Albino Cardinal tetra care?

[NofishB4]

Hi. My LFS brought in some albino cardinal tetras. Has anyone kept them before?  Does their care differ in any way to regular cardinals?  Did you find them more fragile?

My water is not ideal for cardinals with a pH of 8 however my regular cardinals have been doing well in my tank for 8 months and are colored up and full size. Temperature is at 79  

I put 8 on hold to add to the school of 15 regular I already have. 

[TheSwissAquarist]

Have you thought about sinking your pH with Indian Almond Leaves or some other substance?

[ccurtis]

I personally have not had them but have considered getting them multiple times. All of the research I have done on them indicates that you would care for them just as you would your standard cardinal tetras. If yours are doing well, I would do exactly what you did with the ones you have. 

[NofishB4]

I have quite a bit of driftwood in both of my tanks. But my pH doesn’t change. I don’t really care for the look of tannins and I’m a bit nervous to aggressively alter my pH as I e read it’s better to be stable. 
I have no idea of the actual hardness of my water but I think it might actually be softer than I’d think with that pH as most of the hard water fish I’ve kept (all livebearers) have not done well while my cardinals, Bolivian rams and rummynose have thrived. 

[Tazalanche]

I have 10 albino cardinal tetras that I bought in July. They're in a 135 gallon planted aquarium with 80ish regular cardinal tetras & other fish. They are all doing fine. The temp is 76-78, depending on time of year, because my temperature controller is set for a 2 degree variance. In 10+ years of keeping cardinals, water stability seemed to be more important than a specific ph. 

I've attached an image of the Aquarium Co-Op test strip I just used about 10 minutes ago.

• Nitrates: about 50
• Nitrites: 0
• Hardness (GH): "300+?" yeah, it's liquid rock
• Buffer (KH): "80"
• pH: Usually about 6.8, but I also use CO2 in that tank. I keep forgetting to check it before the CO2 turns on.
• Chlorine: 0

Over the years, my water has been pretty close to that, without any issues in caring for cardinal tetras, aside from old age, or an occasional one missing due to getting too close to a curious discus, angelfish, or my two 15-20 year old striped raphael catfish.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Tazalanche

[NofishB4]

Thanks!  That’s great news!  Did they get that thick red stripe the regular cardinals get?  The ones in LFS are pretty young so it’s hard to tell 

[Tazalanche]

On 12/31/2022 at 1:47 PM, NofishB4 said:

Thanks!  That’s great news!  Did they get that thick red stripe the regular cardinals get?  The ones in LFS are pretty young so it’s hard to tell 

They're not schooling right now, & this is just a quick phone photo, without adjusting any settings, but should provide enough color info for you of one of the albinos hanging out with a few regular cardinals.

[Tazalanche]

Here we go. This one is a little better.