"hyperventilating" neon tetra

[fambrough]

What's up with my fish? Here's the info:
10 gallon tetra tank with three neons and three red phantom tetras. All peaceful, fat and happy. Some live plants (crypts). Eclipse system. Strong maintenance program with 20% water changes ever two weeks and filter changes every 30 days. Water paramaters are good: Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates between 10 and 20 ppm. Haven't done a pH reading lately but it's usually about 7.6. Feeding is very light. Minimal flake food once a day. Other fish seem normal.

One of the neon tetras will feed and swim around the tank, but more often than not spends its time "hanging" at an odd angle (head down) in a low flow area of the tank and "hyperventilating:" moving its jaws and gills very rapidly. Maybe the fish is old and its natural end is near?

I did a search on this forum, but came up empty handed. All input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[TankGirl]

The fish is ill, no question, and it could be a bacterial infection affecting its swim bladder, but the rapid gill movement is not a good sign. If you have any kind of small tank that you could use as a hospital tank I'd recommend getting this fish away from the others to prevent them from coming down with the same illness.

If you don't have a hospital tank, it is your call as to whether you treat the whole tank with a broad spectrum antibiotic, which could endanger your biological filter, possibly causing additional problems.