Neon Tetra Turning White

[luckyd]

I have a neon tetra in an established 14 gallon tank shared with 3 other tetras, 2 adult and 3 tiny baby platys, and one cory catfish. I don't have water stats but can get them from the LFS in the next couple of days. In the past month we have lost one other tetra and a golden algae eater, but they showed no symptoms before they died.

There is one tetra that has been slowly losing its color and turning white over the past 2 or 3 weeks. There are no other obvious symptoms. He's still eating and schooling with the other fish. The white patches don't look like growths or fungus, just more of a color loss. The color on the other tetras seems fine.

Any idea on what could be going on? Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[stubert]

Would definately check stats, and do a water change in the mean time.

How long have you had the tetras? funnily enough i had a tetra die this morning with unknown reasons, as i did about 2 months ago, everything else is fine water is fine etc. So i dunno, could just be the individual fish.

Also should get some more corys 6 is a nice number

 

[robryb]

Hopefully it's not "neon tetra disease", where they lose their colour as well. It's incurable.

Symptoms:
Restlessness
Fish begins to lose coloration
As cysts develop, body may become lumpy
Fish has difficulty swimming

It affects muscle tissue, which begins to turn white, generally starting within the color band and areas along the spine.

 

[luckyd]

Would neon tetra disease progress slowly over a couple of months? Are the non-tetra fish in the tank in danger (2 corys, 4 platys including 2 babies)? Are there any other diseases that would make the tetra turn white? So far, it's still swimming with the school and eating. Would this be true if it's neon tetra disease?

 

[luckyd]

The tetra now has a very bent spine and seems weak. We took it out of the tank this morning. Any ideas?

 

[JoshuaA]

The tetra now has a very bent spine...

AFAIK this could well and truly indicate NTD at its advanced form. I would make sure you keep an eye on all the other fish in your tank as some fish are actually susceptible to it as well, not just Neons.

If you have isolated the fish in its own tank or container, either monitor the fish and make your decision whether you feel like the fish needs to be euthanised or left to live the rest of its life out.

I would wait for further responses from other members to confirm or suspect otherwise, however just make sure you keep it isolated.

However let me just add on this edit... I believe some of my Neons suffered from NTD when they died, it was actually surprisingly quick from being ok to losing nearly all their colour their fins rotting in the space of 3 days and then when they eventually died their spines looked like they had been manipulated like spaghetti.

 

[luckyd]

Thank you! I have been surprised by how long this little guy is hanging on. It's been at least 3 weeks since he showed symptoms, but it's been steadily progressing. I know what you mean about the spaghetti spine, poor thing. But, amazingly, he is still eating in his little quartantine tank, and meandering around -- not energetic, but not just resting either. Now, I'm keeping an eye on another neon that has a small white area to see if it gets worse.

I have read that some bacterial diseases can cause similar symptoms. Would there be any good in trying antibiotics?

 

[orangefish]

I have a feeling it is neon tetra disease. My neon died from this earlier today It hung on for around 3 weeks with it, but the symptoms were that it became separated from the school, it was very discoloured, it was lathargic, tended to stay at the back of the tank, didn't eat and gradually got weaker and weaker. As has already been said, unfortunately it is incurable. Hopefully it's not neon tetra disease, but the symptoms sound similar