waiting for the 60g to finally finish cycling. I was going to put them in my reef originally, but then I started to worry my wrasses might decided they are delicious. And the Sebae seems to like to eat fish... so they are in holding right now...

eatbreakfast · Jan 28, 2016

The store I work at had them in a couple of displays a few years ago. They need multiple feedings a day, a few would die on holidays when nobody came in to feed. They are quite peaceful and would school well. Lifespan seems to be around 9-12 months.

reefwiser · Jan 28, 2016

Cute little fish glad they made it with the cold weather Mark.

Cleo642 · Jan 28, 2016

eatbreakfast said:
The store I work at had them in a couple of displays a few years ago. They need multiple feedings a day, a few would die on holidays when nobody came in to feed. They are quite peaceful and would school well. Lifespan seems to be around 9-12 months.

They do seem like neon tetras, I had some in freshwater tanks. One by one they would slowly die off. I still want to try them though.

melev · Jan 28, 2016

Here they are.

Cleo642 · Jan 28, 2016

melev said:
Here they are.

They are pretty, little fish.

Dendro Dude · Jan 28, 2016

+1 Reminds me so much of neon tetras☺

dodgerblew · Jan 28, 2016

More like a reverse rummynose

Cleo642 · Jan 29, 2016

dodgerblew said:
More like a reverse rummynose

Yeah, that's true. I would a rummynose is more resilient, but they say under the right conditions a neon can live like 10-15 years. Just the time I tried to keep some they didn't work out that well. But I think a couple of them had neon tetra disease.

Tyler D · May 2, 2017

I have had three survivors from a five-lot purchased from DD since 12/2015. All three are still going strong and I contemplate adding more every time I see them pop up on DD... a great (low bioload) addition to any reef IMO.

Cleo642 · May 3, 2017

Tyler D said:
I have had three survivors from a five-lot purchased from DD since 12/2015. All three are still going strong and I contemplate adding more every time I see them pop up on DD... a great (low bioload) addition to any reef IMO.

I wonder why they die of so easily? Maybe a short life span.

eatbreakfast · May 3, 2017

Cleo642 said:
I wonder why they die of so easily? Maybe a short life span.

Partly short lifespan, partly delicate shippers, partly high metabolic need.

4FordFamily · May 3, 2017

Cleo642 said:
Yeah, that's true. I would a rummynose is more resilient, but they say under the right conditions a neon can live like 10-15 years. Just the time I tried to keep some they didn't work out that well. But I think a couple of them had neon tetra disease.

With neon tetras, soft, clean water was the trick! Once I used RO I kept them for years!

Also, nice fish I too see these all the time!