losing fish, help!

redbucket

redbucket

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Dec 1, 2004
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about three months ago i came home to one of my glowlight tetra twitching at the bottom of my tank, having lost all color, unable to swim. after euthenizing it, i had no other problems in my tank until last week (i tried posting the problem then, but the server was down). again i came home from work, and one of the tetra was twitching at the bottom of the tank, again having lost all color, and unable to swim. I had noticed about two days earlier this fish was losing its color, but it was behaving normally. My wife says she noticed the fish "swimming like it was drunk, on its side sometimes" while i was at work that day.

What's going on here? I've had the fish for about a year and a half total. Any ideas? How should i treat the tank, if any treatment should be done.

note: water stats are all normal, nitrate/ite, ph, ammonia, etc. i do weekly 20% water changes.
 
Well, i have had the same issue happen with tetras in the past. IME, its just old age/genetic flaws that killed them. Tetras are some of the most inbred/improperly bred fish around. Some do well for 5 + years, and others, die after 6 months of being just fine. I generally dont worry about it and just replace them as they die off. Neons/Glowlights are inexpensive anyway, usually I can get them as low as 99cents each. /shrug

There is also Neon Tetra disease. Not sure if it effects Glowlights or not though. Usually characterized by a humped back and some growth of some kind on the body. Google "neon tetra disease" and it should bring up some pictures for you to view. Take care.
 
Neon tetra disease can hit any tetra. Here's another link to go with ghinksmom's:

http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html#NTD

This doesn't mean that this is what it is. A lot of the time fish die from unknown causes and the only way to find out what they died from is via a pathological exam, if at all. Not something that many can afford or even aspire to have done.

Roan
 
i sure hope it's not neon tetra... i have noticed one of my rams acting "odd", swimming differently than normal occasionally, and the other ram seems to have become very dominant all the suddon, chasing it around and the such.

nothing you can do for NTD that i know of?
 
i'm bumping this because i could really use some advice -- there is something definately wrong the ram i noticed swimming "differently" . instead of swimming parallel to the surface/substrate, he is swimming at an upwords angle of about thirty degrees, and drifts sideways frequently. he has all his color and eats, though.

what should i do here?
 
Any signs of ulcerations? Black marks? Columnaris?

Did the dead tetras exhibit a curved spine?

I've not heard of NTD crossing over to cichlids. Fish that are "tetra-like" yes, but cichlids, I think, are fairly removed from that.

Take the ram out and QT him immediately. Don't leave any fish that even starts exhibiting those types of symptoms in your tank.

Roan
 
redbucket said:
i'm bumping this because i could really use some advice -- there is something definately wrong the ram i noticed swimming "differently" . instead of swimming parallel to the surface/substrate, he is swimming at an upwords angle of about thirty degrees, and drifts sideways frequently. he has all his color and eats, though.

what should i do here?
Click to expand...

I'm by no means an expert. But I would do at least a 40% water change asap. And do them at least every other day for a few days.Take care not to be too rough putting the water in since your ram is under the weather, and try to match the water temp best you can, too. Other than that, I'm not sure since your water parameters are all normal. Not too long ago I picked up some Melafix and Pimafix, I understand that some people will use the combination of these occasionally as a preventative in the tank. IME Melafix is a wonder cure if you have fish with injuries. I keep both on hand but have only used them when needed. You might want to pick some up and treat the tank for 3 days and see what happens. However, the chemical route should be your second choice.
Good luck,
Mary.
 
redbucket said:
about three months ago i came home to one of my glowlight tetra twitching at the bottom of my tank, having lost all color, unable to swim. after euthenizing it, i had no other problems in my tank until last week (i tried posting the problem then, but the server was down). again i came home from work, and one of the tetra was twitching at the bottom of the tank, again having lost all color, and unable to swim. I had noticed about two days earlier this fish was losing its color, but it was behaving normally. My wife says she noticed the fish "swimming like it was drunk, on its side sometimes" while i was at work that day.

What's going on here? I've had the fish for about a year and a half total. Any ideas? How should i treat the tank, if any treatment should be done.

note: water stats are all normal, nitrate/ite, ph, ammonia, etc. i do weekly 20% water changes.
Click to expand...
Redbucket,

Fish keeping is easy if you understand what is meant by the nitrogen cycle and how to maintain that cycle. It really is as simple as that in words. In practice many people haven’t the foggiest idea. You haven’t given me much to go on. So first off get yourself a good test kit that can test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and hardness. Once you have tested your water get back to me with the results. We can go from there.

Stevieg
 
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