Cardinal Tetra With Indented Stomach On One Side, Any Ideas?

[Harri]

Evening all,

I've dealt with a whole host of issues in my aquarium over the last month.

Firstly, I had a huge ammonia spike, during which I lost 2 cardinal tetra and a German blue ram. This I sorted with the help from the knowledgeable people on this forum.

Next, I had an ich outbreak. It affected the cardinals severely, they were covered in white spots, but my remaining ram was unaffected. I treated the outbreak with salt and higher water temps. I'm still maintaining the higher temp to make sure I kill the ich in its free swimming stage.

But now I'm exceptionally concerned about one of the cardinals. Yesterday I noticed a break in its red colouring around where it's stomach would be. It's quite stark given that the red coloration is so vivid and then there's this gap in colour, for want of a better way to describe it. On closer inspection, the area of discolouration is actually quite severely indented, but this indentation is only on one side, the other side looks completely normal.

Any ideas? Please?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Hmm, my initial thoughts are this tetra is not getting a fair share of food, or it has internal parasites.

Have you got a quarantine tank, or a hang on breeding net, which you can use to isolate the fish and see how it responds to food without competition?

 

[Harri]

I haven't unfortunately, but I've been keeping an eye on it when I've been feeding them and it seems to be getting its fair share, it's often the first to the top!

It's so strange because this indentation and loss of colour is only on one side.