148.6L (39.2 gallon) aquarium journal

[Colin_T]

Good stuff, well done

 

[elephantnose3334]

One of the silvertips had died earlier today? as I checked on the fish. I found a decomposing body of a male floating in the tank, and I removed it immediately and did a water change right away. I feed the fish once a day, sometimes twice, and there weren't any deaths in the tank for a year until today.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Update: The silvertips are doing fine at the moment. I gave them some frozen bloodworms an hour ago and they seem to go to breeding-mode as the males begin to chase the females again. The tank glass does need a clean though.

A nearly-3 year old male (from the original group brought back in late 2022)

 

[elephantnose3334]

Final day of 2025. The silvertips are fine but two females. One is possibly overweight and the other (the largest tetra in the group) might not be swimming well with her body facing a slight upwards angle (normal healthy tetras swim straight). I don't know if she has a swim bladder issue but hopefully not. The glass needs a clean however.

possibly overweight female

The other female (i do have a video of her swimming)

 

[elephantnose3334]

Happy new year everyone from me and the silvertips.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Unfortunately, I have to quaratine both female tetras to see if they recover from their symptoms (swim bladder issue on one and possibly dropsy on the other).

 

[elephantnose3334]

Finally quaratined the female silvertip with the swim bladder issue today. She's not doing too well; she might be on her last legs and lying on the ground with heavy breathing. She wasn't like that for many months since I introduced her into the tank. What can I do during this period? I also took clearer photos of the affected female tetras yesterday.

@MattW

 

[elephantnose3334]

Sad update: I had to put the female tetra with the swim bladder issue out of her misery. In other words, I had to euthanaise her via putting her in the freezer. She had a slight curve on her spine and was lying down on the floor and breathing heavily, so I didn't want her to suffer in pain anymore. I tried looking after her with the best of my ability. This is the second overall death in the tank. She was the biggest tetra in the 39gal tank. I will do a water change tomorrow as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the bloated female tetra remains in the quaratine box for treatment.

 

[MattW]

I had an ember tetra balloon up once. As it was a female I thought it was egg-bound. After I euthanised it I had a closer look with dissection, and I found a large clear ball of liquid off the side of the stomach. My guess was kidney failure (dropsy). I assume your silvertip has the same

 

[elephantnose3334]

Just discovered that another tiny fry was in the silvertip tank. The silvertips bred again with the new fluffy ambulia and the fry is a few days old. The problem is I'm using the fry saver to quaratine the female silvertip with dropsy/eggbound as she isn't recovering well as of last week. I might have to euthanaise the female silvertip because I don't want her to suffer with dropsy anymore as I don't know how to treat dropsy or other fish diseases.

Photos of the fry soon.

Edit: I had to put the female with dropsy down in the freezer because I didn't want her to suffer any longer. The pineconing of the scales continued a week later, and I tried everything to isolate her from the rest of the shoal. The same thing happened a week back when I had a fish with a swim bladder issue. Third death in the tank (two euthaniasia, one natural) now.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Got a pic of the fry.

 

[elephantnose3334]

I've been feeding the fry live baby brine shrimp and microworms for the last couple of days to keep it healthy. The adult tetras also prefer live foods as it sometimes trigger the breeding process (it has happened before with live blackworms) more frequently than dry foods (flakes and pellets).