Neon Tetra With Rapid Gill And Mouth Movement

[tanksalot]

Okay. Tank size is 64litres. Ammonia and nitrite both 0ppm, nitrate 10ppm. pH no less than 7.6 (my test only goes up that far). Tank temp is 25C. I do a weekly 25% water change/gravel siphon. Tank inhabitants are 5 Neon tetra, recently transferred from a 27 litre tank, along with the cycled filter.

For the past week and a bit one of my neons has been "panting". She always comes for food and seems to swim normally, but she stopped shoaling with the others for the most part and just stayed near or under the filter. I haven't seen any other odd behaviour such as rubbing against the decor or gasping at the surface. There are no signs of discoloration on her body or fins - her colour looks bright, strong and normal. She is neither getting skinny nor bloated. I haven't seen her poo so I can't describe that I'm afraid. Her gills look slightly pink but not inflamed. Her fins aren't clamped.

I decided to isolate her 6 days ago (back to the 27 litre tank, water stats the same as for the 64 litre) and started to treat with Protozin (thinking it could be a parasite), but I have seen no improvement in the gill/mouth movement. She is fairly lethargic in her hospital tank, but as she is on her own I guess her behaviour wouldn't be quite normal (she spent the first couple of days ceaselessly going up and down the walls, looking for some company perhaps?)

So I don't know what to try next. The others are all still fine (shoaling, eating, no panting) so I don't want to put her back with them in case whatever she has is contagious. On the other hand, it's probably stressing her to be away from the shoal, so I want to resolve this as quickly as possible.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

 

[WILDER]

What test kit are you using.
Do you only have the neons in the tank?

Is her mouth wide open.
Like the fish can't shut it's mouth
Any whiteness to the mouth area.
See if you can see any sores in the mouth, or food stuck in the mouth. Magifying glass should help.

At the moment the symtoms are not pointing to much.
Any excess mucas on the body or gills.

Shouldn't really add meds till you know what you are treating for.

 

[tanksalot]

Thanks for getting back to me I'll answer as best I can:


What test kit are you using. API (Liquid)
Do you only have the neons in the tank? Yes - well, apart from some tiny snails that hitched a ride on my plants!

Is her mouth wide open.
Like the fish can't shut it's mouth No. She can shut her mouth.
Any whiteness to the mouth area. Not that I can see.
See if you can see any sores in the mouth, or food stuck in the mouth. Magifying glass should help. I don't have a magnifying glass but there's nothing visible to the naked eye. I'll try and get a magnifying glass tomorrow.

At the moment the symtoms are not pointing to much.
Any excess mucas on the body or gills. Nope.

Shouldn't really add meds till you know what you are treating for. Oops.

It's really only the panting - and the non-shoaling when she was with the others - that's unusual.

Should I just keep her separate, give her lots of fresh water and wait, then?

 

[WILDER]

Remove the med from the tank with a 30% or 40% water change. Than add some fresh black carbon.

Once you done this get back to the board if the fish is still panting.

 

[kelvinrankin767]

I have a api test kit and the ph goes up to 8.8, Use the high ph scale to measure your ph and use the according bottle, As for your neon are the gills red? One of my glowlights was doing this i done a big water change and it helped and a bigger one the next day and the fish made a full recovery, Could be due to stress or feeling insecure a group of 5 neons could make them distressed i would buy a few more when this problem is sorted.

 

[tanksalot]

Right. So I did a 40% water change yesterday but cant add carbon because I don't have any (well prepared for this, aren't I? ). Have ordered some, which should arrive tomorrow.

In the meantime, I've done another 40% water change today, and, touch wood, she doesn't seem to be panting as badly, so we'll see how it goes. There are still no other signs of ill health.

kelvinrankin767, thanks for replying I'll try and get a high range pH test kit as soon as poss. Good to hear that your Glowlight recovered...gives me hope I do intend to increase my shoal of neons - I was just about to get some more when this problem cropped up . Hopefully I won't have to wait too long.

 

[WILDER]

If anymore problems get back to the board.

 

[tanksalot]

Just a quick update on this.

The neon has improved somewhat, but I wouldn't say she's absolutely normal. However, since no other symptoms have presented themselves, and she's swimming and eating just fine, I decided it wasn't fair to keep her in solitary any longer and have returned her to the main tank to her four former buddies and two new neons. They're shoaling away quite happily...along with the eight ember tetras I fell in love with at the LFS the other day and couldn't resist buying. With any luck, she'll feel safer with all those other fish around!

Thanks again for the help

 

[WILDER]

Thanks for the update.
If any more changes get back to the board.
Good Luck.

 

[jts123]

HI

I am going through the exact same situation right now with one of my five tetras, and just wondered what the outcome was in this particular case?


As I say, the problem is only with ONE of my five neons, and has become noticable over that last 48 hours. It does not seem interested in shoaling with the others and seems to just want to hide away at the back of the tank, where it just hovers mid-water, rapidly fanning its gills and mouth. It also looks like its belly is swollen or bloated, but not as bad as the cases of Dropsy I have seen photos of? I wonder if it was merely pregent, but as it does not seem to feed or have any interest with other fish I fear it might be an illnes that will be terminal or even contagious if left too long.

Water stats appear ok: 0.0 Ammo, 0.0 Nitrite, Nitrates <10.ppm. I do 25% water changes every 7-10 days and all the other fish stocked seem perfectly fine.

Any help or suggestions here?