Sick Neon, not sure if there is anything I can do..

lemonlime

lemonlime

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Mar 10, 2005
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This is my first post here, however I have been hovering around absorbing all of the great info here! Awesome site. I wish my first post was on a more positive note, however I was hoping you may have some feedback on one of my poor neons..

I've been running my 10G tank now for several months, and all of my fish appear to be doing well, with the exception of one neon, who appears sick. I've got the following in the tank:

3x Neon Tetras
2x Glowlight Tetras
2x Rainbow Tetras
1x Coolie Loach (not sure of spelling)

and two live plants, one amazon sword and another bunch of moneywort. I have 1.4Wpg lighting (hagen lifeglow). I have been feeding them simple flake food twice per day, and I have been keeping up with water changes.

This one particular Neon had always appeared to have accelerated breathing (compared to the other two) since the day I got it. Last night, I noticed that it began to swell, so much so that it's scales are actually beginning to stick outwards on it's underside. I noticed that it does have red colored fecies, so I assume it is bloat or some other digest.trac infection and internal bleeding. Is there anything I can do for this poor fish? I feel terrible, and I am also worried about my other fish. Should I be removing the fish from the tank? The fish appears to have gotten much worse, and the neon color seems to be fading slightly on the tail area (see picture).. In the picture the fish is near the bottom of the tank, but now it is not swiming straight (face seems to go to the surface of the water) and stays primarily near the top.

Thanks for any input you may have..

sickneon.JPG
 
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Sorry to hear this, they're such cuties. I had a neon that bloated up, wasn't sure if she was full of eggs or ill (acted normal, normal colouration). She died, and it appeard afterwards that she had an intestinal blockage.
Raised scales usually occurs with dropsy, which is usually bacterial and infectious. If you can isolate the neon, I'd so so. If you don't have a QT, you could float a jar or plastic food container in the tank - this will keep the fish isolated but keep the water warm. You'd need to change the water in the container several times daily (I've isolated fish this way and used an airline to drain the container, then carefully scooped tank water into the container to fill it).
I'd recommend doing a search for dropsy, bacterial infections, constipation and bloat - see if something matches your fish's symptoms. If you can pinpoint the condition, it will be easier to find the appropriate medication.
 
Sounds like dropsy sadly. This site has some decent information on it.
http://www.2cah.com/pandora/Disease.html#Dropsy For potential treatment it says "Unfortunately, dropsy is *usually* incurable and fatal; however, in rare cases, spontaneous recovery may occur. A strong antibiotic such as kanamycin sulfate can be tried, but because it is an internal infection, usually it does little good" I'd suggest you quarantine your sick neon even though dropsy isn't very infectious. Better safe than sorry.....
 
2 of my neons are acting like this..I have another thread posted.... sick fish or pregnant.....something like that...anyways mine appear to be bloated/fat or whatever too....but the scales on my fish are nothing like you guys are talkng about...they are just normal......
I cant figure out what is wron with them
 
what I am going to do..is cut back their feeding to once a day...I usually feed them twice a day....and see if anything happens....I wish that I could figure out how to take pics on here...well I know how to do that...but mine just aren't the right colouring or something ? it must be a lot more than what this page needs...anyways .. I have one neon tetra that is the longest and biggest altogether that I have ever seen...... I just dont want to lose him.....he's been around here with me for a long time now... :(
 
alergic__1 said:
what I am going to do..is cut back their feeding to once a day...I usually feed them twice a day....and see if anything happens....I wish that I could figure out how to take pics on here...well I know how to do that...but mine just aren't the right colouring or something ? it must be a lot more than what this page needs...anyways .. I have one neon tetra that is the longest and biggest altogether that I have ever seen...... I just dont want to lose him.....he's been around here with me for a long time now... :(
Click to expand...

I too have decided to reduce feeding. I fed twice per day as well, and I think once is sufficient. Water quality seems to degrade pretty quickly in my tank as well, could be a result of overfeeding perhaps..

On a positive note, I'm not sure what happened, but the neon actually looks much less bloated today, and seems to be spending less time near the top of the aquarium. It's foggy eyes seem to have cleared up a bit too! I'm not sure what is happening, but sure would be great if it recovered! (got fingers crossed)
 
What exactly do you mean by your water quality seems to degrade quickly? That might give us some more information to better answer your question. In the meantime I would do a large water change, and keep an eye on the neon in question!! Also what are your water parameters? Neons can be sensitive to poor water quality.
 
Unfortunatly, the neon passed away a day or two after my post. I'm not sure about the chemical balance of my water, but I did notice that I was picking up uneaten food from the gravel during routine water changes, and algae growth was pretty fast as well.

I did a pretty major water change that day as well, and the other fish appear to be healthy and doing well.

I'm still pretty new to the aquaria hobby, I was wondering what is the best way to test the water? Is there a link to some more information on this?

Thanks,
Mike
 
water quality or bad food

I'll guess it was water quality or bad food. Flake food will go bad, if old or damp. Best to get smaller containers and buy new more often. (I killed a bunch of fish with old flake food, 5+ years old, maybe 50 big pond fish in a span of 5 years)

You need to invest in a test kit, Aquarium Pharmacuticals make sa kit ($11 from PetSolutions.com) that has ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH and high pH. You ought to get this kit and test the water weekly.

Change water to keep ammonia at 0, nitrites at 0, nitrates at 20ppm or less. Always treat new water for chlorine/chloramine as needed and match tank temperature.
 
In the meantime, most LFS will test your water for free, take in a small container with some of your tank water, then you should be able to figure out if something is wrong, and how to fix it!
 
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