Tetras are not doing well, please help...

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lanoit

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Oct 14, 2004
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Yesterday I changed out about 5 gallons of a 50 gallon freshwater tank. I've done this many times before. This tank is fully cycled and the fish have never responded poorly to a water change.

Then last night the neon tetras really started acting bizzare. One was swimming at the top of the tank at a 45 degree angle and the other was just sort of bouncing along the bottom. When I tried to feed them, when they normally zip all over, they just sat there. I checked the water, ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites were all very low. I put some dechlorinator in the water and some of that artificial slime stuff, but this morning they're still acting pretty bad.

pH and temperature are normal.

I need help... My wife loves the tetras. Suggestions to anything that could be wrong with them, or something I could do? I have an algae eater in the tank as well, and he's acting completely normal.

Help!!!
 
You only changed 5 gallons of water? you should be changing 15 or 20 gallons once a week. What was the 'slime stuff' you added? declorinator that includes a stresscoat is enough. A capful or so to 10 gallons of change water. sounds like toxic shock, I'd do a big water change. Goodluck.
 
The slime stuff is the dechlorinator with the stress coat. It's just synthetic slime, that's all.

If it were toxic shock why wouldn't any of toxins in the water show up in the water test? I don't think it's toxic shock. I think it's stress. I just don't know why they freaked out this time.

And as for changing out 5 gallons, I do this every few days. It all works out in the wash. The fish have never had a problem in the past.
 
I'd still do a big water change, sounds toxic to me. And it might be a toxin other than ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. Or maybe your test kit is faulty.
Have you added a new plant or decoration? Or used a cleaner near the tank?

Big water change can't hurt. 5 gallons at a time is like spitting into the ocean, I'd think. But what do I know?
 
lanoit said:
Yesterday I changed out about 5 gallons of a 50 gallon freshwater tank. I've done this many times before.
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Swimfins has a point about water change volume, IMO. When you do a water change, I'd suggest at least 25%. 10% water changes don't really do much. Even if you do them frequently, you're not really effectively removing much, especially when you consider that the toxins are being constantly produced - here are a couple comparisions:
2 back to back 10% changes in a tank with 40ppm NO3: The first change would reduce the NO3 to 36ppm, the second would reduce the levels to only 32.4ppm. It would take 13 back to back 10% changes to reduce NO3 levels to ~10ppm.
If you did two 25% water changes back to back, you'd go from 40ppm to 30ppm with the first, and then down to 22.5ppm after the second. 5 water changes at this volume will bring the NO3 down to ~10ppm.
50% changes back to back would reduce the NO3 by half to 20ppm and then again by half to 10ppm - at this volume, it only takes two water changes to get to 10ppm.
That's why many of us suggest larger water changes - it simply gets more toxins out with less work.

I checked the water, ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites were all very low.
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Ideally, you're looking for zero NH3, zero NO2 and low (below 20ppm) NO3. If you're getting 'low' readings of ammonia and nitrite but not 0, something's gone awry in the tank and this could be what's stressing the fish.

There are many things that could have frightened or poisoned the fish, it's so hard to tell. Normally I'd suggest a large water change, but I hesitate to say that here since it seems like that's what triggered the problem.

Can you take a sample of the water to your LFS for testing? That will confirm if your kits are accurate, and they may have kits for copper, lead, or other toxins. You could also call your water company and ask if they've changed anything - sometimes they add chloramines/chlorine in higher concentrations or something else about the composition of the water changes.

Beyond that, I'm stumped. I hope they're okay, I'm not sure what else to suggest.
 
What were the reading, the numbers, for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate? Saying "low" or "fine" are judgements, not data. Numbers are data.

Does your water supply have chlorine, chloramine, or nothing as the disinfectant? And, what is the conditioner you used to neutralize the disinfentant if present?

Nitrogen tests are certainly not comprehensive for introduced toxins. They tell us nothing about perfumes, insecticides, soaps or detergents, chlorine, chloramine, paint fumes, or hundreds to thousands of other things which have been known to poison tanks.
 
Keep it simple. water change water change water change. Check amonia, nitrites and nitrates. Keep within a safe level as determined by info on your test kit.

Blinky and RTR are super techs. I'm an aqua dummy. I like it simple.

30% water change once a week.

0 amonia, 0 nitrites, and low nitrates, is all I need to know. Add declorinator with a stress coat to all change water as per direction. Use a mag cleaner inside the glass, don't use any chemical compounds to clean the glass, no windex outside either. Just plain wet towelling. Use regular tap water to clean your mag cleaner, you can rinse it in water and dechlorinator.

You can use a weak javel solution once in awhile to clean the decorations, but soak it in water and declorinator after.

(When you cycle a tank with amonia, make sure it never comes into contact with chlorine bleach, which would give off a dangerous poisionous gas which could kill YOU, never mind your fishies.)

That's all she wrote. :)

That's all she wrote.
 
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I hope there is not something wrong with your water supply. I got into trouble like this recently and lost about 7 neons. Did a 30% water change and the next day the guys were looking stressed like ammonia was high so did another change. Eventually checked and nitrite was way high, so did another 30% change and it got WORSE... checked the tap and the nitrites were through the roof... Fish started dying and I had to find a clean water supply and did a 90% change to save the rest of the tetra... That's just from not checking the water suppply before a change... Seems I have to do that every time (the supply is okay again now after some changes to the system - we are on a farm and have to supply our own water). Note that while the tetra were badly effected, I had other fish in the tank who seemed oblivious to the nitrite in the water and behaved normally.

Might not be the water in your case, and seems not to be nitrite (unless the test is wong) but something to watch... I'd be looking to get some clean safe water from somewhere else if you can until you can figure it out - and do some major water changes for a few days... Of course finding 20 gallons of water for the change isn't easy if you can't just get it out of the tap - I know.

I'm a bit panicky about water these days :)
 
I'm a newb but, did you treat the water before you put it in the tank you after? that might have something to do with it. just trying to help. and my water treatment AquaPlus label writes that, at least 2 capfulls are required to desolve the chlorine in 10 gallons of water.
 
An update... The tetras are doing much better. I was concerned on Sunday when I woke up and saw that one of them was floating straight up and down but after I turned on the light he perked right up. Today they're both acting fine, they're schooling together again which is an improvement.

However, my concern is, since it seems to be a stress problem - they're not eating. They let the food just drop down in front of them. After a stress problem, how long does it take for fish to get back to their old selves?
 
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