Bacterial Infection? NTD? Columnaris?

[spilzer]

Hi, I have a sick fish on my hands and I need a little advice.

Information to get started:

1. I came home last night to find one of my serpae tetra in bad shape. He was very discolored and had what looks like a skin disease. White patches of missing flesh or dying skin, it looks pretty awful. The rest of his color is kind of muted brownish not the normal rust-red. He wasn't swimming very well and instead was just sort of twitching his fins in a rhythmic way. I immediately took him out and placed him in a QT tank. I will try to post pictures when I get home tonight.

2. As soon as I got the tetra into the QT tank I tested the main tank water. Results are: NH3=0, NO2=0, N03=20, pH=7.4 and Temp=80 degrees.

3. This is a 29 gallon tank that has been in it's current setup since February (4 months) but was set up in a different apartment prior to that (with different fish, substrate but same filter).

4. I am running two filters. Both are Eheim, one is a Liberty 200 HOB then other is a ECCO 2232 Canister filter.

5. My current stocklist is as follows:

• 8 serpae terta (including the sick one) which I've had for ~3 months. They are all 1 to 1 1/2 inches.
• 1 clown pleco which I've had for ~ 1 year, about 2 inches long.
• 1 SAE, in tank ~3 months, 1 1/2 inch.
• 1 Oto, in tank ~3 months, 1/2 inch.
• 1 Pearl Gourami, in tank ~3 months, 2 inches.

6. Last water change was 3 days ago with a gravel vac of half the tank. I usually change 10%-20% once or twice a week with a larger change (25% to %50) every third week or so. The tank is planted so I like to let the nitrAtes build up a little. I did a 10% change right after moving the fish to the QT tank and also cleaned my canister filter.

7. I have had the tetra about 3 months. I first acclimated him using the drip method where I placed the 8 new tetras in a bucket and dripped water into the bucket using airline tubing for about an hour until the water had doubled.

8. I recently got a new bottle of Prime from BigAlsOnline as I had finished my old bottle. My last water change before noticing the sick fish was the first time I used the new dechlorinator. Other than that there haven't been any recent changes.

9. I feed them a variety of tetramin flakes, hikari micropelets, frozen brine shrimp, frozen bloodworms, fresh peas and zucchini. I have not fed any new foods recently.

Additional information:

After panicking a little last night I went to the internet to see what could be wrong with this fish. I learned about neon tetra disease and I'm fairly positive this fish either has that or something similar. I was also reading about Columnaris and that is distinct possibility. A few weeks ago one of the tetras had something kind of white on his lip but it just went away on it's own after a few days so I didn't think much of it. Perhaps though this is the same tetra and it was Columnaris. I just don't know. I'm really worried that my other fish are going to get sick, especially my pleco as he's my baby and I'd be so sad to lose him.

Questions:

• Are there any precautions I can take against more infections other than QTing?
• I've read that NTD isn't very responsive to treatment and that euthanizing is often the best action. If I am interested in trying to treat this (I'm thinking it might be some other bacterial infection) what type of medicine should I use?
• Anything else I should/can do to make this situation better?

I've never tried to treat a sick fish before or really had a long-term QT patient to care for so I'm not sure where to go from here. Any and all help is much, much appreciated (especially if you've managed to read through this entire post, thanks!).

[Sum22]

I didn't think other fish could get neon tetra disease other than neons. I had some neons and they all died from NTD, but the fish were completely unaffected.

You could try treating with melafix for a bacterial infection.

[An t-iasg]

I'm sorry to hear about your tetra. I think it may be a bacterial infection rather than the NTD. From what I read, NTD strikes/kills rather slowly, not exhibiting visible changes overnight.

I would try any of these medications:

Bacteria & Fungus Medication: Mardel Maracyn Plus at Drs. Foster and Smith

Aquarium Fish Health: Trisulfa Antibiotic Powder for Fish Infections

Fungus Eliminator

Sulfathiazole

[spilzer]

Sigh, unfortunately the Serpae Tetra didn't make it. I came home Tuesday evening to check on him before going out to purchase the anti-bacterial medicine and he was dead.

I'm glad that he's out of his misery but I'm sad that I wasn't really able to do much to help him.

Moreover, I'm a little worried my pleco has fin-rot on his tail. It's hard for me to tell if it looks different that usual or not but my girlfriend noticed it looking raggedy a week ago or so and it hasn't gotten any better. I'm worried about QTing him because he stresses so easily. Is it advisable to treat the whole tank with something (Melafix, Primafix)? The pleco does seem a bit lethargic but is not really acting abnormally, his tail just looks kind of cut-off a bit or shorter than usual.

I get so worried about my fish and it seems that once one problem creeps up more are sure to follow.

[An t-iasg]

I'm sorry to hear that That is the sad thing about having fish - they sometimes don't respond to treatment or they decline so quickly that it becomes almost impossible to do anything.

You could get one or two of those meds to have on hand for the next time. Hopefully there won't be a next time, but generally I like to have some meds on hand. You may not use them up before they expire, so that's possibly some money wasted.

For the pleco, I would try some melafix. It won't harm the biological filter and doesn't need to be removed with carbon, so it's a good med to try.

[spilzer]

Okay, I finally got some pics to help me diagnose the problem.

Unfotunately it's too late for the tetra but here are pics of what it looked like just for reference:


Now here are some pictures of the pleco. Both his tail and dorsal fin are ragged but so far his other fins don't look too bad.






So, what do you all think. Is this finrot? It could also conceivably be fin nipping as I know that Serpaes are notorious nippers. Either way I suppose melafix would probably help the situation?

Thanks already for your advice, knowing I have help out there helps calm my fears and worries.