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One neon tetra in my tank is turning white and it looks like the scales are falling off

Ionanicolep

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I have 6 neon tetras 2 platys and a beta fish in a tank of about 15 gallons. I bout the fish about 1,5 months ago and suddenly I have noticed that one of my tetras is staying a bit away from the others and is turning cloudy white. Does anyone know what the problem could be and what I should do. I really would not like to kill it but I’m afraid my other fish will get sick. Also the water is clear and values are normal.
 

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Hi and welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately that tetra really doesn’t look good. I can’t really see what‘s wrong with it from the photo but when you say ‘scales falling off’, that could be a sign of pine coming, a symptom of a pretty deadly disease called ‘dropsy’. Does it have any other symptoms, eg. swimming weirdly, very bloated, etc.? Not sure whether that’s it or not though, I’m really not a professional.

When you say ‘values are normal’, can you give us the actual readings?

If you have an isolation tank, I would definately put it in there. Even a plastic bucket might work. If not, the risk is it dying and the other fish eating it’s corpse and getting sick too.

Also this thread may get moved to the ‘tropical emergencies section’ by mods, which is generally where this stuff goes. Not a problem, just saying.

Good luck!
PPJ
 
Can you give your ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, water hardness and pH levels? You've got some fish that are incompatible with each other, but can't tell just from the picture whether it's disease or perhaps another issue (someone else may be able to give you an idea!).

How are the other fish behaving?
 
Neon tetra disease. It's a bacterial infection and the fish won't survive the next 24 hours. Euthanise it then clean the tank and add some salt. Hope the rest don't catch it.

If you got the fish recently, it probably came in with it.

------------------

DO THE FOLLOWING NOW
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75-80% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below). If more fish develop it after a few days with salt and water changes, you will need to add antibiotics.

------------------

SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

When you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately that tetra really doesn’t look good. I can’t really see what‘s wrong with it from the photo but when you say ‘scales falling off’, that could be a sign of pine coming, a symptom of a pretty deadly disease called ‘dropsy’. Does it have any other symptoms, eg. swimming weirdly, very bloated, etc.? Not sure whether that’s it or not though, I’m really not a professional.

When you say ‘values are normal’, can you give us the actual readings?

If you have an isolation tank, I would definately put it in there. Even a plastic bucket might work. If not, the risk is it dying and the other fish eating it’s corpse and getting sick too.

Also this thread may get moved to the ‘tropical emergencies section’ by mods, which is generally where this stuff goes. Not a problem, just saying.

Good luck!
PPJ
Sorry I just saw all these reply’s the fish is still alive but I’ve moved it to a separate tank. The water is NH3-0 NO2-0 NO3-0 pH 7.5 . The fish has become more active and I have been looking at the other fish and don’t see any problems. But it does seem like breathing may be difficult so whatever the problem is may have spread to the lungs. Thank you for the help
 
Neon tetra disease. It's a bacterial infection and the fish won't survive the next 24 hours. Euthanise it then clean the tank and add some salt. Hope the rest don't catch it.

If you got the fish recently, it probably came in with it.

------------------

DO THE FOLLOWING NOW
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75-80% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below). If more fish develop it after a few days with salt and water changes, you will need to add antibiotics.

------------------

SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

When you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
Thanks for the information I did read about NTD but the pictures where a bit hard to compare. I will try the salt addition and do an intense cleaning. The fish in question is still alive and I have added it to a quarantine tank so hopefully the rest of the fish don’t get it.
 
Sorry to hear about the neon tetra trouble. Cloudy white and keeping a distance could be a sign of a few things, like a fungal or bacterial infection. It's good that you've checked the water values and they're normal. Maybe consider quarantining the affected tetra if possible to prevent potential spread to others. Keep an eye on any changes and maybe a bit of research.
 
This tetra has gone over the edge. Remove and humanely euthanise is the only thing to do and might save the other ones.
 

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