Dojo

Hi, asking for a friend, who put 6 new neon tetra in her 20 gallon tank yesterday without quarantine and is worried about NTD spreading to her other fish, guppies and zebra danios, and also about the tetra themselves.
The 6 are all tiny like just over 1cm long, 4 look bright and healthy but 2 are really scrawny and pale coloured.
I had a look and NTD came to mind but ive never had tetra so I don't know what it looks like for sure.
The 2 bad ones look half starved all pinched, with very pale colouration, barely any red and the worst has an interruption in the blue line and where it continues is out of line with where it should be.
I only had a few mins to look but it looked like there was a pale patch of flesh at the break in the line, but not sure if thats what the 'white tissue' is supposed to look like.
Any ideas on what I can tell her to do? She doesn't have a q tank so she can't take them back out. And its unlikely shop would take them back.

Does this sound like def NTD or is it possible they are just runty little ones that didn't get enough food in such a big shoal in the shop?

Thanks for any help

Also about the lumps that appear with neon tetra disease does anyone have a link to good pictures of them? I've been googling and can't make out lumps on any pictures I found.
All the tetra seem to have a mild bulge underneath them but not sure whether healthy tetra have those or if they are indicative of NTD.

Dojo

Hi was just talking to her again and she's fretting about the rest of her fish suffering for her mistake and is gonna try convince the guy to take them back even if she can't get money back, but wants to know what is the chance her tank will be infected if the tetra have been in the tank like 2 days?

CHoffman

I found this site..Not sure if it will help your friend or not.
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/di...eondisease.htm

Here's another one with a pic
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3Den%26sa%3DN

robz

I know if neons are kept in the dark they lose their color, and it comes back in a few minutes with some light.

Dojo

Hi thanks for the links, passed them on

She called this morn and said the 2 scrawny ones died, she's not sure if they just died themselves or were killed by the other fish as they had been keeping close to the ground not moving much. But basically sounds like not much left of them.
So does this mean since the bodies were opened up that all the spores inside have been released into the water?

Shop is closed till the 28th so she'll have to keep the rest till then at least but is the damage done?

She said she might not return the rest as the others are all doing good, shoaling and bright and no signs of white tissue but personally they did strike me as somewhat lumpy when I saw them, but she doesn't want to euthanise in case they are fine..
Will the other tetra (if infected) be able to release spores before any white tissue appears? Or does the white tissue signify when the cyst is growing large enough to rupture or however it disperses them?

Basically like, are they capable of infecting the other fish (if they already haven't been by the dead fish) before the white appears? coz I was reasoning if she keeps them and no white or other symptoms ever appear, maybe it is ok, but if they does, then euthanise them.

I feel so guilty, I recommended this shop they usually have super healthy fish

Lucy

NTD isn't limited to just neons. Danios are one of the fish than can get NTD.
She really should get the raiming neons into a Q tank. If she doesn't have a Q tank she can use a clean never seen soap storage container with a heater.

I'm really sorry she's lost a couple, they're really pretty.

Dojo

Just thought i'd update she brought the tetra back since she doesn't have a Q tank and so far so good with the danios.

Shawnie

has her tank been cycled? tetras are sensitive to water condtions..so ask her what her water parimeters are and that could be an issue also ....I hope things look up!

Dojo

Hi her tank has been running for years, she's the one who convinced me to upgrade to a bigger tank lol and although I don't know her parameters, she uses the API kit like I do and this is the first time is ages she's had an ill fish so she must be doing something right. She's just keeping fingers crossed that if the tetra did have NTD that her fish weren't infected.

Lucy

It's my understanding that NDT spreads fairly quickly. I think if thats what it was, your friend would know it by now.