Thanks. I just read that article and I have no idea if that's it or not becasue there is such a broad spectrum of symptoms and secondary diseases associated with it.
Do you think I should try treating the tank with this Waterlife Sterazin as recommended by 'Myrtle' first, and then consider TB after if that doesn't work? Also, how did you cure your case of TB? Thanks
Apart from the fish flicking, all of the fishes symptoms suggest an aggressive bacterial disease. But you have treated the tank with anti internal bacterial medication but to no avail (this is what set my alarm bells ringing Fish TB).
When you say the fish have symptoms of Neon Tetra Disease, what symptoms of this disease are the fish showing? Sometimes these two diseases (Fish TB & NTD) can be very similar.
Here is what a dear friend (and probably the best fish disease expert ever on the forum) said to me when we were discussing Fish TB (a long time after my incident with it);
"For fish tb you are best wiping the bacteria out in the filter with antibiotics like tetraycline, kancylin. Spelt kancyclin wrong i'm afraid. Forgotten how to spell it.
Then add vitamin b supplement to there food.
Once the spine bends with the illness you are best destroying the fish.
I had plenty of problems to. The dreaded ntd. it wiped the whole tank out.
Had a lovely shoal of neons till I bougt some more seven months later.
Then disaster struck, ntd."
Personally in my case i ended up euthanising every and any fish which showed the diseases symptoms. It was very hard to do, but it was the only way i could get rid of the disease and i ended up saving more fish in the long term by taking this hardline tactic. The main way the disease spreads is by dead fish (everytime a fish dies from the disease it sends great levels of it into the tank- so it is very important to prevent fish from dying in the tank to help prevent it spreading to more fish).
I would say it will be worth treating the tank with more meds as there are still very much other things that could be causing your fishes deaths. I would advise treating the fish with an anti intenal parasite medication (Waterlife Sterazin Parasite) as the internal parasites can weaken fish to such a degree that they die from other diseases, and the Sterazin will definitely treat the flicking problem (that definitely sounds like a parasite issue).
Its hard to say what the fish have for certain. IMO it sounds like either;
a. The fish have an aggressive internal bacterial disease (like Fish TB) that is weakening them all round as well as a case of gill flukes (the flicking & rubbing). Or
b. The fish have an aggressive case of internal parasites which is weakening them all round, leaving them susceptable to bacterial infections.
Treat the tank with the Sterazin med first- give them a good long treatment, and keep a
very close eye on their
body weight. If they regain any body weight at all while being treated with the Sterazin, then internal parasites are your fishes problem. If the fish show no sign of improvement though after a long treatment of Sterazin, then i would be more likely to believe the fish had Fish TB or NTD.
I'm sorry i can't offer you more help than this, its a tough one
.