Sick neon?

[sarahsunshine]

I have a tropical community tank (below) that has been untouched for about 3-4 months. In it I have 6 neon tetras. I noticed just the other day that one of the tetras is looking a little “scruffy” and his red stripe is rather dull. All the other fish look healthy, and when I feed them (mini-pellets and frozen food), this guy eats heartily.

Any ideas on what to do?

 

[sarahsunshine]

No one wants to help my poor fish?

 

[Aquarium1]

Do you have any pics? What are your water parameters?

 

[sarahsunshine]

There I was, impatient, and then my computer died… Virus attack… Found a great place near my house, though, who’ve fixed it right up, reinstalled operating system, and all that jazz. Now it’s good as new!


Anyway, my neon is still lively and eating, just lost his red except in his tail. I wonder if he could have been attacked by the Pearl Gourami? He looks less ragged, just colourless.

I realize that my first post was likely unclear. When I say “untouched” I meant that there has been no change in the community – no added fish. It’s been cleaned regularly – every 2 weeks if not weekly, usually 70-80%.

I haven’t checked the water parameters, but I just did a big clean on the tank this morning. 80%PWC, gravel vacuum, and a filter clean (in the aquarium water).


Temp is 77, I assume the rest is low since the water has just been changed. The tank is 20g High. I have an Eheim 2213 canister filter (just cleaned). Community is listed below. Nothing has changed in the tank except that I’ve washed off some of the fake plants that had algae on them this morning.



I usually feed them frozen Hikari spirulina and brine shrimp mix (don’t have the name), with a periodic Hikari micro-floating pellet.

Also, there is some new Algae that has grown that looks like some dark green/black hair about 1cm long. Could that be affecting the health of the fish? And what is the best way to prevent it’s growth?

 

[sarahsunshine]

OK, well, he's still around, eating, swimming, active, but he still have very little red. No other fish have become colourless. I would turn the temperature up on the tank in case it's the beginning of Ich, but the Kuhli loaches would likely have a hard time with that, and my other tank isn't big enough to hold them.

I've tried to take many pictures, but they don't come out except for very blurry. No white spots anywhere, but I don't know whether that's just because it hasn't shown up.

If it has neon tetra disease - it sounds like there's nothing much I can do to help it. I suppose it could be dropsy... But I haven o idea. If it has Ich I really have no idea how to proceed.

A) if I increase the temperature it will be too hot for my fish. Most of my fish are only supposed to go up to 82* max. If I up the temperatrue to 86* wouldn't they have a hard time even if I did it slowly?

B) And if I use salt, Tetras aren't supposed to deal well with salt - and it's a neon tetra that's sick! So that doesn't seem to work.

C) Meds could be used, but that would completely wreck my bacteria cycle and then I'd have to re-cycle the tank - and I don't want to do that with the fish in it!

So what suggestions do people have? Do you think I should try treating for ich?

 

[Aquarium1]

Sorry I can't help more . I've never kept neons.

 

[Zjovana]

I had a neon tetra whose red stripe was also very dull. It ended up getting ich and I turned the temp up to 86. Unfortunately, it still passed away. I am guessing that it had another disease also because it didn't have very many spots on it and I turned the temp up to 86 almost as soon as I saw the first dot. It kept eating for a while and then it slowly stopped trying to get any of the food. Fortunately, my other neons were just fine and they didn't get any spots. Sorry I couldn't be more help!

 

[Viper]

A) if I increase the temperature it will be too hot for my fish. Most of my fish are only supposed to go up to 82* max. If I up the temperatrue to 86* wouldn't they have a hard time even if I did it slowly?

Your fish should be fine if you raise the temperature to 86. Just do it slowly to give them time to adjust. When it says 82 max, it is referring to regular, full time temperatures. This would only be temporary and if done correctly, should be OK for a short amount of time.

I've never kept neons or Khuli Loaches so I'm just going by how other fish have responded to this type of treatment.

 

[sarahsunshine]

Thanks, everyone, for your comments.

I truly don't think that my neon has ich anymore... absolutely no other fish have any symptoms whatsoever. It's now been 1.5 months, and he is still swimming around and eating well. He's even chasing the other fish periodically in "fishy tag" (they do this since I got them). Since no other fish have come up with any symptoms in that time frame, I think, and I hope someone will tell me I'm wrong, that it may be something that's just internally wrong with him (kidneys? Do fish have kidneys?) and not a bacterial, fungal or viral infection.

I do keep a close eye on the aquarium, and have been feeding them well, and keeping the water fresh, and I haven't added anything to the tank in quite a while. The chances that something bacterial or viral come up is possible, but it is quite minimal given the circumstances.

I'll keep keeping an eye on them all... but please tell me if anyone has any other ideas.

Thanks for the pointers on the water temps too! I'll definitely keep that in mind. I just worry because I lost a couple white cloud minnows when the water got too hot for them in my other tank...

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

I have neons and I had the same issue with one of my guys. I honestly just think some don't have their full potential color. Nothings ever perfect when buying fish. You'll know it if it's ich so I wouldn't raise the temp but if you do make sure you have an airstone cuz raising the water temp takes out the oxygen.