Sick neon tetra

[ClearVision94]

I was feeding my fish but one of them (a neon tetra) wasn't eating and shortly after feeding them, that same one threw up a lot of white stuff. The ich Parasite eggs were my first guess and did my best to vacuum it up. Anyone else know what this might be?

 

[rmiller]

How's the neon's coloring? Any other odd behavior? How long has the tank been set up, tank size and inhabitants? What are your readings for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate?

 

[ClearVision94]

It's a 1.5 gallon with three neons

 

[ClearVision94]

And the water has never been tested

 

[ClearVision94]

And it's been set up, I think since march...

 

[rmiller]

The ich parasite wouldn't cause your neon to throw up. I would suspect a water quality issue first, but we can't know that for sure until you test your water.

 

[ClearVision94]

Well I'm doing 50% water changes twice a week and forgot to add the oto cat in the description. It's four times above the than what the biological load should be do I change the water often. This is just a stater tank too and I think my neons had since I got it. I've noticed a white spot 3 months ago and then it went away. It started getting serious about 3-4 weeks ago when all my fish were showing symptoms. It seems to come and go

 

[ClearVision94]

"I do" change the water often... (Correction)

 

[rmiller]

So you have 3 neons and an oto?

Do you have a heater in the tank?

 

[ClearVision94]

Used too. It over heated and killed my shrimp, so i removed it. I'm kinda tight right now on cash so I can't really get one. The tank temp is at an average of 74 degrees.

 

[rmiller]

74 is fine normally, but to answer your new thread re oto ich treatment, the best thing is to raise the temp and do lots of water changes with good gravel vacs. In such a small tank with no heater treating is going to be nearly impossible.

The best you can really do is to make sure you are cleaning the gravel really well and changing 50% of the water daily.

 

[ClearVision94]

Alright thank you. My goal is to just minimize it so it won't be fatal to the fish. I'm getting a new tank soon, so I can move the oto in there and treat the tetras with a new heater that I'm thinking about getting for the 1.5. Thanks again

 

[rmiller]

The oto has been exposed so it needs treated as well. If you keep the tank clean you shouldn't have too much trouble treating everyone in a larger tank. Keeping nano tanks like that stable is nearly impossible. The sooner you can get something larger, the better.

 

[ClearVision94]

Well I've never seen the oto cat be affected with ich... He's not rubbing himself on the decor nor has he had any white spots... And I can't really tell if it has scales or not because its so small.
Everyone says you can't medicate scaleless fish. So idk about him...

 

[rmiller]

You can't use medicines that contain copper with scaless fish.

Even if the oto isn't showing signs now doesn't mean he's healthy.

 

[ClearVision94]

Is there a medicine that doesn't contain copper... And I'm pretty sure it is ich, because I see them rub them selves against the decor every once in awhile

 

[rmiller]

The best way I know of is best and salt.