spilzer
Aquarium Advice Activist
Hi, I have a sick fish on my hands and I need a little advice.
Information to get started:
1. I came home last night to find one of my serpae tetra in bad shape. He was very discolored and had what looks like a skin disease. White patches of missing flesh or dying skin, it looks pretty awful. The rest of his color is kind of muted brownish not the normal rust-red. He wasn't swimming very well and instead was just sort of twitching his fins in a rhythmic way. I immediately took him out and placed him in a QT tank. I will try to post pictures when I get home tonight.
2. As soon as I got the tetra into the QT tank I tested the main tank water. Results are: NH3=0, NO2=0, N03=20, pH=7.4 and Temp=80 degrees.
3. This is a 29 gallon tank that has been in it's current setup since February (4 months) but was set up in a different apartment prior to that (with different fish, substrate but same filter).
4. I am running two filters. Both are Eheim, one is a Liberty 200 HOB then other is a ECCO 2232 Canister filter.
5. My current stocklist is as follows:
7. I have had the tetra about 3 months. I first acclimated him using the drip method where I placed the 8 new tetras in a bucket and dripped water into the bucket using airline tubing for about an hour until the water had doubled.
8. I recently got a new bottle of Prime from BigAlsOnline as I had finished my old bottle. My last water change before noticing the sick fish was the first time I used the new dechlorinator. Other than that there haven't been any recent changes.
9. I feed them a variety of tetramin flakes, hikari micropelets, frozen brine shrimp, frozen bloodworms, fresh peas and zucchini. I have not fed any new foods recently.
Additional information:
After panicking a little last night I went to the internet to see what could be wrong with this fish. I learned about neon tetra disease and I'm fairly positive this fish either has that or something similar. I was also reading about Columnaris and that is distinct possibility. A few weeks ago one of the tetras had something kind of white on his lip but it just went away on it's own after a few days so I didn't think much of it. Perhaps though this is the same tetra and it was Columnaris. I just don't know. I'm really worried that my other fish are going to get sick, especially my pleco as he's my baby and I'd be so sad to lose him.
Questions:
I've never tried to treat a sick fish before or really had a long-term QT patient to care for so I'm not sure where to go from here. Any and all help is much, much appreciated (especially if you've managed to read through this entire post, thanks!).
Information to get started:
1. I came home last night to find one of my serpae tetra in bad shape. He was very discolored and had what looks like a skin disease. White patches of missing flesh or dying skin, it looks pretty awful. The rest of his color is kind of muted brownish not the normal rust-red. He wasn't swimming very well and instead was just sort of twitching his fins in a rhythmic way. I immediately took him out and placed him in a QT tank. I will try to post pictures when I get home tonight.
2. As soon as I got the tetra into the QT tank I tested the main tank water. Results are: NH3=0, NO2=0, N03=20, pH=7.4 and Temp=80 degrees.
3. This is a 29 gallon tank that has been in it's current setup since February (4 months) but was set up in a different apartment prior to that (with different fish, substrate but same filter).
4. I am running two filters. Both are Eheim, one is a Liberty 200 HOB then other is a ECCO 2232 Canister filter.
5. My current stocklist is as follows:
- 8 serpae terta (including the sick one) which I've had for ~3 months. They are all 1 to 1 1/2 inches.
- 1 clown pleco which I've had for ~ 1 year, about 2 inches long.
- 1 SAE, in tank ~3 months, 1 1/2 inch.
- 1 Oto, in tank ~3 months, 1/2 inch.
- 1 Pearl Gourami, in tank ~3 months, 2 inches.
7. I have had the tetra about 3 months. I first acclimated him using the drip method where I placed the 8 new tetras in a bucket and dripped water into the bucket using airline tubing for about an hour until the water had doubled.
8. I recently got a new bottle of Prime from BigAlsOnline as I had finished my old bottle. My last water change before noticing the sick fish was the first time I used the new dechlorinator. Other than that there haven't been any recent changes.
9. I feed them a variety of tetramin flakes, hikari micropelets, frozen brine shrimp, frozen bloodworms, fresh peas and zucchini. I have not fed any new foods recently.
Additional information:
After panicking a little last night I went to the internet to see what could be wrong with this fish. I learned about neon tetra disease and I'm fairly positive this fish either has that or something similar. I was also reading about Columnaris and that is distinct possibility. A few weeks ago one of the tetras had something kind of white on his lip but it just went away on it's own after a few days so I didn't think much of it. Perhaps though this is the same tetra and it was Columnaris. I just don't know. I'm really worried that my other fish are going to get sick, especially my pleco as he's my baby and I'd be so sad to lose him.
Questions:
- Are there any precautions I can take against more infections other than QTing?
- I've read that NTD isn't very responsive to treatment and that euthanizing is often the best action. If I am interested in trying to treat this (I'm thinking it might be some other bacterial infection) what type of medicine should I use?
- Anything else I should/can do to make this situation better?
I've never tried to treat a sick fish before or really had a long-term QT patient to care for so I'm not sure where to go from here. Any and all help is much, much appreciated (especially if you've managed to read through this entire post, thanks!).
That is the sad thing about having fish - they sometimes don't respond to treatment or they decline so quickly that it becomes almost impossible to do anything.
