Tetra death

[Darbex]

I am seeing my tetras have parts of their bodies become whitish in color. It doesnt appear to be a growth. It appears to be their actual skin/scales. It is either at the tail end of their body or around their dorsal fin. I have seen this happen before but I recently have lost about 20 tetras that I got and most have had this before their demise. What could this be from and what treatment is recommended for this?

[CichlidFan]

I can't tell you for sure, but what I did a while back was go to City Pets and spend about 30 minutes in the Fish Med isle....I read every box of antibotics and every jar of hole in the head medicines....I took about 6 boxes and 3 jars home with me....

Whenever anyone gets sick....I research their symptoms and give what I believe is my best guess at treating their condition...most of the time I get lucky...but not always.....good luck.

CF

[Mzungu]

I am in a rush right now, but I think I know exactly what the problem is here.

Is this in your discus tank? For now, if possible, add some salt. And QT, if you haven't already.

I can't think of the name of the pathogen right now, but it will come to me, I hope. It's one of those very common ones, present in almost any body of water, but only affecting fish who's immune systems have been compromised because of a stressful situation.

[Darbex]

They are in a QT tank with my discus that I also QT. But in my angel fish tank I lost all of our blue neons from this one by one. The angels never got sick but they did.

[Somefishguy]

Did the neons look like they had a swollen head and swam funny, darted then kinda sunk

The only fish ive never had luck with are neons. I get a groups and slowly one by one they die in this manner(start getting swollen heads, and swim oddly). It always happens, ive only been able to keep one alive in my tank for 8 months or so, but all the other ones i get die in this fashion.

[cichlid1409]

sounds like it might be somekind of slime disease.

[Darbex]

They have already gone through a treatment of formalin since I was trying to treat the issue my discus had so I have basically nuked the tank.

[Darbex]

I think MB is on to something I just dont know what it is. And generally tetras are lower on my list of saving since they are a pain to QT out of a big tank and I have never seen this issue spread to other fish other than tetras before. Its just since I QTd them when I bought them I figured I will try to solve the riddle and especially since I lost about 20+ tetras since I bought them its disconcerting to loose so many.

[Mzungu]

Is there any salt in the tank?

I would do a marine salt dip for a minute or two, and then raise the salt in the QT to about 3-4ppm.

How much formalin have you added, and in what form?

Also, keep up with the water changes in the QT.

What species of tetra have died from this, and what species are currently afflicted?

[Darbex]

Is there any salt in the tank?

Yes

I would do a marine salt dip for a minute or two, and then raise the salt in the QT to about 3-4ppm.

How much formalin have you added, and in what form?

Two treatments of formalin last one was about 3 days ago. At the rate of about 1mL per 12G

Also, keep up with the water changes in the QT.

What species of tetra have died from this, and what species are currently afflicted?

Cardinal and Rummy noses. The rummy noses get it primarily on the tail and the cardinals have been primarily on the dorsal.

See red. I was doing daily WC but I skipped yesterday to go to 1 every other day.

[wesleydnunder]

Sounds like NTD, neon tetra disease, Brian. Once it gets into the tanks it sweeps through tetras like wildfire. I've read of limited results from using Maracyn and Maracyn II in conjunction to combat gram + and gram - bacteria simultaneously, but from what I've read NTD effects the immunity of the fish also. Whatever pathogen it is, it can be spread with nets, hands and pythons used in multiple tanks. Good luck man.

Mark

[Mzungu]

What's the concentration of salt in the QT currently?

[Darbex]

I do not know I dont have a way of measuring it.

[Darbex]

Looked up NTD and I think you are right Mark. So I presume that once I put my discus back in the tank with the others that I risk infecting the tetras that are in my big tank since I am sure it may be on them as well even if it doesnt get them sick?