Dead Neon Others Not Looking Good

[johnnyjtaylor]

Five days ago I got five neons and a betta for my small 38 litre(10 gallon US) tank. The neons came with whitespot (a free gift from the lfs ) I treated them with protozin (final dose due tommorrow) which seems to have got rid of the whitespot. All seemed well until this morning when I found one of the neons dead , two of the others panting, the other two and the betta seem fine although the neons arent atall actve. The tank was previously our hospital tank and I set it up with an air powered sponge filter which was matured in our main tank and two thirds clean dechlorinated tap water(one third was the water already in the tank). The filter is working well as ammonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrates are 5ppm. I have done a one third water change to see if that helped but the neons are still panting. The only slightly weird thing is green algea has quickly spread over half the gravel and is giving off a huge amount of oxygen bubbles.
Any thoughts/ideas greatly appreciated as I dont want to lose the neons
cheers Johnny

 

[WILDER]

Neons can be funny wih the whitespot med, usually you have to half dose, if there still panting i would do another water change.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Ok thanks wilder I'll do just that. Ive also put an airstone in to try and maximise the oxygen levels and thats got the neons attention as theyve all gone over near it but they are indeed still panting.

Johnny

 

[WILDER]

Do the water change fast.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Done! Still panting although they are moving about a bit more. I'll watch them closely to see if they improve and maybe another water change in the morning to get rid of more meds. Ive got a small corner filter do you think its worth putting it in with a bit of carbon sponge to try and take out more of the med?
cheers Johnny

 

[WILDER]

I was just going o suggest that, yes add the carbon,do you have any scaless fish in the tank.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

No just the neons and the betta. I'll crack on with the corner filter but one of the neons has that dull purple look to his stripe and is not hanging out with the others. Doesnt look good for him

 

[WILDER]

Add a tablespoon of salt for the stress and shock.

http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...?article_id=335

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Ok carbons in. Bit scared of salt but I'll give it a go. The tank is 38 litres so would a tablespoon be the right dose(sorry to ask what you already told me .just a bit paranoid of the salt) Ordinary table salt or would the posh rock salt stuff be better?
thanks johnny

 

[WILDER]

http/www.kenliz.plus.com/Salt_use.html
Not keen on rock salt, plus it takes ages to dissolve, table salt is fine, one table spoon to 5 gal, but only add one, it help fish as they lose salt from there body when stressed and shocked.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Ok thanks but one last bit of my paranoia the article linked in your last post says melafix is better for osmotic stress and Ive got a big bottle of the stuff here, what do you think? Im gonna go with what you say as youve clearly done plenty of research on this.

thankyou Johnny

 

[WILDER]

Salt, puts salt back in there bodies that they have lost through being in stress and shock, plus it good for the gills.

This info is taken from the fish keeping article.
Taking in extra salts to replenish those lost to the water takes a bit more effort. Freshwater fish use special cells in their gills to take in the salts, such as chloride, that they lose to the water, which helps keep their bodies salty. Adding salt to the water when fish are stressed means that they don't lose as much salt from their bodies. The principle is much the same as a saline drip for hospital patients.


Adding salt to the water in times of stress can help minimise salt losses by the fish. It can also reduce the toxicity of pollutants and may kill some pathogens.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Ok I'll stick a table spoon in there. Thankyou so much for your time and patience, its nice that people are so willing to help out with problems . I will post an update on what happens tomorrow.
Thanks again Johnny

 

[WILDER]

Good luck, hope they make it bless them.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Another two are dead The last one to die lost his colour and his tail went really ragged and all in the 8 or so hours I wasnt here today. One of the remaining two is starting to breath abit faster aswell. I just dont know what it could be ,the siamese fighter seems completely happy and all water params are fine.