How to clean NTD from a tank? (Long post)

[galeslasher]

Hello, a long story short, my large 55g has an outbreak of neon tetra disease (at least, that is all I can think it could possibly be)
How can I effectively clear it from the substrate and water column without torching my tank and destroying my cycle?


Short story long, my tap water changed parameters suddenly without me knowing and made a lot of my fish in all of my tanks sick. I then had to switch to RO which the learning curve of didn't help at all. Now many of the tetras in my 55g have what I believe to be neon tetra disease as I cannot think what else it could be. I never had neon tetras, and haven't introduced anything in over a year, but I have many tetra species and only they are the ones who have been affected. Black neon, black phantom, yellow phantom, and von rio were all affected. They lose color, acquire large cysts all over their bodies, waste, lose giant chunks of their fins, and then die. No medication I have used has ever helped. Since it's already in full force, and nothing I do seems to help, I have accepted that everybody here suseptible is going to get it and die, and I at this point am just going to let it play out because it really doesn't seem that there is much more I can do that I haven't already tried.

So for the future of this tank, is there a way to clear the parasite from the tank itself after this is all said and done that doesn't require me torching the entire tank from the ground up and destroying my cycle? The only fish in here that are not tetras are a rainbow shark, a golden barb, and a 3 spot gourami. All of which have been unaffected so far. The only other tank I can house these guys in is a spare 20g and I'm worried that won't be sufficient for them in the time it would take to restart my cycle. But I guess I'm not completely opposed to the idea if it's my only option, I'd just really rather not. For obvious reasons.

Is it the case that the parasite is only completely immune to medications while actively infecting the fish? And the spores and free swimming formats are easily defeated by something as simple as paraguard?

Google is so bad these days I can't find much information about this anywhere without being lead to ai websites that are barely even comprehensible, and even then, they all talk about prevention and not what to do if you wind up in an unlucky situation like me where I never introduced random neons and never intentionally messed up my water stability.

I also worry about how latent it can be, because there's quite a few tetras who seem fine and it really appears it's mostly the black neons who have issues, but again, at least one of all the other species has fallen to it, so I'm concerned about how long to wait to make sure everythings clear and who to move to the 20g while torching this one if that's really my only option.

Tia for any help


(Also because I want to be transparent, you read it right that there is only one golden barb, I did not buy one golden barb, I know golden barbs should be in a school. I was at my LFS one day and a distraught woman was begging them to take some fish because they had to move and the home owners were going to flush all the fish if the tank wasn't gone that same day. LFS refused to take them so I exchanged info and picked them up. Nobody else would take him, I didn't want him to get flushed, but I also don't want a school of golden barbs as I frankly don't think 55g is big enough for that. So I have just the one golden barb. No it is not ideal but it is better than letting him be killed, and since he was alone in that tank as well, he seems to be used to it and has never shown distress or aggression, he is always in breeding colors.)

Sorry if this isn't the right place to put this or if it's against the rules, please correct/delete if necessary!

 

[SammyTargo]

First thing:
As far as I know, "Tropical Discussion," is a good place to put any thread when you don't know where to put it. If I were you, I would put this type of issue in the tropical fish emergencies thread for the future. Emergencies in the fish tank aren't often immediately attendable, unless the tank has exploded and fish are all over your floor... I'd hope that someone in this situation would not first come to TFF and make a thread, "Immediate help needed, what do I do? My fish tank just exploded!" Just kidding around though, where you put it is perfectly fine and I assume most people just look at the new threads page to answer people's questions and concerns.

My thoughts:
Okay, I see your issue.
From what I know, neon tetra disease isn't really a free-spreading parasite, neither is it one that infects wounded fish. The main transfer of disease is through a fish eating the host fish's carcass. To prevent further spread, monitor your tank for any dead fish and remove them ASAP. Next thing you should do is get all of your infected fish out of the tank, unless you think the entire tank is infected in which case your actual tank acts as your quarantine. If you don't have another tank to quarantine in, use a larger plastic bin you can find at the dollar store or anywhere else, hardware stores normally have the best selection of course. I don't know the actual effectiveness of this, but the parasites also do spread in the water presumably, which means you must sterilize the water in the tank as well. I recommend using a UV light in your filtration, as that is always a safe way to remove unwanted microflora/fauna in the water column.

If you tried Paraguard, I don't think that is the right one if you went that route. Melafix or Pimafix is the most effective, but I have learned that all of those things might as well be snake oil. I think they work as a basis, but most diseases after so many years of chemical treatment become resistant because of the exposure to captively-bred fish and tanks rather than wild environments where everything evolves to change and adapt.

Also, all of your equipment you use on the tank shouldn't be used for other tanks, use a 10-30% bleach solution before thoroughly washing em off to make it safe for aquarium use.

Second route:
Many people don't realise what they are dealing with isn't actually NTD but rather columnaris, as they have the same general symptoms and easily spread to even more fish. If this is the case, luckily for you it is much more treatable. I never really had a problem with it, and most of my infective issues that free-spread, I use my trusty UV. However, I have heard that Kanaplex (kanamycin) combined with Furan-2 is recommended.

To note (IMPORTANT!):
If you have tried treatment, make sure you remove any activated carbon in your filter or tank. It will disarm any chemical treatments. I recommend taking out everything in your filter if you are using UV treatment, as it will 100% kill any exposed beneficial bacteria. Not to worry about the ones in the substrate or outside of the filter, they live on surfaces so if it isn't exposed to the light itself, it won't die. But as a measure, a lot of the nitrifying bacteria in your tank lives in your filter whether in the floss, carbon, or rocks. You can keep the carbon if the carbon is separate from your floss, but just know you are losing some bacteria.

Please update,
Samuel.

 

[SammyTargo]

Final note, I must make this clear. If what you have is NTD, there is no effective treatment for already infected fish, they are going to die sooner or later, so may as well move them out of the tank. Only unplagued fish will be saveable so that is important to remember prioritizing them over the already doomed tetras. While called NTD, it is a parasite that affects most fish; it is only named after neon tetras.

Regards,
Samuel