Cardinal fish are quite popular among aquarists, these individuals got their name due to the presence of red in color. This is the only type of fish that can easily withstand temperature extremes. Before you get cardinals, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of maintenance and care.
Cardinal fish description
Cardinals are small, mobile fish (up to four centimeters long). The body of the cardinal is elongated and narrow, slightly flattened laterally. The sides are brown, the back is dark with a greenish tint, and the belly has a silvery color. On the sides there is a golden reflective strip, in young fish it has a turquoise hue. The gill fins are bright lemon in color with black edging, the anal fin is red with transparent corners. There is a black spot at the base of the tail.
Content of the cardinals
Keeping cardinals fish is not difficult even for novice aquarists. You just need to remember that this is a schooling fish, so you need to keep at least ten of them, females should prevail (no more than two or three males per school). The shape of the aquarium should be rectangular and elongated, at least sixty centimeters in length, since cardinals are fast fish, they need room for various maneuvers. The capacity of the aquarium can be small, 30-40 liters.
The optimum water temperature for keeping these fish is 20-23 ° C, acidity can fluctuate within 6, 5-7 pH. Cardinals are extremely demanding on the purity of water, so it is recommended to change a third of the total volume once a week. At the same time, it is important not to allow sudden changes in water temperatures, otherwise the cardinals can get sick with a fungal disease. Aeration of the water and the use of a filter are desirable.
Fish prefer bright lighting, place the aquarium in a place with natural and good light, you can use artificial lighting in the evening. Lush and dense vegetation in the aquarium is preferable, leave some room for the fish to maneuver. Cardinals prefer the following types of plants: fern, ludwigia, elodea, myrophyllum, limnophila. Sand and pebbles can be used as soil. Keep your fish in the aquarium with a lid on.
Nutrition and breeding
Cardinals are unpretentious in nutrition, almost omnivorous. They eat canned, dry and live food with great pleasure: small bloodworm, tubule, daphnia, koretra. If you feed the fish with live food, then the cardinals develop much faster, their color becomes brighter.
Breeding cardinals is not particularly difficult, the fish can breed in the aquarium and spawning grounds. To do this, fill the spawning grounds with water (up to twenty liters), place several bushes of plants, a couple of fish, and a spray bottle there. Feed your fish live food for two weeks. Females lay thirty eggs a day. When the fry appear, move the brood fish to another aquarium, and feed the fry in the spawning grounds. Starter feed: mashed egg yolk, cowwort, cyclops nauplii, live dust, ciliates.
Cardinals are very peaceful, they get along well with fish of a similar temperament, small sizes: neons, guppies, fire barbs, zebrafish. The life span of cardinals fish is about two years.
