New member, Neon tetra disease

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George H.

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Hello, A few weeks ago I bought ~14 neon tetras for my 40 gal. tank from a discount pet store. (mistake.) I believe I've introduced neon tetra disease to my tank. I'm thinking I should remove all the tetras from my tank. The other fish in my tank are guppies. Some of the bigger females seem to have trouble swimming now, and rest on the rocks in the tank. Are they infected too? Should I remove those guppies too? Should I remove all the guppies? I'm mostly looking for advice on how to rid my tank of this disease.
Thank you.
 
Welcome to TFF.

Pics of the affected fish may help determine whether or not this is indeed NTD affecting the fish.
 
Pictures are hard to get. Neons have loss/ fading of red color, tattered fins and tails. Some swimming problems. Swimming with their head down. Though this might also be a mating behavior... it's my first time keeping neons.
 
How long has the tank been set up? Is it cycled?
 
Pictures are hard to get. Neons have loss/ fading of red color, tattered fins and tails. Some swimming problems. Swimming with their head down. Though this might also be a mating behavior... it's my first time keeping neons.
after feeding flakes ?
 
You should treat the whole tank with all the fishes in it but first you will need to determine what disease.
 
How long has the tank been set up for?
What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the water?
Pictures of the fish so we can confirm the problem?

---------------------
If it is neon disease, you need to treat the entire tank because the bacteria is in the tank.

Before you treat the tank, do the following things.

Work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.
 
Pictures of the tank and fish please, plus pH etc. Guppies and Neons are not a great mix generally
 
How long has the tank been set up for?
What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the water?
Pictures of the fish so we can confirm the problem?

---------------------
If it is neon disease, you need to treat the entire tank because the bacteria is in the tank.

Before you treat the tank, do the following things.

Work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.
Thank you. The pictures of the neons were indistinct, and I've now removed the sick neons and guppies. This morning there was one really sick looking guppy. Thin body, red gills. see attached pic.
My tank has been set up for ~15 years. I don't know pH or other data you ask for.
 

Attachments

  • guppy.jpg
    guppy.jpg
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Is the guppy in the picture normally that colour?

It looks really skinny and the body colour looks wrong. If the colour has always been like that it's fine but if it changed recently it probably has a microsporidian infection.

You can treat microsporidia with salt (2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres, for 2-4 weeks).
 
Y
Is the guppy in the picture normally that colour?

It looks really skinny and the body colour looks wrong. If the colour has always been like that it's fine but if it changed recently it probably has a microsporidian infection.

You can treat microsporidia with salt (2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres, for 2-4 weeks).
Color is normal, ~orange/yellow guppies. But yeah very skinny, also distorted body shape and inflamed gills. I've just been culling the sick fish.
 
Color is normal, ~orange/yellow guppies. But yeah very skinny, also distorted body shape and inflamed gills. I've just been culling the sick fish.
Flared gills is usually gill flukes. Salt will do them.

Skinny can be intestinal worms and or gill flukes. See section 3 of the following link for deworming the fish.
 

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