Neon tetra sick

[dave76]

Neon tetra sick hiding in plants at top water breathing hard. All other fish in tank seem fine. No discoloration, no visable cysts. I tried what I call the net test, to see if he would swim away when I tried to net him and he did. After this he went right back to hiding and breathing hard. Should I euthanize him just incase he has neon tetra disease or has anyone had anything like this happen before?

Oh yea

nh3 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 10 ppm
GH 100ppm
kh 80ppm
ph 6.8

Did 30% water change yesterday.

 

[dave76]

never mind he's dead

 

[Cerianthus]

Keep an eye on the rest as one or two may develop similar sysmptoms at a time.

 

[dave76]

Keep an eye on the rest as one or two may develop similar sysmptoms at a time.

He didnt develop any symptoms until today. Normally neon tetra disease is a long drawn out thing isnt it?

 

[Cerianthus]

From what I observed with Cardinals and Rummys/Neons/glolite,Emperors, etc, etc, once I noticed fish separates itself from group and hang on top without any visible paleness on dorsal area, usually couple of days before developing visible symptoms. But once visible paleness is noticed, they usually died w/in matter of hours.

When I see one or few tetras isolates themselved from school/shoal, that's when I would begin treatment on entire batch.

But again, this couldve been entirely diifferent problem in you case. We can only speculate at this point.

Still, keep an eye on the rest.

 

[dave76]

24 hours + since death and no other deaths. I did see my blue ram scratch once, but only once.

 

[Cerianthus]

Glad to hear things are settling down.

 

[dave76]

OK its time for an update, After carefully watching my fish, I did notice both of my rams scratching and after water tests the did not reveal anything too out of the ordinary, so I decided it was time to treat for parasites. I used jungle labs tank buddies parasite clear. I removed as many snails as I could from the tank dissolved the proper dosage and put it in.

When I woke this morning almost all fish were at the top gasping for air. I tested and found that my nitrite levels were elevated to 3ppm! I immediately used prime to detoxify and because I had to go to work I left. My wife told me that all of the fish were acting normally(she wont do waterchanges) and now I am home. The tank tests at
ammonia 1ppm
nitrite 2ppm
nitrate 20ppm
kh120
gh150
ph 6.8
Temp 84

Should I allow this to normalize or should I do a huge waterchange?

Fish are acting normally and do not appear stressed.

 

[mel_20_20]

Wow, Dave, I'd do water changes, maybe another 30% right now... dose the tank with Prime for the full volume of the tank, not just the replacement water.

Later this evening I'd do another 30% and do the same thing with the Prime; dose for the full volume of tank water not just the replacement water. It's really hard to overdose on Prime, in fact you can overdose by about 5 times the normal dose when you have spikes, such as you're having, and this will help, but not hurt the fish.

I'm wondering if you have a dead fish in there that caused this spike. Another thought; when you did your 30% water change the othe day did you do a vigorous vacuum of the substrate, stirring up a lot of gunk, perhaps having a lot of mulm and detritus that had accumulated? This can cause a spike in parameters.

How long has the tank been set up. Since your params as stated in your first post were 0ppm on both ammonia and nitrite, and 10 on nitrate, it sounds as though your tank is fully cycled, so you're having a mini-cycle for some reason.

 

[mel_20_20]

Are you using a liquid test kit for testing your parameters. Strips are very unreliable and most often inaccurate. Thank goodness for Prime. You saved your fishie's bacon during this spike. However, you need to monitor closely the parameters and step up the water changes for a few days to make sure the parameters are pristine.

If there is illness in your tank, pristine water will help the fish's immune system fight this, hopefully.