Neon tetra please help

syntax357

AC Members
Feb 18, 2006
35
0
0
just noticed that one side of my neon has a large grey area and one of his gills is really red. He kinda is swimming really slow and not letting any other fish around him tank has been setup for about 5 weeks and my cycle thing is over I just got the tetras last friday they all seemed ok untill today I dont think its ick but them again I have never really seen any pictures.
 
No that sounds more like neon disease
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/hdntd.htm

Sorry I had found a much better site that had ALL diseases and pics all on one page (background was black if anyone knows the one im talking about) but this will give you an idea at least…

Best bet is to remove it immediately, and place it in a warm salty (5tbs per gal) tank. If your lucky the fish will get over it, if not then burn it (don’t just flush, not all sewage is treated) and bleach the hospital tank before using it again… (PS introduce the sick one into the hospital slowly etc…) and NO it doesn’t really matter if you use table salt or not, the Iodine in table salt is at such small PPMs that there will be no ill effects…

As for the main tank, get that water as clean as you can, do a water change, if you have a diatom filter run it…. And please for the love of god don’t put antibiotics in your tank, it’s totally irresponsible and shame on all of you who do….
 
how much water should I change in the main tank. I have removed the fish but from the description it wasnt his red stripe the place on his body covered more of the blue if that makes any difference. Also I have some live plants in the tank is salt still ok to ues??
 
Thanks Roan!!! That’s the one! Bookmarking it now :) Well id be a bit hesitant to salt the main tank, your call if you want to or not Iv been doing a lot of reading on salt as of late, but it DOES have SOME effect on SOME parasites; but at the same time plants etc… may not like it too much; salt the hospital tank for sure main tank maybe…


There is a bit of a debate over salt as medicine, personally in your situation id be a bit split about doing the main tank; then again I do have a diatom…
IF you do it slowly chances are you wont kill anything, just after a few days do another water change in the main tank and DON’T re salt it, so over a few days bring the salt up, leave it for a day or so, then over a few days bring the salt back down, just be sure to do it gradually… PS some fish wont like it.

PPS a UV sterilizer would also do the trick and be a lot safer on the fish; just be sure to get a REAL sterilizer, a lot of the ones out there don’t kill everything they just take out algae… a good way to go would be to get a BIG pond sterilizer, something rated for a few thousand gals an hr… on a small tank it would nuke everything on the first pass… Iv heard FANTASTIC things about UV…

Anyone have experience with O3? (Ozone)?

Was it an LFS where you picked the fish up at, or one of those “world of Pet” type of places…
(BTW are there any forum rules here concerning the mentioning of names?)



PPPS
If you didnt see this allready:

NOT species specific to the neon tetra. May also infect other small tetras and fish such as danios. Highly contagious, usually considered incurable (some claims made, no proven studies confirm them), and inevitably fatal. Quarantine suspect animals immediately.
 
AquariaCentral.com