Where Art Thou Cardinal?

[Matt15]

On the w/e I bought 6 cardinal tetras for my tank.
I've always wanted a small school of tetras but only considered getting new ones recently since I no longer have my ghostknife fish. (I traded him a few months back for my show leopard)

Anyway ALL the cardinals are GONE.....!!!
Vanished into thin air. My question is who would have eaten them, because there aren't any little bodies floating around?

Who's in the tank:
- 7x loved Discus
- 1x Bristle Nose Catfish (juvi)
- 3x Corydoras

I really want to go and buy more, but i'm just seeing that as a waste of money. My only alternative is to by a larger type of tetra but i love the cardinal look alot.

Ideas/help please?

[rwel4809]

if they were tiny wee ones they may have either been eaten by your discus, or been sucked into your canister filter...


I too am a big fan of the cardinals!! they look best in a big school of at least 12 IMO....


I bought 24 cardinals and 12 rummy noses last w/e also - I love the look of them in big schools... It might be an idea to look out for the jumbo cardinals that are sometimes on sale... I've heard they are safer to use with more mature discus that haven't grown up with them and may view them as snack food....

[boost.puppy]

matt, what If you tried putting a breeding sponge over the canister filter until they reach maturity?

Maybe open up the filter to see if they accidently got sucked into it?

[Matt15]

The cardinal sizes were relatively mixed and I had considered the filter, especially at night when they are sleeping.
But I just wouldn't have thought the Discus would have eaten them. But given that they are carnivores i guess anything is possible.

[Merrilyn]

In the wild, cardinals and neons are pretty low on the food chain. Just about everything eats them, but they still manage to appear in their millions.

Discus look on small/medium cardinals as pretty coloured yummy snacks.

Your discus would have gone hunting shortly after lights out.

[Matt15]

Your discus would have gone hunting shortly after lights out.

I'm hearing JAWS music reading that....

[locksmith999]

imagine a discus with jaws teeth hahahahahaha

[Mr Discus]

Yep Matt - your Cardinals became Discus dinner by the sounds of it.

Not totally uncommon, happens alot when you have a decent amount of Discus and all of a sudden introduce small tetras.

Just head down to Aquarama and get some newies - they have pretty large Cardinals (pretty much fully grown), at about $6 each I think. I doubt your Discus would be able to eat fully grown Cardi's.

[Barry N]

Hi Matt,

I used to have big problems with Cardinals being dinner for my discus. Lost 4 or 5 batches to them. The discus just used to go particularly crazy with the little ones and hunt them down! I now put them into a grow out amazon sword tank that I have and fatten them up till they are pretty big - I've still lost a few though. Little ones dont stand anychance at all.

[scott bowler]

yeah its all good there is nothing like live bait for the discus any way ,