Community tank Apocalypse - please help

Hi All,

Please could I ask for some help identifying what parasite/disease is affecting my planted tank.

My water parameters are all good as follows (using sera test kits):
-ph 6.5-7 (Co2 injection during the day with airstone constantly. Co2 stopped with medication dosing)

-Po4: negligible on test
-No3: negligible on test
-Kh: 3 dkh
Water temp: 27-28°C (normally at 26°C but have up a little because of medication)

Livestock: Black Neon tetra, Neon tetra, a few red eye tetra, a few panda catfish, Rummy nose tetra

Description of disease:
In the beginning no fish showed any physical signs of illness - like ich or fungus etc. For about 2 weeks, I would randomly find 1 or 2 fish dead each morning with no physical signs of a problem.

This got progressively worse as a week or two went by and the count of dead fish we morning/day went up to 3-5.

After a short while, everyday a fish would seem to swim a bit funny almost like they couldn't keep their balance (I thought maybe a swim bladder infection?), Then the next morning I would find the fish had died.

Then I got the first physical sign of something wrong...
On one occasion, and a few since... I have managed to find on the neon tetras, on side of their body, it almost.looked like a white patch.

I have dosed with Seachem ParaGuard and after that, I have tried a broad spectrum antibiotic (pic to follow). I am on day 5 of dosing and there still seem to be casualties each day.

Has anyone every had something similar or know how to cure it?

Much thanks
Dave

 

Hi Is it only on the neon's? Could be Neon's disease?

Named after the fish that it was first identified in, neon tetra disease strikes members of the tetra family, but other popular families of aquarium fish are not immune. Cichlids such as angelfish and cyprinids such as rasboras and barbs also fall victim to the disease. Even the common goldfish can become infected. Interestingly enough, cardinal tetras are resistant to the ravages of neon tetra disease.


What Is Neon Tetra Disease?
Neon tetra disease refers to a condition caused by parasites that's more common than many aquarium enthusiasts realize, and affects species beyond neon tetras. The disease is degenerative, meaning it starts out mild but then progresses quickly to become very severe.


Symptoms of Neon Tetra Disease in Fish
In neon tetra disease, you're likely to observe symptoms in this order:

• Restlessness
• Fish begins to lose coloration
• As cysts develop, the body may become lumpy
• Fish has difficulty swimming
• In advanced cases, the spine may become curved
• Secondary infections such as fin rot and bloating

During the initial stages, the only symptom may be restlessness, particularly at night. Often the first thing an owner will notice is that the affected fish no longer school with the others—a clear sign that something is wrong. Eventually, swimming becomes more erratic, and it becomes quite obvious that the fish is not well.


As the disease progresses, affected muscle tissue begins to turn white, generally starting within the color band and areas along the spine. As additional muscle tissue is affected, the pale coloration expands. Damage to the muscles can cause curvature or deformation of the spine, which may cause the fish to have difficulty in swimming. It is not unusual for the body of the fish to have a lumpy appearance as the cysts deform the muscles.


Rotting of the fins, especially the caudal fin, is not uncommon. However, this is due to secondary infection rather than a direct result of the disease itself. Bloating is another secondary infection.


Causes of Neon Tetra Disease
Neon tetra disease is caused by a parasite called Pleistophora hyphessobryconis. It enters the fish through infected food and other material such the bodies of dead fish or live food, which may serve as intermediate hosts.


Once inside a fish, the parasite will literally eat the fish from the inside out, starting with the digestive tract and stomach. Embryos hatch inside the intestines, burrow through the intestinal wall, and there they produce cysts. The cysts damage the tissue; signs of tissue damage include paler color and weaker muscles.


It's important to know neon tetra disease is highly communicable, and can easily spread through a tank quickly. To save your fish, you will need to remove infected fish as early as possible.


One of the slightly comforting aspects of this disease is that it is at least not transmittable to humans.


Treatment
There is no known cure for neon tetra disease; in fact, most fish found to have the disease are euthanized. To ensure all fish are not lost, remove diseased fish from the tank. Some species, such as angelfish, may live for quite some time with the disease, but they should not be allowed to do so in a community tank. They should be quickly separated from uninfected fish to avoid spreading the disease.


How to Prevent Neon Tetra Disease
The best prevention is to avoid purchasing sick fish and to maintain high water quality. In addition, it's important to remove sick fish from your community tank as soon as possible: there is no real cure for the disease, and more so, many fish will eat other dead fish when given the chance.


When purchasing fish for your tank, select a well-regarded supplier. If buying online, be sure to check out any reviews and avoid buying for price versus quality. If possible, though, buy locally. This will give you a chance to carefully observe the suppliers fish. Do not purchase any fish from tanks where there are sick, dying, or dead fish present; you can usually identify a sick fish because it will not school with the others (assuming that the fish you're selecting are schooling fish).


Once you've selected your new pets, quarantine new fish for two weeks before adding them to an existing community tank. This will give your fish a chance to adjust to a new temperature while also giving you an opportunity to observe their behavior and appearance. If you see any signs of sickness, get in touch with your supplier and avoid allowing questionable fish to interact with others.


Maintain high water quality and select fish foods from a known and respected source. As with any fish or fish supplies, it's easy to wind up with contaminants even if you purchase high-quality fish food. The risk is greater, though, if you buy online at the lowest cost.

 

Thank you for the feedback, I really appreciate it. It's affect all the fish in my tank ,even the little pandas . I'll follow the steps you've outlined above and remove any fish showing symptoms as soon as I see them.

Thank you for the feedback

 

I'm No Expert but it looks like the cause.

 

I had this run through my planted tank also after bringing in new neons in January. I removed the infected fish immediately once they showed symptoms. It continued spreading with an infected fish every second day or so. I doses Sere Bactorpur as per instructions and had no more loses. I don't know if it stopped by removing the infected fish or with the meds but it did stop dead in its tracks after dosing it so its worth a shot. I haven't had any loses in that tank since.

 

It could be neon tetra disease as mentioned above but I find it a bit strange that it went on for weeks affecting various other fish without fish showing signs / white patches and only now the tetras are showing white patches

Did it start as neon tetra disease or has the neon tetra disease now developed due to the fish being stressed and compromised immune system?

Im a little confused with your test readings

Nitrate is negligible but what are your ammonia and nitrite readings?

You dont tell us much about the tank... how long has it been running... size... how many and what other fish were there..

 

Sorry to hear about the issues you are having. This is an incredibly interesting thread. I'd never heard of tetra disease before. I would suggest doing a possible test for ammonia. Are you using aquasoil? Is the tank new?

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

Just to add. My gurtrudes rainbows where not affected at all only the neons. They would get that grey/white patches one by one and then by the next day just flick around and die. I lost 6 in total.

 

To me NTD has complete other symptoms than visible on this fish. Am I correct it started quite some time after introducing new fish?

No Cory no glory

 

Yes it makes tumor like growths. But whats weird with what happened to me is the other fish where not affected by it.