The Curse of the Endler's Spine

[BruinsBro1997]

Lately my females endlers livebearers have been disappearing. A few days before they disappear I always notice they have a deformed spine. At first it was just my female endlers. They always have deformed spines before they disappear and I never find any trace of their body whatsoever. Now one of my ember tetras has it as well. I'm starting to wonder if this is actually a contagious disease and I need to QT the whole tank or it's just bad stock (I do buy all my fish from the same store).
Water params:
Ammo 0 ppm
Nitrites 0 ppm
Nitrates 20-40 ppm depending on when I test them.

Here's two pictures. Normal vs. deformed spine
Excuse the specs in the water I just did a water change an hour ago.


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[dbosman]

For the time being, don't pick up any more fish. If it's one of a couple of diseases, it's too late to do anything.
First, I'd be looking for an aggressive fish attacking - probably at night. What else, specifically other fish, are in the tank?

[BruinsBro1997]

For the time being, don't pick up any more fish. If it's one of a couple of diseases, it's too late to do anything.
First, I'd be looking for an aggressive fish attacking - probably at night. What else, specifically other fish, are in the tank?

I actually haven't picked up any fish for quite a while now. The endlers were the newest additions from about a month ago to round out my stocking.

There are other ember tetras (I don't remember how many probably 8 now), a school of 6-8 rummy noses, five bronze cories, five thread fin rainbows and an angel. I think it may be aggression from the angel but I'm not sure.


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[kj5kb]

Neither of those look like Endlers to me...actually look closer to pale Ember Tetras. Was that your intent?

And yes, not a good idea to buy any more fish til you figure out what's going on.