What's Wrong With This Neon?

[inveritas]

Hello,

I'm new to the forum and fish rearing, and have 5 fishes in a 3.5 gallon tank. One of my Neons, now two weeks in my care since I got it from the shop, has a weird protrusion at its lower end (photo below). Is this a birth defect, or a health issue that I should be worrying about?

I've not seen any symptoms of NTD from this guy or the other Neons around him.

Thanks!

 

[techen]

Neons need to be in groups of 6 really. Your tank is too small for neons sorry. Anyway I cant tell from the photo but is it there all the time or just after feeding?

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I've noticed my females are sometimes a bit more bumpy on the bottom side... I think I read somewhere it has to do with them carrying eggs.... mine have had a lot of swirling mating activity going on and one female is quite bumpy at the moment.

 

[inveritas]

Neons need to be in groups of 6 really. Your tank is too small for neons sorry. Anyway I cant tell from the photo but is it there all the time or just after feeding?

It's there all the time, only this fellow. I was not aware that Neons were a schooling fish when I bought them and I'll upgrade my tank ASAP!

I've noticed my females are sometimes a bit more bumpy on the bottom side... I think I read somewhere it has to do with them carrying eggs.... mine have had a lot of swirling mating activity going on and one female is quite bumpy at the moment.

I see. I'll continue observing this one and hope it isn't some sort of growth.

Thanks to both of you!

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Neons like a distance to swim so do best in long tanks rather than tall tanks.

 

[inveritas]

This one went belly up today...

 

[DrSlackBladder]

Did you cycle your tank/filter before adding fish? Are you testing the water with a liquid test kit? If no to both of these, are you doing at least 50% daily water changes? If no again, your fish will die from ammonia poisoning!

 

[inveritas]

Did you cycle your tank/filter before adding fish? Are you testing the water with a liquid test kit? If no to both of these, are you doing at least 50% daily water changes? If no again, your fish will die from ammonia poisoning!

Well the short story was that I stupidly overfed the fish on Wednesday night, did a 100% water change out of panic to get rid of excess food and have been regularly dosing the tank with Prime and added an Anubias nana and some Blackwater extract (doubt its effectiveness, but seems like no harm trying) to keep the chemicals low while hoping to speed up the cycling. None of the fish exhibited symptoms of NTS ot NTD although they seemed slightly stressed out, and I did use a test kit on it which showed 0 Ammonia but spiking Nitrite levels from day 1 on the 100% WC up till now, day 4. The results were the same even on newly conditioned tap water. I suspect the test kit was wonky (it's a month to expiry) and am getting it exchanged for a newer set.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Neons do not do well in non-cycled tanks.

If you want to speed up cycling you are best off getting cycled filter media to use to replace the new stuff in your filter... that way you'd have a much bigger bacteria colony to work with.

 

[inveritas]

Neons do not do well in non-cycled tanks.

If you want to speed up cycling you are best off getting cycled filter media to use to replace the new stuff in your filter... that way you'd have a much bigger bacteria colony to work with.

I started with a half-cycled tank (water from LFS), but messed it up and am now left with a newly cycling one

Here's my undersized setup for now with a group photo:

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Adding water from a cycled tank will not do much at all for the cycling process as it is the filter that gets cycled (grow good bacteria so that when the water filters through it with the ammonia from the fish it can break it down). If your filter is not cycled it doesn't matter where you got the water from.

Its not a mistake to have done a big water change, its a benefit. Without a cycled filter your filters capacity to process ammonia is very limited thus daily water changes are needed to remove the extra ammonia produced by the fish. Regular testing will clue you in to how things are adjusting and help you decide how much water needs changing each day.

Check out this seciton of the board and pay attention to the fish in cycle link... http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

 

[inveritas]

Adding water from a cycled tank will not do much at all for the cycling process as it is the filter that gets cycled (grow good bacteria so that when the water filters through it with the ammonia from the fish it can break it down). If your filter is not cycled it doesn't matter where you got the water from.

Its not a mistake to have done a big water change, its a benefit. Without a cycled filter your filters capacity to process ammonia is very limited thus daily water changes are needed to remove the extra ammonia produced by the fish. Regular testing will clue you in to how things are adjusting and help you decide how much water needs changing each day.

Check out this seciton of the board and pay attention to the fish in cycle link... http/www.fishforum...esource-center/

I can't believe I missed that link - Thank you!!

 

[PrairieSunflower]

You're welcome. You might want to start posting in that section as well so you can get guidance with your cycling process.