Possibly sick ember tetra

I have what I think is a female ember tetra with some strange black spots in her body.

Tank size: 10 G
pH: 6.11 (pH meter)
ammonia: 0 ppm
nitrite: 0 ppm
nitrate: 10 ppm
kH: 2
gH: 3
tank temp: 78.9

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): female (as far as I understand) ember tetra with black spots in what I think are the ovaries and a black line above the swim bladder with a point going downwards from it. I think she might be egg bound? I have had three ember fry from this tank on different occasions, even if it is a community tank. But that would not explain the black line above the swim bladder. She seems to be swimming around like normal and not suffering at all, so it might not be anything?

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 50% once a week

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Seachem Prime and Flourish

Tank inhabitants: 6 ember tetra and 5 corydoras habrosus

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): none

Exposure to chemicals: None

Digital photo (include if possible):


Sorry for the bad photo quality, it was very difficult to get a good picture, I had to take a picture of the entire tank and then remove the rest.

Do daily 75% water change substrate clean, dont use any med if you dont know the disease.

Thank you, I will do that!

Take some more pictures and use a flash on the camera. Have the room and tank light son too. Then check the pictures on your computer and find a couple that are in focus and clearly show the problem. Post those good pictures here so we know what you are talking about.

Hi, thanks for the tips Colin. I think this picture is better.

The black spots are inside the body, there are no wounds and it seems the skin over the black spots is as normal, it's in the body.She's still swimming around as normal.

I'm going with a parasitic worm or fly larvae that got lost in the body.

Praziquantel is normally used to treat tapeworm and gill flukes and would be the first thing to try. Levamisole treats thread/ round worms and can be tried if the Praziquantel doesn't help. If you can't find these medications, look for Flubendazole, which treats both lots of worms.

Remove carbon from filters before treatment and increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

You treat the fish once a week for 4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second, third and forth treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time.

You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Clean the filter 24 hours after treatment too.

Do not use the 2 medications together. If you want to treat both medications in a short space of time, use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

The water changes will remove most of the medication so you don't overdose the fish the next time you treat them. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. Repeating the treatment for 3-4 doses at weekly intervals will kill any worms that hatch from eggs. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish.

I also have a shoal of ember tetras, at one time I had 10 but lost a few. Always hoped to have ember fry but no luck. I have them in a 55 gallon tetra only tank with Red eye, neon and glow light tetras. @Colin_T is pretty good at telling what is wrong with a fish. Good luck and I hope your fish gets better.

Colin: Thank you so much! One question, I have sand substrate, no gravel, for the corydoras habrosus. Do I stir it up with my hand and then take out the water right above it when it's settled or will that still leave worms and eggs in the sand?

Use a gravel cleaner to suck the gunk out of the top inch of sand. The following link has a basic model gravel cleaner, which is all you require.

If the sand gets sucked up with some water, kink the hose a bit to let the water drain but the sand sink back into the tank.

Thank you, I have one with a short hose so I'll get one with a long one, and thanks for the tip about kinking the hose a bit!

You can buy hose from a hardware store. Just take the top of the gravel cleaner in and find some hose that fits on it. Then buy a couple of meters of it.

The LFS sold me some API general cure, because it was the only thing they had that had Praziquantel in it, and the other ones didn't sound familiar to them. I dosed the aquarium (and other tanks in the house) as on the package and it is 48 hours later, so I'm planning to do the 75% water change, but the sick ember hasn't gotten any better, if anything the black spots have spread a little more. General cure is Metronidazole and Praziquentel, do I do the 75% water change today and tomorrow and then do I see if I can find Levamisole somewhere else and use it on day 4?

You only need to dose once a week with Praziquantel. The repeat treatments after 48 hours is for the Metronidazle which is useless for what you are trying to treat.

Do a water change and gravel clean after 48 hours.

If you can find Levamisole then you can try that too. However, if this is a parasitic fly larvae or another sort of insect larvae, the deworming medication might not work.

If the fish does not get better, you could take it to a fish vet and have them kill and necropsy (animal autopsy) it and find out what the black thing is, but that can cost a bit. You might be able to contact your Government's Department of Agriculture and see if they have a Fish health section. If they do, you might be able to get the fish necropsied for free. Having the fish necropsied is more out of curiosity to see what the black thing actually is.

Thank you, I will see if I can find Levamisole, and try that, the fish is still swimming around as normal, apparently not suffering much (yet).