Sick Black Skirt Tetra

[DBTetraguy]

This evening while viewing my tank I noticed one of my Black skirt tetras swimming erraticly in spirals centered around his head, I immediately isolated the sick fish in a seperate bowl Im pretty sure hes not going to make it, his color is faded and his respiration rate is much higher than the other fish in the tank, I cant see any outward signs of sickness, but Im afraid the other fish in my tank might be infected if its a contagious disease, The tank is still cycling, with nitrites at about 1.5 ppm and decreasing, Ph is about 6.98 temp 80 F 27C. Is there anything I can do to prevent my other fishe from becoming sick?

THanks for any help you can give.

Drew

 

[loganj]

He may be suffering from exposure to the ammonia/nitrite that was present as the tank cycled. If there are no outward signs of disease, I wouldn't worry too much about anything contagious. Sometimes you lose a few while cycling...the strongest ones survive. Are all the other fish doing all right?
Logan J

 

[DBTetraguy]

Everyone else in the tank seems to be doing OK Logan, Nitrites are on the way down, currently hovering around 1 PPM, the sick fish was the smallest in the tank. Since I have isolated him in a 5 gallon tank, and treated the water with Paragon II he seems to be doing much better, still a little jerky, but no more spinning. He did alot of damage to his fins during hte initial spins so Im going to keep him isolated for a couple of weeks to give him a rest from the Buenas Aries Tetras in the tank, they have a tendency to get a lil rough at times