Massive Loss Of Neon Tetras

[balajake]

The ammonia is the only thing to worry about right now but if you stick around you will get the best advise on this forum about every aspect of fish keeping.

 

[Thechad]

thanks guys your last few posts there are making more sense to me , cheers

and thanks for backing up the 7.6 ph at least ive got something close to being right.

off to do the changes , is this all i need to do?

 

[ZoddyZod]

and yeh it wasnt a "pet shop" it was a purpose aquarium shop , just tropical and marine fish

I'm going slightly off-topic here but just want to point out that sadly some fish shops are mainly focused on profit/sales (they are businesses after all). If your store told you that 1.0ppm of ammonia is fine then are are not to be trusted. What they have done is sold you a lot of fish that will probably die in those water conditions with the hope that when they do you will be back to replace them - double the sales!

it's unfortunate, but it can happen.

Also, it will seem that we are jumping on you a bit and that's not our intention. Most of us stumble into the hobby exactly as you have - with very poor advice from a shop. However we hope we can retify this situation for you and help you learn the fundamentals that very few shops will tell you about (cycling is one of those fundamentals)

 

[balajake]

thanks guys your last few posts there are making more sense to me , cheers

and thanks for backing up the 7.6 ph at least ive got something close to being right.

off to do the changes , is this all i need to do?

when you take out the water swish your filter pads in it, you usually only have to do this once every 2 weeks to a month. never rinse them in tap water as it can kill the vital bacteria that lives in your pads. this good bacteria builds up and its what neutralises ammonia and nitites that can be lethal to your fish. it sounds like you don't have any yet because your tank is new. after this water change you need to be very vigilant and test regularly and do water changes if ammonia or nitrites are present. once you get regular readings of 0 for both you can reduce water changes to 30%/40% once a week. you have to keep doing water changes until your bacteria is established and it might take well over a month to get to this point unless you know someone who has some established filter floss they can give you. best bet is to ring your local fish shops and ask them if you can have some cycled filter media/floss so you can put it in your own filter with your own pads.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Not to detract from the good advice given about lowering your ammonia, I disagree that that is the cause of the neon deaths. Rummy Noses are much more sensitive to water conditions than tetras and if the tetras have this 'seperating themself from the school, whitening in colour, lumps , fin rot' and it's caused by high ammonia, you can be sure the Rummies would be dead too. I believe the neons were diseased and that, although the ammonia is high, it has been controlled by the use of Prime - which is why all the other fish are ok. Like I said though, that doesn't mean you don't need to control the ammonia because you definitely do.

And I don't believe anyone thought to ask what the levels were being measured with, if it's strips, well...

 

[ZoddyZod]

And I don't believe anyone thought to ask what the levels were being measured with, if it's strips, well...

I'm not aware that you can buy strips to test ammonia? Normally they are set up to read nitrite, nitrate, pH, KH and GH. Since there is an ammonia reading and no KH or GH - presumption would be liquid tests.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Hach and API are just two who make ammonia test strips. It's by the by really though as my previous comments stand irrespective of the test method.

 

[Shane Ward]

I had something simuler happen to my Neon fish that have been living in my tank for 3 years, they began to separate and die, I think the Local pet shop might have some problem that is spreading through your fish. If you get new neons from another place, chances are whats in the water might effect them. Keep an eye on the remaining neons to make sure they don't swell up, otherwise they will burst and kill everything.

As for the ammonia problem, just get some ammonia removal filter bag to place in your filter (I think Nitra Zorb 105g by API might be one)and that should solve that problem.

Shane

 

[Thechad]

its tested with a API freshwater master test kit,

after the water changes last night my ammmonia is now 0, ph is still 7.6, nitrate and nitrite are both 0 , the fish in the tank are looking better and brighter in colour , so hopefully this was the problem , the neons that i removed and quarantined unfortunetly died over night and they were the last of the ones showing signs of neon disease

so thanks for everyones help

chad

 

[the_lock_man]

its tested with a API freshwater master test kit,

after the water changes last night my ammmonia is now 0, ph is still 7.6, nitrate and nitrite are both 0 , the fish in the tank are looking better and brighter in colour , so hopefully this was the problem , the neons that i removed and quarantined unfortunetly died over night and they were the last of the ones showing signs of neon disease

so thanks for everyones help

chad

If you are showing 0 nitrate, that indicates to me that your filter is not cycled, and reinforces my opinion that the fish were suffering from ammonia poisoning, not NTD. A properly cycled filter should show some nitrates, unless it is very heavily planted. Further, the fact that the remaining fish are looking better also suggests ammonia being the issue. I would strongly suggest you continue to monitor your levels daily.

 

[Thechad]

its tested with a API freshwater master test kit,

after the water changes last night my ammmonia is now 0, ph is still 7.6, nitrate and nitrite are both 0 , the fish in the tank are looking better and brighter in colour , so hopefully this was the problem , the neons that i removed and quarantined unfortunetly died over night and they were the last of the ones showing signs of neon disease

so thanks for everyones help

chad

If you are showing 0 nitrate, that indicates to me that your filter is not cycled, and reinforces my opinion that the fish were suffering from ammonia poisoning, not NTD. A properly cycled filter should show some nitrates, unless it is very heavily planted. Further, the fact that the remaining fish are looking better also suggests ammonia being the issue. I would strongly suggest you continue to monitor your levels daily.

nitrate is 4.0
nitite is 0.0
ph is 7.2
ammonia is 0.0

im still loosing neon tetras , couple a day with cysts and seperating themselves so i beleave it may have been 2 things but , i think the disease is whats still killing them.zoddyzod what do you think?

 

[ZoddyZod]

it's very difficult to tell. They could indeed have been infected with NTD or it may simply have been the ammonia poisoning.

One thing is clear though - you can't do anything about NTD (no medication exists), but you can do something about ammonia levels.