# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Characins >  Wild Cardinal Tetra

## ct13

Wild Cardinal Tetra from Biotope, claimed from Brazil.

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## gonjinn

They are beautiful! May I know what's the damage?
Thanks for sharing.

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## ct13

> They are beautiful! May I know what's the damage?
> Thanks for sharing.


10 for $15.00 if i did not remember wrongly. :Grin:

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## Yttrium

Any idea if the cardinals available at the other LFS are wild or bred?

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## Fingerling

Majority are tank bred.  :Wink:

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## hwchoy

that's not right, neon tetras has been bred for the trade for a long time, but cardinals have been primarily wild caught, the bred ones being not in enough volume to meet trade needs and apparently only supplied to Europe.

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## hwchoy

> Wild Cardinal Tetra from Biotope, claimed from Brazil.


OK I should make some clarification (or bone picking) on this.

first of all, wild cardinals would have to be from Brazil since that is their home  :Roll Eyes: .

second, most cardinals in the trade are caught from the wild as it is difficult to captive breed in enough volume for the trade.

however I spoke with Biotope and basically these fishes are imported directly from the collectors and distributors in Brazil. so you can be sure they are from the wild (other trade stock could be captive bred, you can't be sure). also since their stocks are direct import from Amazonas there is a good chance there will be by catch! means possibly strange and exotic tetras!  :Jump for joy:

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## ct13

Thanks so much HWCHOY for the clarification, I love the blood red body colour!

Waiting for their next shipment to add more into my tank. :Grin:

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## hwchoy

I am personally a strong supporter of sustainable wild collection of fishes. only when wildlife and their habitat can bring economic relief to the inhabitant would it become a target of protection, as this represent their livelihood.

luckily for us the cardinal population seem to be able to sustain a huge collection pressure.

also through this collection activity, we actually get to discover many more obscure species, as by-catch and new discoveries (eg the galaxy rasbora of Myanmar). where such fishes become captive bred in the hobby, it also become a backup to their going extinct in the wild. a number of fishes are near to or at risk of extirpation in their primary habitat but may at least live on in captive bred stocks. eg are the white cloud mountain minnow, cherry barb, and even Endler's Livebearers.

the gravest danger to wildlife is not collection for the trade, but destruction of habitat.

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## Nicky

Thanks for sharing your thoughts (very "chim" - in hokkien), but I agree completely with you Choy.

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## hann

> Thanks so much HWCHOY for the clarification, I love the blood red body colour!
> 
> Waiting for their next shipment to add more into my tank.


When I first started my planted tank which was last year, these cardinal tetra in biotope had already caught my eyes. I also love the blood red body colour.

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## apistomaster

Cardinals live in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.

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## kimba

Since all the cardinals available in Singapore are all wild caught, why is there such a great difference in pricing? 10 pcs for $15.00! Seaview sells 100 pcs for $35.00, Gan Fish Farm also sell at a lower price but not sure now,bought from Gan at $0.50 per pcs a few years back. I really doubt all are from South America. Maybe some farms in Malaysia have successfully bred C.Tetras.
JMHO.

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## stormhawk

Different stores have different prices, according to where they source the stock from and how much they intend to mark up. You cannot compare simply on price. Quality is always a better factor to compare, instead of cost.

IIRC, the farms in the Czech Republic are breeding cardinals in good numbers. Perhaps some of the fish in the hobby are sourced from there, and not just wild caught fish from South America alone.

I don't keep them because they never stay alive long enough for me to appreciate. So I just stay with Neon Tetras, since they're easily available and not that expensive to begin with.

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## hyun007

> Different stores have different prices, according to where they source the stock from and how much they intend to mark up. You cannot compare simply on price. Quality is always a better factor to compare, instead of cost.
> 
> IIRC, the farms in the Czech Republic are breeding cardinals in good numbers. Perhaps some of the fish in the hobby are sourced from there, and not just wild caught fish from South America alone.
> 
> I don't keep them because they never stay alive long enough for me to appreciate. So I just stay with Neon Tetras, since they're easily available and not that expensive to begin with.


Cardinal is suppose to be more hardy than Neon Tetra.

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## stormhawk

I must say my views on the two tetras have changed of late. Right now, I don't see a marked difference in terms of hardiness between the two at the moment after a change in my luck with a recent bag of 30 Cardinal tetras I bought at a LFS for a pretty cheap price. They're fat, feeding well, schooling normally and displaying all their vibrant colours. I don't think they will breed in my community aquarium, but hey, it's worth a try.  :Grin:

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## shrimppaste

Anyone can tell me what is the plant behind the tetras? Thanks!

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## joydiv

Potamogeton gayi

Easy plant to grow

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## praxis5624

Here in the US, Cardinals usually sells for $3.99 ea. until recently. A large petchain sold Cardinals and many other tetras for $1.00 ea. I had twenty established in one of my tanks but purchased 50 more. They are quarantined, medicated and are doing great. I plan to introduce them in a week or so to several tanks that are established.

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## Cardinals_Pride

I ever bought quite a handful of them but no luck. I was captivated by their deep body despite I had a tankful of them swimming around.

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## hyun007

> I ever bought quite a handful of them but no luck. I was captivated by their deep body despite I had a tankful of them swimming around.


No luck as in no fry or all sent to heaven?  ::smt059:

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## Kenng

> I ever bought quite a handful of them but no luck. I was captivated by their deep body despite I had a tankful of them swimming around.


Let me share my experience. I lost ~100 cardinals before I finally got them to survive. 
The turning point for me is to use a UV filter to clean the water for 2 weeks followed by using a good cansister filter to improve the water quality.
And bingo I have not lost a single cardinal after this change.

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## apistomaster

The health of Cardinals as found in shops or from wholesalers varies greatly.
I used to own a fish shop and I always bought wild Cardinals by the box(~300) from the cheapest suppliers I could find. I expected them to be run down and very emaciated and I was rarely disappointed. I had the luxery of a spacious back room where i quarantined all incoming stock and bred my Discus.
I found that if the newly recieved cardinals received generous feedings of newly hatched Artemia and sometimes it was necessary to treat them I could reduce my losses to a few per cent. This even though i was working with fish in such poor condition. It allowed me to make much more money than if i merely put them in the healthy sales tanks and passed them on to unsuspecting customers only to have them return unhappy because all their Cardinals died. I let my competitor do that.
The entire period they spend from the day they are caught in the wild until making that last trip to your tank is so stressful that many fish can not survive that last change. take your time and quarantine your Cardinals as I have explained and you will find they live and can do so for quite a few years.

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## chilla18

Was at Rainbow Tengah last month and saw a paper written that the cardinal is from Indonesia, I ask the sales staff (China national) and he mention that Cardinal in Singapore todays are mainly tank breed and brought in from Indonesia. I told him not true and he insist that yes it is, as wild caught is more ex than tank breed if not how to get this kind of price for cardinal compare to fews year back.

Can anyone confirm this as I have did a search in the net but nothing was mention that cardinal in Singapore are from Indonesia.

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## pyroo

Cardinal tetras are so expensive here in Canada, $4 each, they were on sale once for $10 for 4 cardinal tetras.

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