Protruding gill, possible fungus

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Kristinann

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Jul 9, 2010
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I bought 6 neon tetras the other day. I don't have a quarantine tank, so they went in the main tank. The tank is fully cycled, but there were not yet any fish in it. I noticed a little bit of torn and frayed fins, but nothing major. I figure that should clear up soon with the imporved conditions over being in the pet store. I'm still not very worried about that part.

However, I have noticed that one of the tetras has a gill doesn't look right. The gill plate sticks out quite a bit from the body, rather than being relatively flush with the body. You can see the red gills. He also has some white-ish mucus, or possibly fungus, towards the tail. His swimming seems just barely off, he isn't quite schooling normally, and the other fish are picking on him a bit. I am sort of thinking flukes, but there are no visible parasites (except maybe that mucus stuff).

What do you think it could be, and what can I do about it? I'm thinking about taking him back to the store, but if he has already contaminated the tank, I might as well keep him and try to cure it. Thoughts?
 
I do have some CopperSafe, which claims to treat Ick, velvet, and external parasites. Might this be a good place to start? Unfortunately I would like to add snails to this tank soon, but I guess it can wait.
 
Upon closer look I think I do see a parasite on him. Do I need to treat with potassium permanganate, or is there something easier to find? Where can I get treatements in the north Phoenix, Arizona area?
 
Prazipro is (as far as I know and I don't know much) extremely safe and extremely effective. I would try to get that. I found it at the LFS. It shouldn't be to hard to find. Just call around. I don't think any of the big chains carry it though.
 
Yeah, the problem for me is that all the good shops, the mom n pop and hobbyist shops, are located way south of me, downtown. I had one near me, but they had a fire :/ Anyways, I went to my Petco today, one where, believe it or not, most of the workers actually know what they are doing. A woman gave me some water out of their marine tanks so that I could try doing salt dips first, before treating the whole tank.

I did see one visible protrusion, so probably flukes like I expected. That was gone after the first salt dip. The fungus/mucus is still on his back end. He is staying at the top in the back two corners, not schooling, getting picked on if he gets to near the otehr fish.

Any clue as to how long I should keep up with these salt dips? Like how many days/weeks before it's all cleared up?
 
I would avoid the coppersafe at all costs if you ever plan on keeping invertibrates such as shrimp or snails as copper is toxic to them and basically can never be completely removed from a tank even if torn down.

If you have a wal-mart nearby they usually care Jungle Parasite Clear which is effective against flukes and several other internal / external parasites as well. May be easier and more effective in the long-run than doing repeated salt dips especially when we don't know if there's an internal component as well.

Just my $0.02
 
Nope, it works for internal parasites also as it contains Praziquantel which is the same medication used in PraziPro which many people rely on for flukes, tapeworms and the like. I'd use the jungle tabs and keep an eye on the white mucus as that could possibly be a separate (secondary) fungal infection because of his weakened state.

Do a water change before medicating as always just to make sure the water's super pristine.
 
I ad camallanus awhile back on another set up. Most of my research said that the medicine had to be ingested to get rid of ntestinal parasites. This isn't true? How long do they have to be exposed to the Jungle stuff to get rid of internal parasites?
 
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