Neon Tetras

[bizfromqc]

Quick question about Neon Tetras and water movement (current).

Have any of you found that your neons DON'T like the current/water movement in the tank? Do they prefer still/calm water? A lot of the sources I read mention that they would typically like calmer water but that they should adapt nicely to more water movement.

The reason I'm asking is that since I added another canister to my 25G setup (to cycle the new filter), my neons hang out in one area of the tank only and rarely come out (well except at feeding time ) from that area.

The tank is a 25G Long (30in wide) and it's got both a Fluval 205 and an Eheim 2213. The inputs of the two canisters are at opposite ends of the tank, the output of the Fluval is on the right side and the output of the Eheim is via the sray bar mounted horizontally in the middle of the tank (water shoots about 30 degrees down into the tank).

What's your experience been with neons and water movement?

Eric

[pm]

Eric, I have quite a bit of flow on my big tank (over 10x turnover per hour on paper), but it is pretty gentle (spraybars).  My neon's seem okay with it.  Don't get me wrong, they are not surfing the flow like some other fish like to do, but they are not hiding either.

Sorry couldn't be of more help.

[exv152]

Eric, It's been years since I've kept neons, but I do have a group of 8 cardinal tetras in a tall 37g with two filters, and all the other tetras in the tank hangout at the surface except the cardinals. Probably because of the increased flow, so they tend to hangout where there's less, near the mid to lower end. I think they generally live in lightly flowing water, not gushing streams.

[fischkopp]

Tetras love current, but if given a chance they are lazy. Looks like they just found a spot in your tank where they can hang out without much effort.

I have a school of 60-80 black neons in a 33 gal long,  that has two eheim compact 3000 pushing the water from one side to the other, a combined 1500 gal /hour. I have never seen tetras school tighter, going back and forth in the current.