Swim Bladder Issues with Neons

[DeirdreHoyle]

Hello,
I have a 25 gal community tank with 6 neons and 5 harlequin rasboras and a clown pleco and some kuhli loaches. Two nights ago I noticed one of the neons not swimming with the group and looking a little stressed. When I got up the next morning he was clearly dying (having trouble keeping upright/breathing quickly) and he was dead within the hour. He looked pretty much fine, his fins were intact. Belly was a little bloated and I thought I could see some raised scales but I'm not sure. Now I'm down to 5 tetras and one of them is looking stressed, not schooling and looking pale and before bed last night I noticed a different one swimming almost vertical with his tail above his head, but he was fine this morning. Does this sound like a swim bladder issue? My tetras wont eat out of my hand so I don't know how to feed them shelled peas :/ they just sink to the bottom and the loaches get them

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

I should add my water is great:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: about 40 ppm (test is so hard to read!)
pH: 7.2
Temp 80 degrees

 

[LostInFish]

The clown loach will out grow that tank over time an they get big. Your water perimeters sound great. You must be doing a great job on water changes to keep that level. It sounds like you have to many fish for a 25 gallon tank!


Show me a fish that don't eat and I'll show you a sick fish

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

The clown loach will out grow that tank over time an they get big. Your water perimeters sound great. You must be doing a great job on water changes to keep that level. It sounds like you have to many fish for a 25 gallon tank!

Show me a fish that don't eat and I'll show you a sick fish

Not a clown loach, a clown pleco. And I'm only 70% stocked on Aquadvisor!

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

Plus I do weekly 40% water changes. No more lost tetras so far so I'm not sure what was wrong with the first one

 

[LostInFish]

Sorry I miss read that lol.


Show me a fish that don't eat and I'll show you a sick fish

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

That's ok. I had some clown loaches once but then learned they needed a way bigger tank so I had to give them away

 

[LostInFish]

That sucks they are a pretty cool fish


Show me a fish that don't eat and I'll show you a sick fish

 

[morena]

Neon Tetra Disease

Have you looked into Neon Tetra Disease? I'm not sure if the symptoms match, but I've read a few places that it's a common disease and if your neons came from a giant breeding place & from a big box store they're likely to catch it eventually.

Some of my tetras were exhibiting this type of behavior when I first got them, it may have been new tank syndrome & recovering from the dirty water (not schooling, not eating, difficulty with the water current), but I was pretty worried about them having NTD They did end up recovering after a day or two, no casualties to date.

 

[kdrpeirce]

I had same problem and I stop feeding for 3 days. Their Health returned.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Gibberwatt]

for swim bladders, you can give a slight dose of salt to the water, and that should make them fine - then you can do the shelled pea thing to your hearts content

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

Yeah I definitely looked at neon tetra disease, the symptoms matched pretty well but none of the other tetras have gotten sick so that makes me think they didn't have it because it sounded really contagious. I've cut down on feeding and I think that's helped