Neon not looking too well

[Rory the cat]

I've had 5 jumbo neons for about a month now. 4 of them are looking in wonderful health, have grown since I got them, are in very good shape, swimming about happily and have beautiful colours.

One of them seems a little separate from the group. He seems smaller than the others, but fatter (bulgy tummy). His colours seem less bright than the others and aren't clearly defined, almost mixed in and murky. He is eating, but not excessively to cause him to be fat. He's not shoaling with the others and spends a bit of time hiding. He's also looking a bit odd when he swims, a bit jerky and not fluid like the others.

My water quality is good in the community tank - 27c, ph8, amm 0, nitrite small trace & nitrate 10. I had been having water troubles, but no massive spikes. The highest amm & nitrite I have had is 0.3 and 0.5 respectively. The water has been steady now for about a week. All my other fish are looking extremely good indeed, so he really stands out.

He's been like this for about 3 days, seems a lot better a night and worse in the morning. Could he just be slow to wake up?

 

[Lateral Line]

Neons are very susceptible to nitrogen pollution, that is why people are frequently advised not to put them in newly cycled tanks, even very small ammount of Ammonia or nitrite will upset them, perhaps this individual is less tolerant then the others.

Deeper rounder body form usually indicates a female. If the "bulge" is fairly symetric and not gross, then I wouldn't worry about that. If it is one sided or lumpy, then there is probably something wrong inside, difficult to say without seeing it.

Not schooling/shoaling, is not usually a sign of trouble - fish school for protection, if they are not afraid, they do their own thing.

Another point is that "jumbo" neons are simply older regular neons, they are not a different fish - could just be that it is older then the others.

 

[Rory the cat]

Could she be pregnant?

 

[Lateral Line]

Neons are egg layers. Most female egglayers carry eggs. Under good conditions, they'll scatter a few at a time, they get eaten. Neons require very special water conditions and treatment to breed successfully in captivity.

 

[Dakota Ice]

Sounds alot like Neon tetra disease to me. Maybe you should look it up?

http/www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-...G=Google+Search

The murky colors and seperation are symptoms of NTD. And the fact that it's a neon, which are more likely to get this disease, also makes me raise my eyebrow.

I may be wrong, though!

Dakota