Urgent! Very sick Neon Tetra

[TaoTeSwim]

Hi everyone. When feeding my fish this evening, I noticed that one of my Neon Tetras were floating at the surface and swimming irratically.

The spine seems very bent to one side, and his behaviour changes from trying to swim, and laying still. Besides that, the colours seem okay, and I don't see any bloating or cysts. Though he seems a bit on the thinner side.

My tank parameters were okay, I use the JBL Pro Scan app, and both nitrites and nitrates were in the green (though upper part) area. I immediately did a 50% water change and NO2 and NO3 are very low at the moment, but it has not helped as of yet.

The aquarium is a 60 liter Juwel Primo tank, with gravel and live plants. It also has a timer for the light, which is on for 10 hours a day. The filter is a biofilter that came with the aquarium.

The tank has 8 neon tetras in total, that were aquired over the course of august and september of last year. It also has a good amount of plants, but I have not added anything new since a couple of plants in november, and everything has been very stable in terms of parameters.

The fish are fed TetraMin flakes.

I regularly count my fish and for the past week I was missing one, so I checked the surface multiple times but could not see any dead or sick fish, so I figured I just couldn't see them all because of the amount of plants and hiding spots. But it might be that he had withdrawn from the group and hiding for some time.

Another thing to note is that when inspecting this fish it seems to be a bit smaller than the rest of the group. Also, the other fish seem completely fine and healthy (to my untrained eyes).

I've now quarantined him, and tried to give him a bit of food, but his condition does not seem to be improving, and he did not seem to be willing and/or able to eat anything. The bowl I'm quarantining him in now does not have a heater, so I can't keep him there overnight.

Any advice on what sort of illness this could be? Which steps should I take? He looks like he is in very poor condition, and has longer periods of not moving.

Here is a picture of my poor friend:

Thank's for reading.

 

[Joe_D]

That looks like "neon tetra disease"..Some main main symptoms are.... some fin rot,. some loss of color in areas ... and a crooked spine.

"Once they get this disease, the loss of color occurs only on a small patch, with the rest of their bodies displaying normal colors. The small patch comes about when the affected muscles begin to turn white around the color band as well as areas along the fish’s spine. After a while, the affected part starts to waste away, which ultimately leads to a kinked spine because of the damaged muscles"

Other fish can get this decease but, neon tetras seem to be one species at least that are more susceptible to it

Personally I would get rid of that fish immediately and hope no other fish caught it.
Once they get it, they never recover

BTW, I have Neon Tetras also and regularly count them.

. .

.

 

[TaoTeSwim]

Hi Joe_D, thanks for replying!

I've been wondering about NTD, but I'm uncertain since I haven't added any new fish since september, and only a couple of plants since november. In my understanding NTD comes from a parasite and does not spontaniously manifest in a closed environment. Could he be infected with NTD such a long time ago, and only seing strong symptoms now?

Also, can you see any signs of patchy loss of color or fin rot in the picture? I'm quite new to the hobby, and can't really tell..

 

[Joe_D]

"The neon tetra disease was named after its prevalence within the species. It is caused by a parasite known as Pleistophora hyphessobryconis..... that is more common than many aquarium enthusiasts realize"..

I do not know if plants can be infected with this parasite or how long it takes for symptom to appear once infected.

Another thing to note is that when inspecting this fish it seems to be a bit smaller than the rest of the group. Also, the other fish seem completely fine and healthy (to my untrained eyes) .

That one fish most likely had lower immunity to any infection

BTW. it could be some sort of a treatable bacterial infection.
However the bent spine does indicate NTD .

 

[TaoTeSwim]

In the end, I decided to euthanize him, via flash freeze (measured at a couple of degrees above freezing point, he died instantly). I didn't have the proper equipment to quarantine him for long, and in the main tank he just drifted at the mercy of the circulation, and was getting stuck in various places. In my judgement, he suffered too much, and would not be able to sleep, eat, and heal, and I decided to end it.

It was my first euthanization and I hope I made the right call. I was also worried about him dying in the main tank, increasing risk for the remaining fish. I inspected his body afterwards, and found that he had somewhat asymmetrical coloring when comparing his two sides, which potentially relates to his bent spine.

I feel pretty bad about the whole situation, but I realize this is part of fish keeping, and I will put more effort into understanding disease prevention, detection, and treatment.

 

[Joe_D]

Yeah you did the right thing.
From what you described, it probably was NTD and it would not have recovered anyway and you had no choice

An occasional fish dying is to be expected. .After all an aquarium is not a natural habitat and even in the wild some will die from who knows what

.BTW, I had to euthanize a couple fish in the past and cold will kill them rather quick .
There is a big controversy on how to humanly euthanize fish.
There are quicker ways to euthanize one of course but I fear no one wants to get into that.
So, how one euthanize a fish is anyway that that a person chooses but, the quicker the better. of course