Aquariums: You guys weren’t kidding about the poor health of neon tetras.

Hi, it's me. The noob who inherited a fishtank from the previous tennents of my apartment.

Several people warned me at the time to avoid neon tetras, and rather spend the money on the more expensive, but hardier cardinal tetras.

I decided to try neons anyway. They're a very sentimental fish for me because my departed grandfather always kept them and were cheap and easily available.

I bought 10. 5 days later only 3 had survived. It made me really sad to see them hiding in the plants and only coming out for food.

A few days ago I bought 10 cardinal tetras from a bigger and farther away store.

and wow what a difference. They immediately adopted my fearful neons and now I see them swimming as a big happy swarm in the tank. The cardinals are much less fearful than the neons and showed much less signs of stress once introduced to the new tank. For anyone reading this, stay away from neons. Cardinals are just as pretty and much healthier.