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The neon tetra reigns today as the most popular of all freshwater aquarium fish. Neon tetras continue to add beauty to many home aquariums. They display brilliant red and blue coloration and are very easy to keep. Neon tetras are the coolest tetra ever!

Neon Tetra: The Coolest Tetra Ever
This is another extremely popular freshwater aquarium fish. Cardinal tetras look much like neon tetras but unlike neons their color lines extend the full length of their body. These tetras also like to be kept in a shoal of 10 or more and will actively swim around a community tank in their shoal. They are very peaceful and will mix well with other peaceful community fish.
The black neon tetra is a dark colored cousin of the neon tetra. They have a black line that runs the length of their body and green-to-gold line above the black line.They are hardy, peaceful and very attractive fish. Black neon tetras like to live in shoals of 10 or more and will be seen swimming together in a shoal in a community tank. The neon tetra (Paracheirodon innesi) is a freshwater fish of the characin family (family Characidae) of order Characiformes. The type species of its genus, it is native to blackwater or clearwater streams in southeastern Colombia, eastern Peru, and western Brazil, including the tributaries of the Solimões where the water is between 20-26°C. It is not found in the whitewater rivers of Andean origin. Its bright colouring makes the fish visible to conspecifics in the dark blackwater streams, and is also the main reason for its popularity as a tropical fish.
kiwisoutback wrote...
Neons are cool and easy to find in local stores! I found that cardinal tetras were a little less hardy, but they're a little more colorful. They look really cool in large "shoals" (I never knew they were called this!) against live plants. They don't seem to mix well with anything but other types of tetras because of their size..mine were picked off by gouramis. They've done really well in larger tanks in larger shoals, like you said, and look great.
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