my new cardinal tetra

[minh]

well i just bought it and wen i put it in the water it kinda didnt move, it still moves the fins and breathes but floats around unside down or anywhere because it doesnt have control.

is it paralysed or will it be able to come back to how it was?

i am thinking it got squashed in the bag because the other 5 or okay.

edit: actually it isnt moving its fins, just breathing. do i have to kill it? because it looks like it is not going to survive without eating and moving anywhere.

 

[Alien Anna]

It may have received a swim bladder injury during netting. Leave it for a while and see if it recovers.

 

[lordmoose]

It may have received a swim bladder injury during netting. Leave it for a while and see if it recovers.

This is a bit of a shot in the dark. Test your water and post the paramaters.

 

[bigfish]

I had the same problem with my neon tetra's, i bought 5 which they were netted out of the tank and put into a bag with some cory catfish which had come out of another tank, by the time i had got home they were all floating dead on the top.

 

[minh]

the nitrite is 0.3

ph 8

gh 23

kh 14

soz i have a crap test kit and therefore cant get any more details.

i put the tetra in a net and its still in the tank but can not move still although its still breathing. the other 5 are still alive btw so i doubt its the water conditions (i am aware tetras are quite sensative).


now what should i do? just let it stay there and starve to death or kill it?

 

[Alien Anna]

the nitrite is 0.3

ph 8

gh 23

kh 14

Ouch! I was assuming your tank was fully cycled. A nitrite of 0.3 ppm is certainly enough to kill a cardinal. I'm surprised they're not all on their backs, actually.

The only thing you can do is very frequent small water changes, until your tank cycles properly. Cardinals are not ideal fish to cycle a tank with however

Your other problem is that pH - cardinals are caught from the wild, in streams with a pH of about 5. They will probably have been acclimatised to pH 6.5 or so in the LFS but that's still a huge hike in pH. I don't think cardinals will do terribly well at a pH of 8. Get some bogwood in there to gradually reduce it (don't, for goodness sake, put pH Down or anything in there - it'll only make things worse).