What's Wrong With My Neons?

[sook]

A couple of months or so ago my fancy-tailed guppy disappeared. poof. no corpse, no fish on the counter. The only thing I can think of is the cat got in, caught the guppy, devoured it, and didn't splash any water in a matter of 5 minutes. The cat wouldnt have known the tank was even there. The door is always closed and he gets hit for going in the room.

About that time the neons starting behaving very strange. They were quite active swimming around the tank. They started hiding under the log together. This weekend I converted my tank to a planted tank and the tetras hung out in a bucket full of tank water for half an hour and swam around just fine.

I put them back in the planted tank, still with the same water, and they're back to hiding under the log again. They like being under there even tho the filter dumps right there so they have to swim at a good clip to stay put. I put river rocks in the hole in the wood that the water was flowing through to easy the stress.

Yesterday they would come out and bolt mach 9 around the tank and go back under the wood! When I got up this morning before the tank light came on, they seemed normal, not under the log and not freaking out, but went back to hiding when i walked past.

What gives?

 

[WILDER]

Can we take a look at your water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate , and ph.
How many fish and which type.
Hiding away and darting around a tank can be parasites, bad water quallity, stress.
Any signs of flicking and rubbing against objects.
Check the red stripe area on the neons to make sure it dosn't look bleached out.

Best to spray a cat with water that usually a good way of teaching them not to do things, rather than hitting it.

 

[sook]

I don't have the stats handy, still at work.

5 neon tetras, 1 rubberlip, 10 gal tank, 20 gal cascade filter. tank has been established for 6 months+

water quality didnt change, they were fine, then they werent

no flicking or rubbing, no bleached stripe



the cat has graduated from spraying with water. he started thanking us for helping him with his bath. hissing at him doesnt work any more. can-o-air doesnt work anymore. but this is a fish forum.

 

[WILDER]

I would put it down to stress with changing things.
I would see how they go for a few days they might settle back down if nothing wrong with them.
The only thing is when fish are stressed there immune system is weak that when they become ill.

I would invest in a master liquid test kit for testing your water in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

 

[fourthtimelucky]

Maybe you could try enlarging the group size? A few more might help them feel more relaxed.

BTW, I know it's not really on subject but it's unlikely that the cat was to blame for the disappearing guppy. They are surprisingly small corpses, could easily have got wedged in a decoration and decomposed before you found it.

Spraying cats with water as a deterrent only works if they can't see that it is you spraying the water. If they see it's you, they associate the punishment with you and not the banned activity.

If you are really convinced that the cat is the culprit and concerned that it's going to get into the tank, I'd recommend laying a sheet of foil on the carpet around the tank for a few weeks. Cats hate walking on foil and the sound it makes, should freak him out fairly effectively if he moseys in to go fishing.

 

[rdd1952]

I'd put the hiding down to stress from the change. They should eventually come back out. If the tank has a cover over it, then there shouldn't be an issue with the cat getting into it. He would still stress them out though if he was getting up on the tank. I would agree that the cat wasn't the culprit with the guppy. If the rubberlip was in the tank, he most likely ate the remains after the guppy died.