Neon Tetra Disease

[stevethescot]

hi all.

i might of jumped to conclusions but i didnt want to take any chances with this

earlier today i had just fed my fish a lovely piece of dried tubafix and they really seemed to love it it wasnt till a couple hours later that i noticed one neon had sort of stopped shoaling with the rest of the neons ( 12 total)

at a quick look he seemed rather gasping for air, but with 2 airstones going and none of the other fish showing symptoms i concluded that it couldnt be respitory.

i decided to leave him for a while with the lights off just to see if he would relax a bit but after another couple of hours he hadnt really moved from that position.

i had another look around the rest of my collection and they are all swimming happily, apart from the clown loaches who are having a rest.

after another hour and the his/her's condition worsened and was now stuggling to swim going upside down, which made me start thinking of swim bladder but was more erratic,

this is when i decided that its possible that is was NTD and had no choice but to flush. but im concerned now no other fish are showing any segregation, or any similar symptoms yets, ive removed the piece of tubafix, waiting to do a 30% water change but have run out of water cleaner so waiting for my sister to get home so i can use some of hers.

is this disease going to rampage through my tank ? and is there any precautions i can take. going to setup a emergency tank tonight so its ready for tomorrow

im not keen on doing anything over a 50% water change, unless ive had another tank setup and cycled . dont know why just something ive never liked doing.

and some info on my tank and current fish

Tank size: jewel rio 300
pH: 7.5
ammonia:0
nitrite:0
nitrate:5ppm
tank temp: 25-26

current fish in tank

11 neon tetras
2 clown loaches
4 ballon molly's
2 headbangers (belive thats what there called)
2 silver sharks
4 serpae tetras

thats all i can think of at the moment. will keep posted if anymore symptoms arrive with fish

 

[WILDER]

Dosn't sound like ntd to me.

Signs of ntd are.
Red stripe area will look bleached out, or a milky substance on red stripe area.
Blue area on fish will go a yellowish colour.
Bent spine.
Fish will be restless and leave the shoal.
Black linning around the tail area.
Swimming oddly.
Lumps that go to a point.
Later stages popeye and dropsy.

Did he look bloated.

You didn't flush him alive did you?

What do you feed your fish?

 

[stevethescot]

i feed the fish

tetra flakes, also tetra mini as ive got 6 fry (mollies) fish seem to love that aswell.
and bloodworms aswell usually every satuday as a treat. i head Daphnia is also good aswell so might by some of that on the weekend as another little treat

by comparrison of the rest of the tetras no he didnt look bloated.

after he had finished swimming erratically he was more or less floating on the surface twitching. which at the time i classed as good as dead.

if it wasnt ntd then its something that happened quite fast, just checked on the fish and they all seem happy enough,

 

[WILDER]

Erratic swimming, turning upside down, and laboured breathing are all signs of a dying fish.

Need a more varied diet of frozen foods and veg.
Frozen foods like brime strimp and daphnia.

The first sign of ntd is usually the red stripe area will look bleached out.
How old are the neons.

 

[stevethescot]

ive had them for about 2 months, but they are around 3/4 of an inch in length.

also for feeding vegetable do i just heat up say a slice of cucmber let it cool down then put it in the tank or is there another method ?

also which foods are recommended

 

[WILDER]

Anything green really. You just blanch for a few minutes.
Just soak the cucumba in boiling water for a few minutes to soften it.

Fish will eat peas, broc, cumcumba, lettuce, sproats, green cabbage, spinach.


Peas. Just boil frozen peas for a few minutes. Let cool down and pop out of shell. Mush into small peices and add to the tank.