Neon Tetra Disease

[Fish Breath]

I have just started a new tank for my kids it is into it's 6 week now.We have slowly been adding fish over the period of the cycle.Over a week ago we added 6 neon's One of which I notice to look like it had a gimped back, I didn't think anything of it other then i though the guy might have maybe squashed it between the net and the tank when we bought them. wasn't worth my time to take him back.
He or she eventually started to get fatter and fatter and the last few days just ballooned and looked like its back was so kinked it looked like an s or a l shape it stayed away from the school of the other neons and hung out by itself by the fluval 2 filter (25 gal tank) until it died a few days ago. now being new to this I signed up to this forum and a few others and have been reading up on different things .At the time i dint think anything of the death of this fish ,until today I was looking under the fish species section and was reading on neons It had described a disease called neon disease (or it might have been tetra disease,not sure)which was exactly like this fish had right down to the kink in the back......
Now my big question after all that is what about my other fish in the tank are they in trouble now [the article did say there was no know cure and could spread]. If this does spread to my other fish should I break down my tank and start over.If so, how would I disinfect so that this spore doesn't respread If it doesn't spread what do I do Just leave it be
.........Does anyone know anything about this disease

 

[Menagerie]

I have never had to deal with that disease, but have heard that it is common. Neons are so inbreed/overbreed that their genetics are poor and they are more susecptable to disease.
Change this thread's title to include the words Neon Tetra Disease and you will probably get more help.

 

[kenor33]

I wouldn't stress out to much on losing the 1 neon. As beautiful as they are, for some reason they have a hard time transfering from tank to tank, bag to tank, pet store to tank, etc etc. The guy I buy my neons from even told me that they expect 30% death rate when they get a new shipment. I keep a school of 18 in my planted tank and all are fat and happy but I lost 1 or 2 everytime I bought some for no apparant reason. Just keep your water in good shape and If they make it past the first week or so they are usually safe. As far as the neon disease, I have never experienced it so I can't comment on it personally but I think as long as you keep your water, ammonia and nitrite free you'll eventually enjoy a school of Neons like I do.............darn to much rambling sorry

 

[Fish Breath]

Thanks for the replies so far. I am not stressed by the loss of the tetra .But it is the unknown that I am worried about , will this spread to the rest of the tank, but I guess there is nothing I can do if it does as there is no known cure.Cross my fingers. Unless someone out there knows of something I can do ?

 

[docrak]

Here’s a link on neon tetra disease:

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/hdntd.htm

Basically it’s not limited to just neons, any fish can get it. It’s pretty much a parasite. The only problem is that there is no cure, but it doesn’t spread quickly and it’s usually only a problem when fish are stressed out. The quickest way to tell you have is that the fish will start loosing it’s color and the flesh that is normally transparent with become milky and opaque.

I lost a lot of fish to this disease because I accidentally raised my tank temp to 98 deg. F. I wouldn't worry about it unless the neons start loosing their color and become very inactive to the point of hiding. Fish with NTD will also stop eating as the disease starts to become terminal. If you do have NTD you can try treating with an anti-bacterial medication incase it's false NTD. I had to put down any fish the showed any symptom of NTD to stop it in my tank. fortunately in didn't effect my mollies, swords or angelfish.

 

[vega]

NTD only spread when other fish eat the dead NTD fish. Nothing much you can do now. But expect to have high casualty from neon. the best method to purchase a neon is to wait the newly arrival neon survive in lfs for a week and purchase >8 in one go.

 

[docrak]

Yah, I forgot to mention the part about the fish eating other fish. Heres some more info about how the parasite spreads:

hq: Once a tank has Neon Tetra disease present, it can never be eliminated from that tank.

A: Because consuming infected material passes on the protozoa, it is nearly impossible to rid a tank of the parasite if there are infected fish present. Anytime one fish picks at another, they are at risk of contracting the disease. For this reason, it's imperative to quarantine infected fish. It is true that the spores may present in many aquariums, however careful cleaning and maintenance will remove most of them. It is only when a fish consumes the spores that they become infected.

I got it from this website:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/neondisease.htm

 

[Fish Breath]

Thanks again for the Info I put the infected Neon out before he/she actually died so there were no fish picking at it as I removed it while it was alive still is the only way to I new it was deceased was by reading that article after i read up on neons in the species section of this forum otherwise I would have just passed it on as another dead fish which at the time I just thought it had a tumor so hopefully none of the others will get it If some do Should I euthanize all the fish and start from scratch again?

 

[rubysoho]

wait and see if anyone else gets infected, no reason to kill the fish if they are still healthy... look for the signs mentioned above, and I think someone talked about treating for fake NTD with a type of anti-bacterial med, just to make sure. Good luck with the other neons. Hope they don't get sick as well!

 

[vega]

Btw for some unknown reasons, some fish do recover from NTD. i have 1-2 neon recovered from NTD that have survive 9 months since the outbeak (and both have the pale NTD mark on the body).

 

[Momotaro]

There is a condition known as "False Neon Tetra Disease" (FNTD?)

I had a case of NTD rip through my 75G. I lost a school of amazing Kerri Blue tetras, a couple of Rams and Gouramis. I managed to save a couple of Kerri Blues by putting them in quarantine, and treating the quarantine with Naladin and Quick Cure. At least I think the medication regime saved the fish.

I pulled all the other fish out of the 75 and put them in quarantine. I then left the aquarium fishless for 4 months(thank goodness it is a planted aquarium). My logic was that if NTD was a parasite, by removing fish I would also be removing the parasites source of food. I added a UV sterilizer a couple of months after I reintroduced the fish as a bit of an insurance policy.

I lose the occasional fish, but not to anything like NTD.

Mike