Dying Neon Tetras

[Ian Hattam]

Hi All

I'm new here and thought I would try and see if you guys can help me out.

I have a small 60 litre tank that has been set up for about 6 months. It contained 3 peppered cory, 6 neon tetras and a couple of small shrimps (was sold them as fire shrimps but dont think they are) until recently. One of the neons appear to get what i thought might have been dropsy about 8 weeks ago. It subsequently died but I had no further problems with any other of my fish.

As all seemed to be ok, I went and purchased 6 more neon tetra and 5 japonica shrimp the week before last. Initially these new arrivals were doing fine but then the tetras started to become unwell and die. Their colour faded and they were off their food and a couple of them seemed to be gasping. At first it appeared to be just the new tetras but slowly my new ones succumbed as well. They all died apart from 1! I had the water checked by my local fish shop and it all appears to be fine. My corys (cories?) appeared to be fine and if anything were more lively than they have been for a few weeks and the shrimps are having a whale of a time and are thriving.

The shop kindly agreed to replace the tetras so I left it for a week to see what happened to the final one and he seemed fine so I went and got my 6 replacements. I added them to the tank a couple of days ago and they seemed quite happy although now their colour seems to be fading as well and i am concerned that this may well be the start of another round of tetra deaths.


Does anyone have any idea what may be wrong? Apart from the fading colour and dying, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the neons, or at least, no obvious other sypmtoms.

Please help!

Many thanks
Ian

 

[WILDER]

Well fading can be due to water quality if they are stressed, so would like to look at test results in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph, as don't like the lfs saying fine.
Have the fish lost there colour in the red stripe area.

 

[Ian Hattam]

The red area is the first to go and finally the blue area seems to fade as well (although they are almost dead by the time the blue fades).

I've gone out and bought a test kit to do my own water tests and the values are:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 50
pH - 8 (between 7 and 8.5 on the card that comes with the test kit)

From what i have been able to find, common opinion would be that the Nitrate and pH are too high. Would these values be high enough to prove fatal to my tetras?


My newest neons seem to have settled down now and the colour seems to be returning but i would like to know what may be wrong so that I can avoid this again

 

[WILDER]

You will need to test your tap nitrates first, you need to get that reading down in nitrates but it's not dangerous, but if you can get it down more it would be good.
I think you need to look ntd up to make sure, there is also false ntd which is saddleback columnaris which is a fluffy appearance that goes into a saddle shape on the body.

http/www.planet-pets.com/newsarticles/neontetradisease.htm

 

[Ian Hattam]

thanks for that Wilder

I've now tested the tap water nitrate levels and there doesn't seem to be a vast differnce between the two.

I've had a read of the article at the link you posted and I think this would probably be the most likely problem although there was no obvious lumpiness of the body which it suggested may become evident.

As one of my tetras survived and seem to remain symptom free for just over a week (the other 11 all died within a week) i thought I would take a chance and with buying some more and thus far all seems ok. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

I'll try to get the nitrate level down although i do carry out a 25% water change weekly. Is this sufficient?

Thanks for your help
Ian

 

[WILDER]

Good luck, keep a close eye, and yes neons are very sensitive to water quality, it has to me kept in tip top condition.