Skinny tetra…looking different from the rest

[Navfish]

I have a 5 tetras in a species only tank I’m a 10 gallon. Temp: 78

I had a gotten them from a local fish shop when they were little. You could tell they were young. As time went on, they have grown up and now have full rounded stomachs.

However, one of them has been skinny and tinier than the rest since day 1 which was about 5 months ago ish. He looks a little sickly but idk.

Another thing to note about his behavior is that he often opens and closes his mouth like he’s gasping but he just keeps swimming normally. None of the normal tetras do it. (There’s plenty of filteration and air bubbles) you can see him open his mouth in the second pic

I feed them tropical flakes, daphnia and frozen bloodworms.

Anyone know why he has been looking like this?

 

[Colin_T]

Either gill flukes or intestinal worms or both. But heavy breathing and not growing is regularly gill flukes. I would treat for both.

Section 3 of the following link has information about treating intestinal worms in fish. The medication used to treat tapeworm (Praziquantel) also treats gill flukes.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Navfish]

Either gill flukes or intestinal worms or both. But heavy breathing and not growing is regularly gill flukes. I would treat for both.

Section 3 of the following link has information about treating intestinal worms in fish. The medication used to treat tapeworm (Praziquantel) also treats gill flukes.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

treat the whole tank I suppose?

 

[itiwhetu]

I think he is just weak genetically and if all the other fish look great, it will be just one of those things.

 

[Colin_T]

treat the whole tank I suppose?

yes, treat the whole tank because any diseases/ parasites like worms and gill flukes will be in the main tank.