Sick Neon -- Possible Outbreak?

[andycore]

Hey all, thought I'd post this in emergencies on the off chance it's something serious that I have to take action against ASAP.

Yesterday, I discovered that one of my two young bristlenose catfishes had died. I'm not sure how long he had been dead, however I'd noticed that he'd been picked at a little bit by the other fish (I'm thinking my SAE's are to blame) -- so I immediately took out his body and disposed of it, then did a 1/3 water change just to make sure, however in my haste neglected a water chemistry test prior to the change.
I tested as follows: Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0 Temperature 27C pH 7.6

I immediately added some pH DOWN to my tank however haven't run a pH test today as of yet -- my log for pH ranges between 6.5 to 7 at max so I was pretty surprised to see such a high number, however my previous substrate contributed to a low pH on it's own which has since been removed, I'll be sure to keep a closer eye on it from now on.

However, I digress. I noticed after the change that one of my Neon Tetras had a large-ish white area where the blue stripe meets the red towards his tail, and also a large white area on his tail fin just behind where the colouring stops. A lot of research yesterday and last night and I narrowed it down to the two possibilities of Neon Tetra Disease or False Neon Tetra Disease, as would be the case. Unfortunately not having a quarantine tank in which to put the little guy to test out medicating, I opted for euthanizing the poor little guy rather than letting him continue to suffer in the tank -- he was being rejected from the school and was very listless, hanging around underneath my filter towards the bottom of the tank most of the day.
I snapped a photo of the fish after he was put down to illustrate his sickness --attached here. Though I will warn you that that is a photograph of a deceased fish, maybe I just feel sad about it because I grow very attached to all my animals... Heh.

But anyway, I'm posting in the hopes that someone can tell me what the steps are from here?
This particular neon was always excluded from the group even a few days after I brought the six of them home. Maybe that contributed to him falling ill, or perhaps he was always sick? None of my other tetras are exhibiting symptoms, is there a chance that I caught the disease before it had a chance to propagate to them, or to become water-borne? If there is a chance it is in the water, how likely is it to be false neon tetra disease, and what are the effects of the medications for that? It is my understanding that fNTD is not limited to Tetras.

My tank is currently populated by the five remaining Neon Tetras, two Siamese Algae Eaters, and one very young Bristlenose Catfish (a friend's fish had babies and she graciously gave me two). Besides the Neons, are the other fish in my tank susceptible to actual NTD? If it is a real emergency, what are the chances of transporting bacteria with the fish or filter if I move them to another tank?

Apologies for the long post, I just wanted to get across as much information as possible. Thanks!

 

[afremont]

That looks like it is piled up on top of the skin, not under the surface so I don't think that is NTD. Looks like a fungus, could be that or columnaris. Don't just examine the other neons, watch all the fish carefully. Is it spreading?

 

[creeker]

Looks like a bacterial secondary infection to me. Maybe picked on by the others, then that opened up the chance for infection. I would watch and wait at this point. Maybe bring the temperature up a little. I'm not a big fan of treatment, unless you definitely see others with symptoms.

 

[andycore]

That looks like it is piled up on top of the skin, not under the surface so I don't think that is NTD. Looks like a fungus, could be that or columnaris. Don't just examine the other neons, watch all the fish carefully. Is it spreading?

So far I have not seen any sign of this with my other fish. I'll continue to keep an eye on them. (Rather easy as they all assemble for feeding every time I approach the tank!)

Looks like a bacterial secondary infection to me. Maybe picked on by the others, then that opened up the chance for infection. I would watch and wait at this point. Maybe bring the temperature up a little. I'm not a big fan of treatment, unless you definitely see others with symptoms.

This particular neon I believe to be the one that was always rejected from the group. He was picked on by the other neons, that's certain, especially at feeding time and the likes. For the past week he had been hiding on his own behind an ornament under the heater in a back corner of the tank, now that he's gone the remaining 5 are schooling together. I've increased the ambient temperature to 28-29 degrees C since I took the affected fish out, though even with my heater set to 25-26 frequently the water temperatures would be this high because of the room temp. I don't really want to dump chemicals into my tank unless it's absolutely necessary. Hell, I had qualms about using lemon juice in my marine setup to kill aipstasia!

 

[andycore]

Just call me the resurrector of dead threads.
Really sorry to bump such an old topic, but it's easier to continue this thread than explain it all again!

So after I removed the neon I posted about here, nothing else happened, up until about a week and a half ago when a second neon started to act reclusive and be 'rejected' from the group. Watched him carefully for a while and noticed the same white patch on him in almost the exact same location as the fish I had removed in March.
Following the advice above I immediately raised the temperature to about 28 degrees hoping that it might clear up.

By mid last week the neon looked like his mouth was 'stuck' open or otherwise deformed somehow, and he had a tendency to hang out at the bottom of the tank away from the tank activity. The white patch on him didn't grow, but wasn't going away either. This morning I found him dead at the bottom of the tank. I immediately removed him and performed a 1/3 water change just to be safe, when I examined him it looked like his eyes were protruding from his head a little, and his mouth was jammed open.

The only indicator of a problem was his behaviour and obviously the physical changes. From what I'd seen, he had no trouble swimming, feeding, or breathing, I couldn't notice any major difference between his gill/mouth movement compared to the other neons. When I say his mouth was open, it seemed like it was stuck that way rather than he was 'gasping', so I'm very confused. There are currently no other signs of a problem with any of his tankmates -- the four remaining neon tetras, or the two siamese algae eaters. I'm keeping the temperature up for a while as a sort of preventative measure -- that and it seems to make all my plants grow like crazy.

I should probably mention that last monday about 10 red cherry shrimp were introduced to the tank also, however this is the only major change that has occurred, and the issues were present before they were added.

I'm utterly at a loss, so any insight or treatment plans would be most appreciated. Thanks!