Sick neons?

Hi, just finished a water change on my 75 L and have noticed
that 4 of my 6 neons have strange white things on there mouths.
I've tryed to get a pic, best pic below, but it's hard to get a good one.
Could this be the start off fungus?
This stuff isn't on any other fish in the tank. Ihave snails and
shrimp in there so i cant use some meds.

There is some off the stuff on the fish far left, but hard to see in the pic.

i would place them in the Q tank and treat with both fixes. Sounds like a fungus. cheers jk :thumbup:

Totally agree with big bird -had same thing happen when I kept Mollies
I also turned up temperature to 28 for four days which helped.
Cc

well it turns out its "Columnaris" maybe!!
so the www says.taken the 4 out,took best part off 2 hours.not easy getting small fish from a planted tank..:wb:
there in a small container floating in the big tank,put the temp up and added
some "protozin" thats all my LFS had.
ill try it but it don,t look to good for them.
fingers crossed,will see wot happens.

fingers crossed for your little ones ! you never know it may turn out well. hope you got yourself a well earned cold one- we had to catch some little ones in our 330ltr, totally sucked!
cc

It's hard to chase them around a planted tank.
I tryed the bottle trap idea,they didn't even go near it.
Well I just looked in the container, lost 1 neon...
it might of been stressed out when I was moving him....

Lost neon number 2 now
The other 2 don't look to clever now. Have checked the other fish
in the tank, all look ok.

Just got up and looked at the 2 remaining neons. Both on the bottom
looking very pale., I'm gutted I couldn't save any off them..
Won't be getting any more fish to replace them.

lost the last neons today..

Tener ds said:

well it turns out its "Columnaris" maybe!!
so the www says.taken the 4 out,took best part off 2 hours.not easy getting small fish from a planted tank..:wb:
there in a small container floating in the big tank,put the temp up and added
some "protozin" thats all my LFS had.
ill try it but it don,t look to good for them.
fingers crossed,will see wot happens.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't of added protozin especially if you have shrimp since it contains copper. I have 2 bottles of protozin and would not go near them unless I had a serious case of whitespot affecting the whole tank that could not be treated with large frequent water changes.

If it is columnaris which looks similar to fungus but is a bacteria from what I have read then protozin will have no affect. Until I got a proper diagnosis of a problem in my tank I would not use harsh chemicals.

You would have been safer adding melafix which is just a mix of tea tree oil or related and AS FAR AS I KNOW from others use of it in their tanks does not affect shrimp , is natural and not really harmful. I have melafix and then pimafix is the other one for fungal and bacterial I am unsure of and don't own that is a mix of bay oil also natural and less harmful than harsh chemicals.

I think the 2 melafix and pimafix are all round relatively harmless products that won't kill plants and contain no copper so safe for shrimp. I think better to treat with these especially if a quarantine tank isn't available first.

I would change your water thoroughly then get new stock. I have lost neons for no apparent reason but quality fish/hardy ones don't drop like flies. Chase neons around for more than 10mins seems to set in some kind of shock response then you have numerous casualties as I find them flighty and weak. Cardinals are the hardiest and I have less deaths. In small spaces neons are awful but in a big tank like mine they seem happy to gather around my arm when I put in food or do maintenance because they are not cornered. When I kept neons in a small tank they would always die when I did maintenance as they were unable to escape.

Sickness + stress = death unfortunately. Good luck with replacements and don't give up.

Sorry to hear you lost the little dudes, Jess had a lot of interesting information for next time if it ever happens again but as with most time with this game you can only do your best with the knowledge you have at the time.

Kind wishes cc

jessonthenet said:

I wouldn't of added protozin especially if you have shrimp since it contains copper. I have 2 bottles of protozin and would not go near them unless I had a serious case of whitespot affecting the whole tank that could not be treated with large frequent water changes.

If it is columnaris which looks similar to fungus but is a bacteria from what I have read then protozin will have no affect. Until I got a proper diagnosis of a problem in my tank I would not use harsh chemicals.

You would have been safer adding melafix which is just a mix of tea tree oil or related and AS FAR AS I KNOW from others use of it in their tanks does not affect shrimp , is natural and not really harmful. I have melafix and then pimafix is the other one for fungal and bacterial I am unsure of and don't own that is a mix of bay oil also natural and less harmful than harsh chemicals.

I think the 2 melafix and pimafix are all round relatively harmless products that won't kill plants and contain no copper so safe for shrimp. I think better to treat with these especially if a quarantine tank isn't available first.

I would change your water thoroughly then get new stock. I have lost neons for no apparent reason but quality fish/hardy ones don't drop like flies. Chase neons around for more than 10mins seems to set in some kind of shock response then you have numerous casualties as I find them flighty and weak. Cardinals are the hardiest and I have less deaths. In small spaces neons are awful but in a big tank like mine they seem happy to gather around my arm when I put in food or do maintenance because they are not cornered. When I kept neons in a small tank they would always die when I did maintenance as they were unable to escape.

Sickness + stress = death unfortunately. Good luck with replacements and don't give up.

Click to expand...

Cheers jesson,
The tank has had 2 large water changes over the last week.
I won't add any more for a while till I know the other fish are ok.
Had a good look at them all yesterday and they seam ok, even the 2
remaining tetras,one of them is a cardinal.he has been in the tank from day one, so he's been in there over a year.

@ ccole well my info is all based on reading others experiences and from my own mistakes and I haven't even learned the half of fishkeeping yet. I never think much of what I say is interesting but contribute it anyway, so if it helps then great.

I have had problems with neons over the years and started my fishkeeping with an aqua one 320 28 litre tank about 3 years ago or so. I stupidly put neons in that so at one point in my fishkeeping I knew not much and wouldn't say I feel much more knowledgeable now. Even when you think you are getting somewhere you have a tank disaster then start again. Follow advice if it seems to be given by most and they do well with their fish.

I love neons and they are so cheap but in big tanks with lots in a group they really show their potential in a tank and are usually seen as beginner fish or have been around for so long others think they are boring.

I would go for cardinals as the red stripe through them is much nicer but neons are ok if they last.

I could never decide which neons to go for then ended up with bits of everything in my tank but just cardinals are better for looks. I try all the fancy stuff but always go back to basic, tried and tested.

Smaller tanks are harder to keep and neons survive but I think you could try a bigger project "tenerds" especially if you really like neons, they will do much better. A bigger tank is so much easier than a small tank so I am not saying 400litre like me or bigger maybe try setting up a 3ft/4ft tank if you have the space but keep the other 2 you already have and build up from there.

I nearly gave up fishkeeping totally when I lost my plecs not so long ago but eventually bought a new one and will get more some time , so it does knock you when you care about your fish a lot and you put in a lot of work. Giving up is easy.

Sorry for your losses, It happens to all of us at some point :'o(

Well the other ones are doin fine. Won,t buy any more fish for a while.

Neon tetra disease?

FF MkII said:

Neon tetra disease?

Click to expand...

Not sure mate, all 4 had large fungus blobs on there heads.After catching and treating they slowing went pale and died. odd cos the remaning 2 are fine.

Sounds like it could be

Tetras are the worst for treating if they need to be caught..They stress bad, It sounds like it could have been neon tetra disease, cotton mouth or simple fungus..

So far the other 2 are ok. I don't won't to have to catch them.