Hi All,
I'm new to this so hopefully i'll do this right!
I set up my first FW tropical tank a few months ago after doing a fishless cycle for about a month (added the occassional bit of flake food with heater/filter etc set up). Its a small tank of 55 litres with temperature of 24C/73F and i keep an eye to the water parameters (nitrates & ammonium - no problems so far). I do a 20% water change every 2-3 weeks (chlorine etc made safe and left for at least one overnight/day before changing) with a gravel clean on every second partial water chage.
I added 2 guppies and 4 tetras (not sure of common name - look like lemon tetras but aren't) after the fishless cycle. They have thrived and are getting bigger by the day! Two weeks ago i added 5 neon tetras (intended as last addition to the tank apart from maybe a male guppy to add a bit of interest to my 2 females!). These looked to have settled in very quickly and like the rest were enjoying their food. By the way - when i add fish in i net them from the bag and don't mix the shop water into my tank.
In less than a week 2 of the neons just seemed to have disappeared - no bodies found. I didn't notice any signs of sickness with any of them. In the meantime everyone else is very happy.
Then neon number 3 disappeared the following week but i did notice a problem the night before with this one. He/she was staying away from others, had less of an appetite and its dorsal fin was curled with the area beneath it gone pale in colour. The following day this little neon was gone and again i couldn't find a body.
The last disappearance/death was about 4 days ago. As before everyone else is very happy and hungry! Even the remaining two neons have grown since arriving a couple of weeks ago & are continuing to thrive.
Could this be the infamous Neon Disease? Before i replace the 'disappeared' i will keep an eye on the others to see if anything happens - is there anything else i can do?
Apologies for rambling on but just wanted to give the full picture!
I'm new to this so hopefully i'll do this right!
I set up my first FW tropical tank a few months ago after doing a fishless cycle for about a month (added the occassional bit of flake food with heater/filter etc set up). Its a small tank of 55 litres with temperature of 24C/73F and i keep an eye to the water parameters (nitrates & ammonium - no problems so far). I do a 20% water change every 2-3 weeks (chlorine etc made safe and left for at least one overnight/day before changing) with a gravel clean on every second partial water chage.
I added 2 guppies and 4 tetras (not sure of common name - look like lemon tetras but aren't) after the fishless cycle. They have thrived and are getting bigger by the day! Two weeks ago i added 5 neon tetras (intended as last addition to the tank apart from maybe a male guppy to add a bit of interest to my 2 females!). These looked to have settled in very quickly and like the rest were enjoying their food. By the way - when i add fish in i net them from the bag and don't mix the shop water into my tank.
In less than a week 2 of the neons just seemed to have disappeared - no bodies found. I didn't notice any signs of sickness with any of them. In the meantime everyone else is very happy.
Then neon number 3 disappeared the following week but i did notice a problem the night before with this one. He/she was staying away from others, had less of an appetite and its dorsal fin was curled with the area beneath it gone pale in colour. The following day this little neon was gone and again i couldn't find a body.
The last disappearance/death was about 4 days ago. As before everyone else is very happy and hungry! Even the remaining two neons have grown since arriving a couple of weeks ago & are continuing to thrive.
Could this be the infamous Neon Disease? Before i replace the 'disappeared' i will keep an eye on the others to see if anything happens - is there anything else i can do?
Apologies for rambling on but just wanted to give the full picture!
