Cardinal Tetras Dying

[Delco24]

Hello,

Last week I added a school of 6 cardinal tetras to my tank which were promptly harassed by zebra danios (see my other thread). I found two tetras dead the next morning, and I assumed it was just from the danios nipping at them. However, I've been watching the tank more and the danios seem to have left them alone. Three of the remaining four tetras have died in the last couple days, and the last one doesn't look so hot.

After I started paying more attention, I noticed that all of the cardinals had white spots. My first reaction was immediately ich, but within hours, they started losing their color from the tail fin to about 1/3 of their body. They also had a lot of trouble swimming properly (they would basically be swimming at a downward angle), and most of their fins looked pretty damaged. Once I noticed the color going, the fish would usually die within the day.

This sounds a lot like Neon Tetra Disease, but I was under the impression that cardinal tetras were immune. What else could have caused this? I have danios, gouramis, and cory cats still in the tank, and now I'm really nervous that I'm going to lose the whole thing.

Thanks

 

[jlk]

Hi! Does it look like white areas/fuzz/slime coat more so than tiny white specks (ich)? That combined with ragged fins and rapid death sounds like you may be dealing with a serious bacterial infection such as columnaris.

Columnaris (Flexibacteria); Aquarium, Pond Treatment, Prevention; Fungus, Saprolegnia

 

[Delco24]

It started out like white specks - like someone had sprinkled one with salt. Soon, the color faded from a 1/3 of the body starting at the tail fins. Unfortunately, all of the tetras have now died so I can't take a picture.

 

[jlk]

The salt sprinkles sound like ich but something else is going on in your tank and a bacterial infection is the only thing I know of that will kill a fish within 24hrs even without a symptom. FNTD is bacterial while NTD is a sporozoan- you would need a lab to be able to determine which you are dealing with. If you have other fish with similar symptoms, you can consider treating on the asumption you are dealing with bacterial infection. If its NTD, there is no cure, unfortunately.