why my cards are dying ?

[raphael2k2000]

friends, why my cards are dying ? Bought 4 cards on this sunday, 2 already died. Have canister for filteration. Other fishes - 6 guppies, 1 orange tetra, 1 tiger tetra; 1 pencil fish; 3 orange danios

[SCORPIO]

I am unable to identify "cards". Is it cardinal tetra or some other fish.

[raphael2k2000]

I am unable to identify "cards". Is it cardinal tetra or some other fish.

yes. Cards = cardinal tetra

[apuda2010]

Cardinal Tetras are a difficult fish to keep. There are four parts to the cardinal story...

Part 1 - Transit - they fare very poorly in transit. Mortality is very very high. Hence the price of the fish in an LFS is exorbitant.
Part 2 - New water conditions - again, cardinals prefer higher temperatures and clean water. They are notoriously difficult to acclimatize. And the hard water of North India does not help the cause.
Part 3 - Source of cardinals - over the years, due to captive breeding, the immunity of fish like cardinals and neons has gone down substantially.
Part 4 - Settled down - once cardinals have settled down, they are very very hardy fish....in fact far more hardy than Neons. For example, Rajiv Banerjee's cardinals have survived a nuclear holocaust .

One more thing I have personally noticed about cardinals - they need properly designed free swimming space. For example, cardinals will do far better in a 2 feet wide tank rather than a one feet one.

So if this is the firs time you are keeping this fish, don't lose . Try and read about cardinals and keep the remaining two safe.