mcdonald.kk

Hello everyone,
I have not posted in a while but I am worried about my fish and am hoping someone can tell me what is going on with my neons. I have a school of seven neons in a 20 gallon tank. I recently (within the last few days) noticed a black coloration developing both above and below some of my neon's red stripe. In one it has started to spread out and up around the base of the anal fin. In this area the body shape has changed looking narrower/indented. There may be a few scales missing. It is hard to tell. This little fish continues to eat actively but I am worried and am not sure what it is. I will try to post some pictures later this evening. I can't tell if any of my other fish have the same problem or not. several others do appear to have a darkening of pigment under their red stripes. I appreciate any help you guys have! I'm quite worried

Lucy

I'm not very good when it comes to diseases, but for those who are, it would help if they knew your readings for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

clinton1621

Heres a link to a good symptom checker....

http://www.fishyportal.com/cgi-bin/pub/diag

mcdonald.kk

My husband and I just finished testing our water and here are the results:
pH:7.6, nitrite: 0ppm, nitrate: 0ppm, Ammonia: 0ppm
my pH is a bit unusual for my tank and I'm not sure if it is from a water change that I did on August 31st or what. I do have plants in the tank and it is near the end of the light cycle so that could account for a slight rise in pH but (probably) not this much of a difference. On Aug. 31 my pH was 7.2

Lucy

In a cycled tank, you should have a nitrate reading.
You don't have ammonia, so that's not the problem.

Good luck, I hope you figure out what's going on.

clinton1621

The plants would be the reason for the higher pH and the lack of nitrates... plants use co2, when there is less co2 in the water then the pH rises... plants use nitrates for food, my tank is fully cycled and almost never shows a nitrate reading because of all the plants I have.

Edit : Also pH is not as constant as you would think, even in tapwater the pH can change daily.

mcdonald.kk

Here's a pic of the sick tetra. You can really see the indentation in his side. What is not so apparent in the photo is the black coloration in the same area.

Attached Images

DSCF2239.JPG (448.0 KB, 10 views)

mcdonald.kk

Yes the tank is fully cycled. I reached the same conclusion about the Nitrates Clinton. Good to know my thoughts about the plants and pH were in the right direction. Thanks for the link to the symptom checker! Thanks for the support Lucy. I love your cat in the aquarium by the way! I have a cat too =).