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Sick Serpae Tetra, plz help

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animal_man1738

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Hello,
I have had 3 serpae tetras in my tank for a while, and recently one of them has been looking really sick. Not sure what it is, but it looks a LOT skinnier and it is swimming rapidly in circles. It is also not eating recently. I have not noticed any fin rot, or any white poop (signs of a parasite). My other two serpae tetras look fine, as do all my fish. If it is a parasite, how would I treat it? I cant buy any treatment till next Saturday (one week from today). Are there any home remedies that would work? I have heard of feeding it garlic, but im not sure how to do that. Also,should i isolate this one fish in a quarantine tank so it doesnt infect the others? Thank you guys so much.
ps I have a 55 gallon tank, filtered by a fluval canister and cycled. Its kept at 79 degrees F. I also have 9 other tetras, 3 yoyo loaches and 4 zebra danios.
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need a better picture and if possible a short video of it swimming. But from the description and the clamped fins and white edging to the body and fins I would say it has a protozoan infection.

You can treat most protozoan infections with salt. Yoyo loaches (Botia lohachata) will be fine as will zebra danios. Most tetras will be fine with this level of salt too.

use 1 heaped tablespoon of rock salt, swimming pool salt or sea salt for every 20 litres of water.
To work out the volume of water:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the gravel to the top of the water level.
Keep the salt at this level for 2-4 weeks and then start doing 10-20% water changes each day for a week. then you can go back to normal water changes.

Before you add the salt, wipe down the inside glass to remove any biofilm. Then do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean. If you have a power filter then clean the filter media in a bucket of tank water.

Fill the tank up using water that is free of chlorine/ chloramine, add salt and see how they do over the next couple of weeks.
 
Thank you for your response.
Should I isolate the sick tetra, then treat it with salt? Because none of the other fish are showing signs of this. I could isolate the sick one, then do a water change and clean the gravel. Would you reccomend this, or treating the whole tank? Also, would aquarium salt work.
Thanks
 
update:
He is frantically trying to swim to the surface, and he is just staying at the top of the tank. There looks like there is blood on his mouth, so he may also be injured.
 
If you have another tank with an established filter, you can isolate the fish in that if you like. However, if you don't have another established filter then I would just treat the main tank with all the fish in it. The parasites will be in the main tank and all the fish will have been exposed to it.

If the fish is having trouble swimming and hit something it might have damaged its mouth. The salt should help prevent or reduce the chance of fungus or bacteria getting into the injury and making it worse.

Aquarium salt is fine to use :)
 
If you have another tank with an established filter, you can isolate the fish in that if you like. However, if you don't have another established filter then I would just treat the main tank with all the fish in it. The parasites will be in the main tank and all the fish will have been exposed to it.

If the fish is having trouble swimming and hit something it might have damaged its mouth. The salt should help prevent or reduce the chance of fungus or bacteria getting into the injury and making it worse.

Aquarium salt is fine to use :)
Thanks! One more thing, this fish is not eating at all, which is concerning .anything I could do about that?
 
Don't worry about the fish not eating. Unlike mammals that use 2/3 of the food we eat to keep warm, fish take their body temperature from the surrounding environment (the water). Any food fish eat is used for movement and growth. This means fish can go for weeks or even months without food and have no issues. He won't starve.
 
Don't worry about the fish not eating. Unlike mammals that use 2/3 of the food we eat to keep warm, fish take their body temperature from the surrounding environment (the water). Any food fish eat is used for movement and growth. This means fish can go for weeks or even months without food and have no issues. He won't starve.
Ok, thanks for your help
 

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