# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Characins >  Question about green neon tetra

## Hanako

Hi, long time have not posted here.

I just bought some green neon tetra (paracheirodon simulans) and green eye rasbora (rasbora dorsiocellata) from WuHu on Monday. 

I think the rasboras (beautiful fish by the way) have settled in ok in my 2 feet tank. I found that they like to swim near the surface of the water so now I have top swimming fish. 

But the green neon tetras tend to hide a lot behind plants. I got about 10 of these tetras. They don't seem to like swimming out in the open. Is it normal behaviour while they are settling down in a new tank? Their stripes have changed to a blue color in my tank rather than the more greenish tinge when they were in Ben's tank.

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## hwchoy

_P. simulans_ does best in a fair sized group (12 and upwards) in heavily planted/shaded tank. Their best colours is when illuminated by light filtered through the vegetation, which allows their stripe to gleam in the relative darkness. As usual for tetra, colours vary depending on lighting angles. Neon stripes would vary between blue to green.

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## valice

They are very shy fishes.
Mine hides the moment I walk near to the tank. And my tank is a forest of crypts and nana and moss. But once I walk away, they starts to swim out.

So your observation is normal.

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## hwchoy

Gan used to have a display tank with hundreds of these guys, spectacular.

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## Hanako

Thanks.

Yes, they are very beautiful fish. Shame that they are so shy.

My tank is heavily planted, and they do hide away whenever I walk up towards the tank.

Are they bottom feeders?

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## hwchoy

Hi Tin Tin, didn't realise it was your fish!

Give them a couple more weeks to settle in. If they feed voraciously then they are fine. Those at Gan's will swim towards a waving hand even.

check with the Great Hall see if he still has ADP. would be a good treat for them and help settling in.

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## Hanako

Hi Hi *wave*.

Yeah, I will give them some time to settle down. What is ADP???

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## hwchoy

Azmi's Daphnia Powder

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## valice

Back in stock!?
Cheong ar!!!!!

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## hwchoy

hanako, see people how kancheong, I never intro salah one. heehee.

Eh vince, if he has make sure beep me!

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## Quixotic

My experience with them is that, they seem to be notoriously slow growers. I still have some specimens in my tank that I got at around 1.5 to 2 cm SL, damn small size, about 2.5 years ago and they have stayed the same since.

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## hwchoy

I don't know, they have always been much smaller than the cardinal and neons.

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## valice

It is their smaller size that makes the fish more enduring to me.
Especially when you have a 2ft tank and starts out with say 15 pieces they stay nice and good in size.

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## Hanako

Great to know that they are slow growers and don't grow very large. My tank is also only 2 feet so I found fauna like Harlequin rasbora grows large very quickly and looks odd in smaller tanks.

Hmmm...wish can get my hands on those ADP to try out then. But the shop is always closed when I found the time to go there.  :Sad:

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## hwchoy

Since it is now with Sera Centre they should be open during "normal" hours. except that Azmi may not be there, but someone should be there to take care of customers. You can always call or beep him.

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## chubbchubb

Do you have a picture of green neon tetra? I am pretty interested to add colour to my tank using schooling fish

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## ryzcris

I got a small school of 9 greens recently... still very shy...
probably need more time to condition to the tank and some really enticing food to lure them out of the vegetation.

Oh they love cyclops...

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## chubbchubb

Erm what are cyclops

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## Quixotic

> Do you have a picture of green neon tetra? I am pretty interested to add colour to my tank using schooling fish


Green neon looks like the cardinal/neon tetras without the red. Here is a picture courtesy of Benny.

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## blackBRUSHalgae

And if I'm not wrong, the blue/green strip on green neon extends longer than the cardinal and neon.

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## Quixotic

Yes, you are correct, that is one of the differences as well. Sorry I didn't go into specifics.

There are some interesting bits here on _Paracheirodon simulans_, the green neon tetra.
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.ed..._simulans.html

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## veggieboy

> Green neon looks like the cardinal/neon tetras without the red. Here is a picture courtesy of Benny.


wah.. is that a green neon?? i thought the green neons were meant to be GREEN. o.O that surely seems like blue to me though.  :Shocked: 
so are there blue neons as well? =x :Opps:

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## benny

Green neons do look green, but at an angle of 45 degrees or so. As such, profile pictures always shows up as blue.

Cheers,

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## veggieboy

I see i see.. 

Thanks for clarifying!

Though i did hope there were a blue tetra as well as a green one. 
Maybe a red, yellow and green. Traffic light tank. xD

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## hk75

Would like to check whether green neon tetra have any red colour at the lower part of their body. 

I bought 100pcs yesterday those packet in bags, size is less than 1cm. I notice some of them have slight red colour on their lower body when in my tank. Could it be neon tetra??

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## gills

i don't suppose they have the red coloration. not 100&#37; sure though.

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## Quixotic

hk75, I have merged your thread with this one since this thread is a recent discussion on _P. simulans_.

Yes, they sometimes show the red colouration which is very much less pronounced, see http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.ed..._simulans.html




> Green neon tetras appear similar to neon tetras, Paracheirodon innesi, although they are smaller and the red patch on the lateral body is less pronounced. The lateral blue-green stripe extends to the base of the caudal fin. These fish can grow to a maximum overall length of approximately 2.5 cm.

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## hk75

Thanks. I *thought* i got the wrong tetra.

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## angelo

Hi hk75, where did you bought your green neon tetra?

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## hk75

bought from C328. got to order from auntie.

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## angelo

hk75, Thanks for the information.

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