Neon tetra disease and Dwarf Gourami Iridovirus are new plagues that are wiping out lots of tanks of small tropical fish. Since I answer questions on Yahoo on disease, I am confronted with a case of one or the other about every second day. Both are 100% fatal and incurable. Iridovirus was first thought only to infect Dwarf Gouramis but now has been found in other Gouraqmis. An estimated 25% of Southeast Asian imports are infected. The initial symptoms are loss or color and appetite. these are fairly rapidly followed by sores and ulcers, abdominal swelling and death. Neon Disease is communicable to ther fish, although it was first recognized in Neons and other small Tetras. It is caused by the sporozoan Pleistophora. Symptoms start as reslessness, and progress to bumps under the skin, which become hard custs, difficulty swimmin and swim bladder dysfunction, spinal damage, spinal curvature and death. Any fish which has eaten a piece of an infected or dead neon may catch it. It is !00% fatal. The only upside is that there is a False Neon Disease which responds to Erythromycin and Tetracycline but has identical symptoms. It is bacterial. Watch out for these two.