Tetra swimming vertically

[seangee]

For most of the last week one of my glowlights has been swimming almost vertically. He seemed to have to be constantly on the move but there were no other syptoms. He was the same at all levels of the tank, always joined the rest for food and there was no sign of injury. I made sure the water was clean and kept a close eye on things. Last night after dark he seemed more relaxed and seems much improved today.

The reason for the post is that one of my cardinals has now started doing exactly the same thing. Could this be some kind of infection (protozoan???) and can it spread. What action should I take. Nothing new or changed in the tank but I do have around 45 tetras in there plus 20-30 pencilfish so I really would prefer to avoid a tank full of sick fish.

 

[Munroco]

It sounds like a swim bladder problem.

 

[seangee]

It sounds like a swim bladder problem.

That was my initial thought. I never worried about it too much because the last time I bought glowlights was over 6 years ago and (according to unverified internet sources) their life expectancy is 2-4 years in an aquarium, and these guys did live in hard water with high nitrates for the early part of their lives with me. So I just assumed he was approaching the end of the road.

I may have been paranoid about the cardinal. When I looked again they were all swimming normally. Since then I have seen more than one cardinal doing the same thing for short intervals. Hopefully its just the excitement of today's water change. Today is the first time its been warm enough that I did not have to heat the water before adding it, so the tank temp dropped by a couple of degrees this morning. This does always add to the general excitement levels in the tank.

 

[Retired Viking]

That is great that yours glow lights are living that long , may be old age but sound like swimming bladder disease.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

It sounds like SBD. (Swim Bladder Disease) to me.

It’s good that your glow lights are living that long. They are thriving.

 

[Retired Viking]

I hope my glow light tetra live that long, it must be the frogbite doing it

 

[seangee]

Yes the glowlight is much improved. She (even though I said he in post #1) is now spending about 80% of the time swimming normally. On Friday it was 100% vertical swimming and I thought I would be in for a euthanasia today , but thankfully it looks like she will pull through.

But those <censored> little cardinals are determined to keep me on my toes. I caught one of them doing somersaults earlier. Definitely not normal behaviour but I have seen it before with no ill effects. Nothing more to be done tonight. Water is fresh and clean, temp is back up to 25 and feeding time went as normal so worrying any more tonight is not going to achieve anything ...

 

[Retired Viking]

Hope it all works out for your fish

 

[Colin_T]

any chance of a video of the fish swimming weirdly?

 

[seangee]

any chance of a video of the fish swimming weirdly?

Short answer is no. Now the lights are on I have just watched them for 5 mins (I'm still at work ) and everyone appears to be swimming normally.
My biggest concern was that it could be protozoan and if the fish dies it would get eaten which could affect the rest - or am I overthinking things? The plants have filled out a lot since the pic in my signature so there is no way I can attempt a headcount of the 50ish tetras in there, and if one did die it would probably be eaten long before I spotted it.

 

[Retired Viking]

I do not think your are over thinking, lets hope protozoan is not the case, I had to take out my castle because one of my neon tetra was dead and had mucus on him. I watched them closely for weeks and thank God no others had signs, I did a massive water change too.

 

[seangee]

The improvement was only temporary. A month on and no real change. She was still eating but swimming vertically almost all the time as if the caudal fin was all she could use. Her internal organs looked like they were going black. I decided to put her down today and when I had done so it looked like she had a fine black thread growing out through one of her gill covers. The little cardinal I mentioned developed what seemed like spinning disease the next day so I took him out there and then.

Hopefully that's the end of it. Everyone else in the tank appears in perfect health. Part of me was tempted to let her live out her life but with the amount of plants in the tank she would have been eaten before I found the body if she died, and if it was a parasite I did not want it in any of the others.

 

[Retired Viking]

Sorry about your fish, it sounds to me that you did the right thing