Bent Neons........

[Ava_Banana]

Not sure whether this should be in Emergencies or not..........

.........so I throw myself at your wisdom.........

I have 10 neons in our tank.........at least three of which are female.

........two of the "female" ones are looking very large in the belly (yes, I know they are not livebearers ) and their spine looks just a little bent.........

I know this may sound like Neon Tetra disease...................but am unsure.

The fish are fed mainly flake (with the odd treat every couple/few weeks). They are still a very vivid colour and still shoal with the rest.

(excuse the Molly fry.........he just happened to be shoaling too... )

Photo shows a couple of straight "males" and a couple of porky "females"..........

Does anyone have any thoughts as to whether this may be Neon Tetra Disease?

 

[David]

Is it spawning season? If not how can you be sure if you have males or females? neons are nearly impossible to sex. If they are bent then yes it does sound like neon tetra disease.

EDIT: PS they are supposed to be notoriously hard to breed and maybe those 3 are just fat? Could be constipation or intestinal complications...

 

[Ava_Banana]

Errrr......

thanks for the reply........I had read that it was fairly easy to sex neons......

I understood that the straight line down the back was a male, and the slightly rounded body-shape with the slightly curved line was a female.

...but I am just a noob to all this......so can only go by what I read/see posted.....


I too am concerned that it is NTD............but have no other symptoms to go on other than a rounded belly and a bit of spinal curve (I also worried about TB)......

All water indications are "normal" and everything else in the tank is thriving...............

 

[Lateral Line]

A bit of spinal curvature is not really the thing with NTD. Frequently, a distended abdomen will pull the spine over a little. If your fish are eating well, and expelling normal looking waste regulaly, I'd probably not worry about it.

NTD the growths in the internal tissues really distort the spine, looks like the fish are folded up, even "crinkled". You can often see a pale discolouration at the site of the fold, (the cyst of the parasite), before the deformation really gets too bad. If your fish show pale patches where the curvature is, then it could be an early sign of developing cysts.

That said, NTD is not very common, although with todays mass production and poor hygiene standards in the fish farms, I see it more often then say 20 years ago.

TB is a remote possibility with Neons. If you had said a gourami, well, that's a different story.

 

[Ava_Banana]

........Ta.......

I'll just keep an eye on them.......aside from the slight bend......they appear fine.........I will just keep an eye on the levels and my fingers crossed.

 

[nino]

my dads neons were very similiar, as in some were fine and a couple were bent like yours. they lived to be several years old, despite their crookedness, so i think you should be ok. and when i was at the tokyo airport, they had a large aquarium and in their school of neons they had the most deformed fish you'll ever see and they were swimming about like nothing was wrong at all.

just look into the symptons for NTD, just incase.

 

[Ava_Banana]

Thanks nino...........

.......they are still doing their thing as if nothing is wrong..........so I will just put it down to experience.........


(or some strain of Banana-neon...........evolution is a wonderful thing..... )