Weird looking Cardinal Tetra!

[Yadja]

Hello everyone!

I spotted 2 weird looking cardinal tetra in my community tank about a week ago. One looks quite worst than the other.

I uploaded a picture as attachement.

I can't seem to find any info about what could be going on. I really hope someone can help, I'm quite new to fishkeeping and I want to learn everything

The little ones developped kind of a dark lump at the bottom of their tail and the worst looking one also seems to have more of a curved spine now.

It doesnt seem contagious since none of my other tetra, cardinal and neon, looks any different.

Anyone has any ideas?
Thank you!!

 

[Andy Sager]

Hello everyone!

I spotted 2 weird looking cardinal tetra in my community tank about a week ago. One looks quite worst than the other.

I uploaded a picture as attachement.

I can't seem to find any info about what could be going on. I really hope someone can help, I'm quite new to fishkeeping and I want to learn everything

The little ones developped kind of a dark lump at the bottom of their tail and the worst looking one also seems to have more of a curved spine now.

It doesnt seem contagious since none of my other tetra, cardinal and neon, looks any different.

Anyone has any ideas?
Thank you!!

It appears to be a tumor or a virus, neither of which is curable and the fish should be euthanized in case it is a virus that can spread to your other Tetras in a more mature stage. The fish in the picture is a Neon Tetra and not a Cardinal and sadly, since most Neons on the market are farm raised, they are known to be carrying this new virus. Most Cardinals on the other hand, are sustainably wild caught so less likely to bring in genetic diseases.

Hope this helps

 

[Yadja]

It appears to be a tumor or a virus, neither of which is curable and the fish should be euthanized in case it is a virus that can spread to your other Tetras in a more mature stage. The fish in the picture is a Neon Tetra and not a Cardinal and sadly, since most Neons on the market are farm raised, they are known to be carrying this new virus. Most Cardinals on the other hand, are sustainably wild caught so less likely to bring in genetic diseases.

Hope this helps

Oh no! That's so sad
Any idea of the name of this new virus?

And Oops! I still get mixed up between the neons and the cardinals. I have both in my tank and they all swim together

Thank you for your help! Xx

 

[Andy Sager]

Oh no! That's so sad
Any idea of the name of this new virus?

And Oops! I still get mixed up between the neons and the cardinals. I have both in my tank and they all swim together

Thank you for your help! Xx

This is actually a new virus to me as well as newish to the hobby so I don't have a scientific name for it in any of my books but I've seen many posts referring to it a Neon Disease. ( Different from the original Neon Tetra disease: Pleistophora hyphessobryconis ) Maybe Colin T has the scientific name?

Unfortunately, farmed fish from certain areas are carriers of many new diseases or variants of existing diseases that even mixing wild and tank raised fish together can cause problems with treating diseases. It's better to keep the two types in separate tanks.

As for telling the difference between Cardinals and Neons, Cardinals have a red stripe that goes the entire length of the body while Neons just have a red stripe from the tail to the mid body. Cardinals are also more slender than Neons.

 

[Colin_T]

I don't have a scientific name for the new virus. I doubt the Asian breeders even know it's in their ponds. If they do, they don't care.

 

[Yadja]

This is actually a new virus to me as well as newish to the hobby so I don't have a scientific name for it in any of my books but I've seen many posts referring to it a Neon Disease. ( Different from the original Neon Tetra disease: Pleistophora hyphessobryconis ) Maybe Colin T has the scientific name?

Unfortunately, farmed fish from certain areas are carriers of many new diseases or variants of existing diseases that even mixing wild and tank raised fish together can cause problems with treating diseases. It's better to keep the two types in separate tanks.

As for telling the difference between Cardinals and Neons, Cardinals have a red stripe that goes the entire length of the body while Neons just have a red stripe from the tail to the mid body. Cardinals are also more slender than Neons.

Hello!

I followed your advice and, very sadly, 3 of my neons had symptoms, I only have one left now.

It's weird but all my cardinals still seems fine with no visible symptoms. I hope they didn't catch it.

Can I ask you to tell me if you learn the name of the disease? I'd like to talk to my fish keeping shop about it.

Thank you

 

[Colin_T]

Your pet shop probably knows as much about this as we do. A number of these new viruses have only been around for a couple of years and the cases haven't been common. We see them on forums because people have asked their local shop and been unable to find out what it is. Just have a chat to your pet shop and see if they can shed any light on the subject. They might even be able to contact their supplier and get info from them.

 

[Andy Sager]

Hello!

I followed your advice and, very sadly, 3 of my neons had symptoms, I only have one left now.

It's weird but all my cardinals still seems fine with no visible symptoms. I hope they didn't catch it.

Can I ask you to tell me if you learn the name of the disease? I'd like to talk to my fish keeping shop about it.

Thank you

Absolutely!! If I find the answer, I will share it. But as Colin stated, it's a fairly new condition and apparently not much info is available about it. ( It's also probably not one that fish farms would probably willingly admit they have it. Just like the TB that many farms have on them. )

As for the Neons having it and not the Cardinals, it's not weired at all since the Neons are most likely Farmed and the Cardinals are most likely wild. With wild fish, only the strong survive so sickly fish usually never get to a stage where they would be collected, transported, tanked, sold, then sold again then sold again to you the hobbyist before expiring. With fish that are farmed, it's much harder to inspect every fish before they are sold off which is why there are many fish offered for sale that have genetic deformities or physical irregularities to them. It's up to the hobbyist to not buy these deformed fish to eventually get the stores to be more discerning on what they carry which will eventually get back to the breeder(s) eventually forcing them to be more willing to cull their stock to get rid of these genetic deformities by not breeding fish in the lines that have them. It's a long slow process but every deformed fish that is sold is just one more reason why breeders can be more lax in their breeding habits.