one of neon tetras died yesterday. we have not had a fish casualty in a long long time. this one had a big bulge in its gi tract before it died, but i do not know what caused it. neons apparently have a lifespan of 2-10 years (a big range… two seem more likely to me for small fish), and we have had these for over a year. i think the one that died was actually one of our original ones; we had originally had four along with a variety of other tetras, but one tetra (the one that just died) had the ick and then infected all the others. an unhappy period of tetra death then followed, but the original neon actually survived along with three other tetras (different species). but, alas, he did not survive his latest malady. we got a bunch more baby neons after the ick debacle, and they still appear to be doing well.
we have a variety of fish at home… a couple of comets (“one” and “three”), three cory (trilineatus) catfish, two upsidedown catfish (s. contractus), a betta (“mr. blue”), four neons, three other tetras of unknown species, and two other small fish at work who also wish to remain unidentified. i have been coveting a humahuma and a variety of other fishies, but reason prevailed as we have may fish already (five tanks plus one currently unused one).
but i already have plans for moving the fishies up to buffalo where i will treat them with bigger tanks, but that will happen later.