Orange Glofish Danio With Crooked Tail?

[cowgirluntamed]

Hi, I'm wondering if my orange danio could have neon tetra disease or fish tb? I've tried looking it up but I'm not sure he actually has it. Here are the basics of my aquarium first...
 
20 gallon with 8 glofish danios. No live plants. Marineland biowheel filter where I am using a marineland filter pad that I cut to size as well as marineland Carbon/Ammonia dual stuff(sorry, I forget the true name). I also have a heater in there that keeps the temperature right around 75 degrees(not an adjustable heater). I have a 20 gallon airpump with an airstone that I have on just under half high because it was causing too many bubbles to form on the top.
 
I have well water which has a tiny bit of ammonia in it(which is why I'm using the ammonia neutralizer). My pH in my water is also a little high, at 8.2 but it is staying level. At first I was feeding a food that the fish were not eating well(cheap flake food from Walmart). It started off a problem of cloudy water. I had taken everything out of the tank and vaccumed the gravel and got all of that cleaned up. I did end up losing a danio(started with 9), due to this but not sure if it starved to death because it didn't like the food or whether it was just due to the cycling of the tank and the problem with the cloud. I did about a 20% water change from vaccuming the gravel out at this point). This was all about 2-3 weeks into having the tank.
 
Anyway, the cloud has now gone and I've only just been monitoring the tank, and adding water as needed from evaporation. I didn't want to stress the fish too much with the levels changing constantly.
 
I have been testing with the API master test kit. Feb 28th my levels were at pH-8.2,   Ammonia - 0.25ppm(but I know it could be ammonium as well now with the neutralizer in there so I'm not particularly worried about this),   Nitrite- 5.0 or higher (was way up from 2ppm on Feb 13th), Nitrate- between 0-5ppm.
 
I tested 3 of these again today.   Ammonia- 0.25ppm,   Nitrite(I did two tests of this to make sure it was correct)- 0.0ppm, and Nitrate-20-40ppm(the color was between these).
 
 
So I think my tank might have just finally finished cycling, though I'm not sure if the Nitrite level dropping so fast is normal? Anyway, one of my orange danios seems to be staying at the top of the tank in mostly one spot. It did seem to come out and eat and I did see it poop(which seemed a brownish color). It also has a crooked tail that I noticed and seems to swim a bit jerkily with the top and bottom fins tucked in(though I see all of the fish do this at one point or other at times as well, but he seems to be doing it all the time). And he is just staying in one spot. The other fish are not picking at him at all. I don't see any sores or bumps on him and he looks as fat as the rest of the fish(which are pretty fat!). Could this still be fish tb or neon tetra disease? Oh, and he also seems to have a shorter nose than the rest of them, so maybe it's just a birth defect that I didn't notice before? Hard to see details when they swim so fast. Could it be that the nitrite level dropping so fast has maybe stressed him out to this some? All the others seem to swim fine though occassionally they like to chase each other and do little weird circling things around each other(I'm not sure if this is a breeding thing? i don't know how to tell male from female either).
 
Sorry for the long winded post, just trying to tell all here. I did switch food after I noticed them not eating the other and they are eating these flakes just fine. And that's all I'm feeding is flake food. Any information on what this could be and what I should do I'd be grateful! And here are a few pictures of the fish, sorry for the darkness, he didn't like the flashlight I tried to put on him. Oh, and he's staying around where the water from the filter is coming out as well. Thanks!!
   Kris
 



 
Sorry, I'm not really sure you can see the kink in his tail in these pictures but you can sort of see his nose isn't pointy.

 

[attibones]

These guys are genetically modified fish. Most of these fish are not victims of the actual gene modification process, but inherent the genes from previous generations. However, they do come with an extra set of health problems which is why most people in the hobby do not approve of the sales of this fish. For example, these fish are prone to weaker immune systems. They are more susceptible to damage from ammonia or nitrite readings. Their lifespans are frequently much shorter than their natural counterparts. They also frequently exhibit physical abnormalities. While I was in my less reputable fish store, I saw a tank full of these danios. There were perhaps twenty of them and fifteen had deformities. One fish had a tail that could not move from the left side. Another had a severely hunched back. Another had a tail that curved upwards in the bones.

I'm thinking that perhaps your fish just has a deformity (though I can't see it in great detail). The fins are clamped due to stress, probably a side effect of the cycling process.

If you can, try switching to Prime water conditioner as that might be beneficial for your ammonia woes in addition to the media in your filter.

Another note: these guys are recommended for tanks four feet or longer because of their activity levels.

 

[Ninjouzata]

I know ammonia can test as 0 if it's way off the chart, not sure if the same applies to nitrite.
 
You should be changing your water not topping it up.
 
Think Atti got the rest.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Thanks for the info. Now I have a new update. It doesn't seem to be at the top of the tank now, but more in the middle. And I noticed a red spot(possibly more than one, hard to tell because I was scaring it when I was trying to look at it closer). I think it might be another fish picking on him since he's kinda not moving around much in the tank. I saw one of the others messing with him just a bit but seems ok now. My camera battery is dead and I couldn't get a good one with my phone camera so I'm charging the battery and will try to post a picture of it soon. Thanks again for the info! I may also take a sample in to petsmart even though they use strips and have them test the water to see what's up.
   Kris

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Ok, here are some more pictures of my fish. He just keeps staying in the middle and kind of sinking a bit into the plant and then raising back up. My red danio seems to be the one picking on him, he swims away from the other fish except the red one. He did eat this morning very well but almost seems to have a bit of trouble staying afloat now? Not sure really because he goes up and then slowly goes back down. He never has completely been on the bottom or anything. Thanks again.
   Kris
 

 

[attibones]

I see the deformity better now. If he wasn't born with it, he'd have to have been injured pretty badly which probably would have killed him.

Can you tell if the red spot is a raised bump or a chunk missing? Or if it is flat? Are scales missing from that area?

Sounds like something with the swim bladder. Get your water tested with liquid tests again.

You're using well water, right? Is your tap water connected to the well, too? If not, check the ammonia on that and see if it is free of ammonia. If it is, do a water change with that water. I once lived in a house where half of the pipes were connected to city and the other half to well. It was really dumb and was a huge hassle every time we had water issues.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Yeah, I'm using well water and it's definately from the well. So I tested the tap and also tested the aquarium water again and here are the results.
 
Tap Water
Ph-7.4-7.6??(wasn't sure because the color was a bit lighter than the high ph test but darker than the low ph...but the last time I tested it was 8.2)
Ammonia- 0.25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate- 5
 
Aquarium results
Ph- 8.2(which has remained completely steady)
Ammonia - 0.25 (could also be ammonium since I have the ammonia neutralizer/carbon blend from marineland)
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40 (this climbed just a bit from the last test that was between 20-40)
 
 
I almost want to say the red spot could be a chunk missing but I'm not for sure. It almost seemed a bit smaller today but I also noticed it had a tiny bit of red streaks on the other side of it(in same area) that might have crossed the back? I know when I had completely cleaned the tank(took everything out and used gravel vaccum and did 25% water change) that one of the fish got stuck behind the filter intake and I didn't realize it. I believe it was an orange one but the red spot is new. Maybe this is what happened to the tail? That was a while ago though and it was only stunned for a minute before it started moving around again. And then it was perfectly fine(until maybe now if it's the same one?) I do notice that when it's just sitting there, the tail is lower than the head by quite a bit(more so than the other fish when they "rest"). It did eat again this morning, quite a few big chunks of flakes but it might be getting a little skinnier possibly from stress? It's still also clamping its fins, even when it is eating.

 

[attibones]

So fairly stable results.

The streaks of red sound like septicemia which is frequently fatal. I've seen a few images on the google which look similar to what you are describing and seem to match the wound on this fish. I'll link you some info on septicemia. Maybe someone else can confirm or think of something else.

http/www.fish-disease.net/diseases/septicemia.php
http/www.angelfire.com/blues/fish_problems/HEMORHAGICSEPTICEMIA.html

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Thanks for the info attibones. Unfortunately I'm going to put him down today because he looks worse. More reddening right by the base of the tail fin and he might have even lost part of his fin. He's also staying at the very top again like he can't float down well and he didn't eat this morning. So I think it's best if I just go ahead and put him out of his misery. I'll also do a partial water change while vaccuming some of the gravel and put in some new filter media(after letting the new one soak first though I do have a biowheel). Do I need to possibly treat the other fish for this or just keep an eye on them? The rest seem perfectly normal to me.
   Kris

 

[attibones]

When you put in your new media, you aren't throwing out any old media, are you?

I would just keep an eye on the other fish. Maybe you should look into other water sources to see if you can't get the ammonia issue handled.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Yeah, I throw it away. It's just a cut to size filter pad and the carbon/ammonia nuetralizing blend that has to be thrown out and replaced. But I have a penquin biowheel filter so the bacteria and stuff should be on the wheel in the filter. That doesn't get anything done with it, just leave it alone. As for the other water source, I dunno, that's why I got the ammonia neutralizing blend with the carbon so it'd still be safe for the fish.
   Kris

 

[attibones]

Those filter pads actually hold a lot of your bacteria, so I would keep them. You don't have to replace the carbon unless you are trying to remove medication.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Well it's a blend of the carbon and ammonia neutralizing stuff. Since my well water has a tiny bit of ammonia, shouldn't I change it out every so often?