Why is my Rummy Nose Tetra's head white?

Hi all,

I have a freshwater tank with 6 rummy nose tetras and a betta. I noticed today that one of my tetras has a white head. He isn't acting funny, but I'm worried that this may be a disease or infection and I don't want it to spread to the other fish.

Water has no ammonia, nitrates, or nitrites. pH is around 7.0 as usual, and the temperature is around 80F.

It's hard to see in the photos, but the white definitely looks to be internal, not external.

How long have you had the fish for?
Have you added anything to the tank in the last 2 weeks?

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It's either a parasitic worm that got lost in the body, or the start of a microsporidian infection.

Normally the worms take time to grow that big and a microsporidian infection starts further along the back and has a different colour (more cream than white).

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I would try salt first and if there's no improvement after 2 weeks with salt, then try treating them with flubendazole (deworming product). You can't always treat the worms and fish can live with them for years and have no problems. If it's a microsporidian infection, it will spread quickly (over a few weeks) and the other fish can catch it. Salt is used to treat microsporidian infections, which is why you should use that first. Just in case.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

Colin_T said:

How long have you had the fish for?
Have you added anything to the tank in the last 2 weeks?

Click to expand...

I've had the fish for around 6 months. The only changes that have been made in the past two weeks would be a water change, and I changed out one of the floss pads in the canister filter.

Thank you for the advice! Do you know if Seachem's ParaGuard would be effective for microsporidian infections? I have a bottle of that handy, but I would need a few days to pick up aquarium salt.

Also, would you recommend quarantining the affected tetra?

Salt is the only treatment for microsporidian infections.

I had the same experience: at the store, 1 out of 3 had red noses, 1 white and the last was in the middle.
But, as soon as i put the bag in my tank (to do the temperature transition), with all the colors surrounding them, they all got back their true colors!
So, unless there is a definite illness, i'm not sure it is stress that is responsible for that phenomenon. My small experience leads me to believe that there is, perhaps, a bit of camouflage going on. At the store, in bland tanks, they tend to loss their colors but, almost instantly, when placed in a tank with more natural surroundings, they went back to full colors.
Anyway, just my 2 bits

meodix said:

I had the same experience: at the store, 1 out of 3 had red noses, 1 white and the last was in the middle.
But, as soon as i put the bag in my tank (to do the temperature transition), with all the colors surrounding them, they all got back their true colors!
So, unless there is a definite illness, i'm not sure it is stress that is responsible for that phenomenon. My small experience leads me to believe that there is, perhaps, a bit of camouflage going on. At the store, in bland tanks, they tend to loss their colors but, almost instantly, when placed in a tank with more natural surroundings, they went back to full colors.
Anyway, just my 2 bits

Click to expand...

Same experience with mine...at the LFS, they barely have any red coloring at all...but in my tanks, they color up nicely, and quickly...shipped RCS the same way, drab coloring until they are comfortably in a proper, healthy tank