Neon Tetra... Help Plz

[Cool Ev]

okay, so about a month ago i had 3 neon tetras in a sixty gallon fish tank with some other fish. Well, i didn't know how many neons should be kept together so we went and bought 6 more. so i had 9 neon tetras, and well one of the new ones were not acting right. It would just act weird and kind of had a lump on it. I thought that it might just be deformed or something from birth. Well, as time went on, one at a time, my neon tetras were dying. I googled it and they seemed to have some kind of a diease that wikipedia said was impossible to cure. well, by this time all but 4 had died. I thought that these 4 would live and i was watching very close. Well, in the last two days, all but one has died. Now, i have forgotten what the diease was called but it is on the wikipedia page for neon tetras, but that's not what i want to know. i want to know if my last neon tetra lives, should i get more? when will it be safe to get more neon tetras? the other fish in my tank seem to be doing well, so the it only affected the neons... and i know that neons do well in my tank because i had those three for about 5 months. Just, when will it be okay to add more neon tetras?

 

[Cool Ev]

the disease is called "Neon Tetra Disease" (NTD)... it matches what happened to my little fishies...

By the way... i am sorry if this is the wrong spot for this post... i still can't seem to figure this site's posting stuff out

 

[Kelly-Jo]

Did you cycle the tank before adding the neon tetras? They aren't very hardy fish and if the tank is not properly cycled, they are most likely suffering from ammonia poisoning. What are your water parameters?

 

[Cool Ev]

everything is normal... the only thing that is going on is the neons are dying... even the ones that i have had for months...

 

[Kelly-Jo]

Can you post the actual numbers for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite?

 

[Cool Ev]

that would b a big no... lol... kinda new to the hobby so idk wat all 2 do... what all will i need to check all of this...

 

[Kelly-Jo]

If you go to your fish store and pick up a liquid test kit which tests for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite (API is a good one to get). You can then bring it home and use the kit to test the content of these in your tank water. You should come back with a reading of Ammonia= 0 Nitrite= 0 and Nitrate should have some kind of reading, usually under 20. If any of these are higher, you need to perform large water changes every day and keep testing the water until you get these readings. This will help even if it is not the route cause of the problem, which I suspect it is.

 

[Cool Ev]

i do have a pH tester thingy... it says it is neutral... didnt know i had to check that other stuff...

 

[Kelly-Jo]

If you do that tomorrow and post the numbers you get, that would be really helpful and if they come back fine then you can eliminate that problem. How often are you performing water changes and how much do you remove ?

 

[Cool Ev]

kk... and i remove about about 15 gallons every week (a sixty gallon tank)...

 

[Kelly-Jo]

So you do 25% water changes weekly; that's a good amount.
What else do you have in with the neons? Are there any other visible symptoms such as inflamed gill covers, bloating, loss of colour?

 

[Cool Ev]

i have bronze corydoras and kissing gouramis... they seem to be fine... the last neon tetra seems to be fine too. The neon tetras that have died matched the diease that was on wikipedia... They were restless, they lost coloration, one became lumpy and had trouble swimming, but there was no bloating or fin rot.

 

[Kelly-Jo]

i have bronze corydoras and kissing gouramis... they seem to be fine... the last neon tetra seems to be fine too. The neon tetras that have died matched the diease that was on wikipedia... They were restless, they lost coloration, one became lumpy and had trouble swimming, but there was no bloating or fin rot.

Are you sure it wasn't a combination of overfeeding and/or swim bladder? I think it's going to be difficult to diagnose without viewing the fish swimming, so if you have any videos to upload that would help. I think your first port of call is to get that water tested though and to let us know what you get and we will take it from there. If it's fine we can rule it out and look at what else it would be.

As far as buying more tetras is concerned, I would wait for at least 2 weeks to ensure that you know what's going on and you can be sure that it won't wipe out the new ones.

 

[Cool Ev]

well i make sure that i don't overfeed my fish and net out uneaten food... i don't know what swim bladder is... i am guessing it has something to do with the swim bladder... i also do not have any videos or pics. i didn't even think of that... so ya... i will see about the testing stuff... and i was going to wait a month or two before i got more fish, i was just wanting to know if that was long enough.

 

[ripil]

i really don't think your lfs gave you good advice in getting neon tetras as a beginner to be fair. i've had tetras die on me loads around 12 altogether they find it hard to swim then just die. i used the test kit i got from their and the pH, KH AND GH was all fine. checked with another test kit and still all ok but they kept dying they was only in a tank by themselves. i've given up trying to keep them now as i cant manage it at all. i did 30% water changes every other day. so now i just keep guppies and swordtails. must add i've only ever bought them from one shop