Sick Serpae Tetra

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big_fire

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Yesterday I noticed one of my Serpae tetras was very pale. Today it's been hiding and barely moving. It has also become very thin. Is this a parasite?
 
Need to look at your water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph.
Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.
Being thin, flukes, fish tb to internal parasites.
Is the anus enlarged or red and inflamed.
What does it look like when the fish goes to the toilet.
Any visable worms hanging from the anus
 
I have a 30gal tank filled with 10 glo-light tetras, 4 serpae tetras, and 2 dwarf gouramis. I tested the water and everything was nominal. Temperature was a little hot at 82ºf.

The fish i originally wrote about is gone, I can't find it. Another serpae is showing similar symptoms though. It is noticablely thinner and less active. Its tail fin is very ragged due to the bullying of its fellow serpaes. Other than that, I can't see anything out of the ordinary on the surface of the serpae. It is breathing very heavily though.
 
When you say 'nominal' does that mean everything is 0.0 even Nitrate 0 ?
Also of these symptons can be caused by poor water. What do you test your water with - strips or liquid kit ? Whats your PH ?
If you want to save your fish, post your water stats, its cheaper than buying medication if thats the problem.

Also 4 serpaes could be bad. They are nippy little buggers. I would suggest at least 6 if your going to keep them in there. They tend to keep themselves more discaplined in a larger shoal
 
Does it hang around the surface at all?
Possible hypoxia, especially with the temp rise, stress and increased gill rate....
 
How long have you had the serpaes?

What do you feed them? I know that mine color up with good high protein food but pale when they're fed lesser quality food.
 
Now a second serpae is dead. He lasted longer (about 6 days) than the other one, but the symptoms were the same: fading color, getting very thin, hiding in the corner and barely moving. The other two serpaes seem okay but if there is something bad in the water I want to get rid of it.

I did another water test. I have the 1-5 and ammonia test strips which I gather aren't all that accurate.

pH 7.4
alk 150 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm
ammonia .10 ppm

I inherited the serpaes and the aquarium from my brother about 3 months ago. I'm not sure how long he had them. The ones that died were about 4cm long.


Here is a picture the day before he died.
last_picture.jpg


Here is a picture of one of my healthy serpaes (sorry about the blur)
serpaeusual.jpg
 
Certainly looks like you have serious bacterial infection, most likely TB.
You need a decent med that covers gram positive and gram negative bacteria, i've heard maracyns 1 and 2 would cover this as a combi treatment.
Or if it is TB, you could do with some antibiotics.
What happened to the second serpaes fins?
TBH he doesn't look healthy, certainly appears as if he/she is also infected....
 
They are a long-fin variety of Serpae Tetra. They have a lot of them in the fish stores around here and they always have ragged fins. I don't know if that counts as a normal condition or not. That blury pic was from 3 months ago. Here's one I took 2 days ago. He is now the last of my long-fins.
longfin.jpg


I have a regular serpae too. Picture taken the same day as above.
regular_serpae.jpg
 
So which medications should I try? Should I treat with both maracyns simultaneously?
 

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