Help With Green Neons

[fluttermoth]

Hi all; for once it's me asking for help, lol; I'm pretty worried!

Here's the tech stuff out of the way first;

tank; 48"x15"x18" (200l)
filtration; APS 2000l with a mix of old sponges from my internals and ceramic noodles
temp; 80°F/26°C

pH; 6.8
ammonia; 0
nitrite; 0
nitrate; between 10 and 15

water changes; 50% weekly, been running about 2.5 years, fairly well planted.

stock;
12 marbled hatchet fish
42 green neons
2 bristlenoses
1 Sturisoma whiptail
Edit; forgot to mention my ram; 1 ram

Ok, I've been gradually increasing my stock of green neons for the last few months after moving out 7 Emperor tetras. I've been buying half a dozen every month or so; the last six went in three weeks ago.

The day after they went in, I noticed one of them had a sort of pinkish band around its body; more pronounced on one side than the other. It looked like a burn or scar tissue; didn't look fungused and the fish was swimming and eating well. I assumed it was some sort of injury, so didn't worry too much. I've been keeping a close eye on it; it's still eating and swimming fine but hasn't got any better; in fact, I think the pink colouration might have got even more pronounced than it was.

Today I noticed that one of the older tetras has developed a mark of the same colour just behind one gill; if I look at it head on I can see that it's sticking out slightly, like a pimple.

I'm now really worried that there's something infectious going on. I have set up a hospital tank and have spent most of the afternoon trying to catch these two fish; without success, as you can imagine! I've also tried taking photos and that's not happening either; they're too small, too fast and my phone camera is too rubbish.

I have looked up neon tetra disease and I don't think it's that; as I've said, both the affected fish seem happy; there's no clamped fins and the neon stripe on them isn't pale or faded at all.

So; here's my questions (finally )

1; anyone have any idea what might be wrong or seen anything like it before?
2; is there any point me carrying on trying to catch the two affected fish? Surely if it is infectious they'll have been exposed to it now anyway?

Thanks in advance for any help; I'm really worried this is going to end up affecting all my tetras

 

[DarrenEPB]

I have had this problem in the last few days with my silver tip tetras (2 of them) and my neon tetras (1 of them)

I am not sure what the cause is, my tank has been set up for two years, regular water changes, 130ltr community tank that has fish producing fry and live plants, The only thing that has changed in my tank lately is that I have added bog wood which after asking some questions on here about the colouration of my water, the wood making it go slightly yellowish, I found out that the wood could also affect my PH levels in my tank for a while.

Not sure if this could be anything to do with it?

On my fish it seems to be a ring/band around the rear fin or top fin.

They are still eating and staying with all the others.

 

[fluttermoth]

Oh, how odd...hope someone can shed some light on this for us; I'm panicking it's some kind of epidemic now

I'm sure it's not bogwood or pH; my tank has always had bogwood in (in fact I took a piece out of mine last month) and my pH is always between 6.8 and 7.

 

[DarrenEPB]

Yes my PH has always remained steady, my water changes are weekly, my fish have a good diet of blood work, shrimp, top quality flake food, there are no major changes in anything to do with the tank either. Do not understand, the only one thing that keeps niggling away in my mind is that the last time I purchased some new fish, 4 weeks ago, was from somewhere I had not been before, I got 6 rummy noses.

Have you had anything like that, bought fish from somewhere new to you?

 

[Caprichoso]

To me that sounds like Neon Tetra disease or some type of bacterial infection. They might be acting normal for now because you're keeping up on your water changes. Hopefully you can catch them and quarantine them.

 

[fluttermoth]

Well; after some judicious use of food and a couple of nets, I did manage to catch the two affected fish and get them into a hospital tank last night, so I guess that's something at least...

Darren; good thought, but no; I only have one LFS that I can get to as I don't drive, so all my fish have come from there.

I'm going to start treating the hospital tank with an anti-bacterial and see if that has any effect.

 

[roadmaster]

Have never kept tetra's much warmer than 76 degree's F and those I have now seem comfortable at 74 to 75 degree's.
Have also found that lower temps often slow down progression of some bacterial pathogens.
Used to keep Tetra's much warmer and found that they often seemed to just burn out and die after a few weeks,month's, but at lower temps,I have had them live for up to three or four years in some cases.Ditto for cory's.
Hope the two fishes are the only two affected.

 

[fluttermoth]

You could be right; I forgot to mention I've got a ram in this tank as well; that's why I have the temp up so high. Most of the tetras are about 2 years old though; it's only the last dozen and a half that have gone in this year

 

[fluttermoth]

How are your fish now, Darren?

I had a friend come round yesterday and she had a look at them. She reckons she had something very similar in some WCMMs a few years ago and although she never knew exactly what it was, she guessed it was bacterial and treated it with Myxazin and it cleared up, so I'm trying it on my two.

I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[DarrenEPB]

I lost my silver tip tetra

I do not even know why that is what is bugging me, my others appear to be fine.

How are yours getting on now?

 

[fluttermoth]

Mine are on the third day of a course of Myxazin now. I was just coming here to post that I think they might look a bit better today.

All the other tetras in the main tank are still healthy too, so I'm keeping my fingers crosse this is the end of it. Try some Myxazin on yours as well; got to be worth a go.

 

[DarrenEPB]

Thanks for the quick reply, I will do that, I am going to go and get some today. Hopefully that will be the end of it then. Thanks for the advice.

 

[fluttermoth]

Best of luck

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The day after they went in, I noticed one of them had a sort of pinkish band around its body; more pronounced on one side than the other. It looked like a burn or scar tissue; didn't look fungused and the fish was swimming and eating well. I assumed it was some sort of injury, so didn't worry too much. I've been keeping a close eye on it; it's still eating and swimming fine but hasn't got any better; in fact, I think the pink colouration might have got even more pronounced than it was.

Today I noticed that one of the older tetras has developed a mark of the same colour just behind one gill; if I look at it head on I can see that it's sticking out slightly, like a pimple.

Sounds like Columnaris. It has a variety of symptoms, but the band around the body & the pimple like growth near the gear are 2 symptoms of columnaris. See these links for indentification & info on columnaris ;

http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/columnaris_disease.php

http/www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html

http/badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_palace/tropicalfish_disease_identification.html

 

[fluttermoth]

Thanks for the links; I'll have a read through of those.