Fish tb or septicemia...?

[swedishxfish]

Please people I'm needing some help here. I have no clue what's wrong with my fish.

20g fw tank about 2 years old, lightly planted for 4 months. Had 10 black phantom tetra, 1 black neon tetra, 4 panda cories, 1 julii Cory. 1 bp tetra died this morning.

7 days ago thought I was seeing ich spots, removed my plants, raised temp from 78-86, dosed with kordon rid ich plus for 4 days and 30% daily water changes. During this time I noticed redness in fish getting more prominent. Started out with a couple of the bp tetra, now it's all of them. There is red around where their body meets their dorsal fine (like the outline of their body at the base of fins), where body meets pelvic fin, gills seem redder, face seems redder...and all of them seem to have a darker or redder spine. Their eyes seem to look like maybe early stages of popeye but I can't tell. And a couple days ago some started to gasp at the surface and then swim back down...

Researched online and came to the conclusion maybe it was ammonia spike from adding new fish and removing plants at same time (3 bp tetra and 4 panda cories added about a week ago, qt them first and seemed fine but obviously weren't), or perhaps septicemia. Tested water with dipstick and water quality is fine. Ph about 7, ammonia 0, had some nitrates but still very low in safe zone...

Thinking it was septicemia instead and perhaps the med and temp increase was making them worse, I returned the tank back to as normal conditions as I could, did water change to get the formaldehyde out, put carbon filter back in, lowered temp back to 80, put some plants back in. (Only saw the ich spots for 1 day so have no clue what that was about.) I know antibiotics can cure septicemia so I went to the store and picked up Microbe-Lift Artemiss, natural immune booster that is supposed to help fish fight off bacterial disease. Dosed them with that today (removed carbon filter) and waiting to see if that helps them at all...

This morning I found 1 of the new bp tetra dead at the bottom of the tank, he had a yellow belly and I don't know what that means as I've never had a fish die looking like that... Examined my other fish and I think the black neon tetra looks a little like his spine is curving down just a little...? So now I'm worried it is fish tuberculosis or something, which I am obviously hoping it isn't. The other fish don't have any spine curvature yet but their spine or blood vessel running down their spine looks pretty dark or red.

In summation:
-added 7 new fish after qt
-saw ich spots for 1 day, treated kordon rid ich 4 days at 86
-bp tetra got red spine, face, gills, esp base of dorsal fin
-bp tetra perhaps early stage of popeye
-think the cories have no symptoms
-stopped kordon, returned carbon to filter, lowered temp to 80, returned plants
-1 bp tetra died, black neon tetra (5 years old) looks like spine slightly curving down
-started dosing with microbe-lift Artemiss herbal expellant for bacterial disease

Pic is a couple days old and you can't tell the spine is also darker/redder but it is.

If you know what is going on please tell me. THANK YOU!!!

 

[Delapool]

It's a little hard to know if the meds or an internal bacterial infection (or an unlucky both). Where were the spots and does the yellow belly look like bruising?

I would try a medicated fish food with antibiotics or metronidazole. The metro is a relatively safe med.

A normal bacterial infection can cause spine curvature and it doesn't sound like fish tb unless you are seeing anything else to go with it.

 

[Matt68005]

It really does not matter what type of bacteria.
Give them an antibiotic, personally i use oxytetracycline.
Fish TB is rare, and opportunisitic. Septimia is just, well blood poisining from the bacteria.
It sounds more like aermonoas bacteria, which can mimic Fish TB and is much more common, especially in cooler water.
As with all antibiotics, it is much more effective, and cheaper, to use medicated feed rather than dump powder antibiotics into water, where they dissolve poorly and very little is absorbed by the fish.