Neon Tetra - Odd Swimming Practice

Ian Hattam

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I'm probably being a bit paranoid but i think one of my tetras isn't too well:

It spends all of its time now swimming head down almost but not quite vertical with lots of rapid swimming motion in order to maintain it's position. The only exceptions to this are when it decides to chase away another tetra when it appears to be able to swim perfectly normally.

It is eating fine and looks ok with no other obvious indication that anything might be wrong.

Ammonia and Nitritre are 0, Nitrate and pH are a bit high at 50 and 8

Any suggsetions?

Thanks
Ian

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Neons do better with a much lower PH. This could be part of the problem. They are also very sensitive fish... how long has the tank been cycled?
 
this sounds definately wrong - its the exact same first symptoms my danios showed when it got flexibacter columnaris (or just plain old mouth fungus).

Id be watching it very very very closly over the next 72 hours for further development, as it may also just be bizarre behaviour.
 
Leslie - The tank has been set up about 6 months so should be cycled ok by now right? Not quite sure why the pH is as high as it is at the mo.


dgwebster - flexibacter columnaris (or just plain old mouth fungus) - Sounds none too grand!
How contagious is that? And is it treatable?

Thanks for the input guys. :good: Hopefully I'll get it sorted!

Cheers
Ian
 
it is treatable with off the shelf bottles, it can be very contagious, though i only had the one develope it full blown (and he died too)
 
it is treatable with off the shelf bottles, it can be very contagious, though i only had the one develope it full blown (and he died too)

Well, i'll keep an eye on it for now and see what develops. I'll check out my lfs for meds as well although I'm loathe to medicate until I know what's wrong for sure. Hope this one won't die!!!!

Cheers
Ian

i cant help, but iv got a neon thats doing exactly the same thing :S

Hope yours recovers too!
 
thats a definate, you do not want to go treating for that then find out you need to treat for something else. just keep a cose eye for developments on and around the mouth. very difficult to spot but once tis there, act fast: my danios finally showed it on the saturday morning. by saturday afternoon, treatment was added but the whole mouth was covered and in the evening he eventually suffocated.
 
thats a definate, you do not want to go treating for that then find out you need to treat for something else. just keep a cose eye for developments on and around the mouth. very difficult to spot but once tis there, act fast: my danios finally showed it on the saturday morning. by saturday afternoon, treatment was added but the whole mouth was covered and in the evening he eventually suffocated.

That fast? :-(

Will keep my beedy eye on him and see what happens although I first noticed it yesterday evening and there doesn't appear to be any worsening of the symptoms. Thanks for the advice

Cheers
Ian
 
that was the development of the fungus. he started showing symptoms on the wednesday night and i was very inexperienced.

its also not to say that this is what your fish has...
 
that was the development of the fungus. he started showing symptoms on the wednesday night and i was very inexperienced.

its also not to say that this is what your fish has...

Well fingers crossed anyway. Hopefully he's just having a funny five minutes :fun:

Thanks
 
Is the red stripe nice and bright, any cysts on the tummy that go to a point.
 
Is the red stripe nice and bright, any cysts on the tummy that go to a point.

i have moved into my blonde mode now - the bright red stripe is good isnt it? cos mines are so bright and brilliant, i swear they would glow in the dark and light the whole room if they didnt get dull at lights out.
 
hi
we used to have 14 neons years ago & i noticed quite often that after eating they often would display very similar behaviour to what your describing & apparently is caused by full belly pressing on its swimbladder. if its doing this all the time could it be a swimmbladder infection???
 
Well, good news!

I got called away this weekend and have only just got back, expecting to find the remains of a dead fish or two (my shrimp are pretty effective at clearing up the remains though!) but no! They are all fine and no sign of fish floating at funny angles.

I was a litlle concerned though, as after feeding them before I left, a few appeared also to be doing the same so maybe it was a full stomach on the swimbladder...although it was originally like this for a couple of days.

Anyway, all seems to be good now :D

Thanks for all the advice folks!!

Cheers
Ian
 

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