Eskielvr

At first I thought my Betta was killing them, but I've since quarantined him and just tonight I found another dead Neon to make number 3. Do I have too many fish? I had 13 Neons in my 20 gallon with 2 Otos and a Cory, and 1 Shrimp. I'm down to 10 Neons now. Am I over feeding? I had been feeding them 2 to 3 times a day. I just checked the Ammonia and Nitrite levels today and both were 0. I added some acid buffer to lower the Ph a little, and last night I added 2 tablespoons of salt. I don't know what's wrong??


Hello?? I could really use some advice. I think a 4th one is about to die now.

Tom

First off I'm so sorry. Second, neons don't really like salt to much. Also, neons can be not one of the hardiest fish when they are small and get a little better when they grow up. Personally, I don't think your tank is oversrowded. If I am wrong, please someone correct me.
Tom

Butterfly

Could the Betta have injured the neon before he was quarentined? They just don't like to share their swimming space. The way they kill things is to hit them in the side really hard this injures the attacked fishes swim bladder then they die. they will also kill and eat shrimp.
Carol

Eskielvr

Yes, but several more Neons have died after I removed the Betta. Some of the Neons have torn fins, but they chased each other around a lot yesterday. I noticed a small glimmer of something white on one of the Neons. I'm assuming it might be Ich but it's too early to tell. I know the Glowlights at the store where I got these had Ich last week and when we came back later they were all gone.

I'll be posting in the Fish Disease section to see what I should do. I already have 2 medications on hand. Well, I'll go ahead and post there instead.

Tom

Is it like a cotton on the fish? If it is, I had that problem a little time ago. The people at the lfs said it was fungus. They gave me some medication and told me to treat for 7 days and then change 25% of the water.
Tom

Eskielvr

I'm not sure, I can barely make out anything. I guess it's like a white film or something. There's very little and it's very hard to see. I have noticed that some of my Neons seemed kind of fat, too. One of the dead ones I found this morning seemed to have more white on it, but all the others showed no visible signs of anything being wrong, other than they were dead! I lost some of the fat ones, but also lost normal sized ones too so I just don't know

Too bad there's no way to do a necropsy(?), is there?

Butterfly

Could you post your water test readings for us please. sounds almost like a water issue. Especially with so many dieing, that could make the ammonia spike. Thanks
Carol

Eskielvr

Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Ph between 6.6 - 6.8 (yeah!) temp 79 degrees (heater is set up to 82 degrees now, I don't know why it's taking so long to heat the water up to 80 degrees). I don't have a nitrate test yet, but I just did a 25% - 35% water change yesterday, too.

wolfman21

neons prefer a temperature of roughly 76 degrees, so maybe keep the water close to that level. pH is good. It could be ich, especially since the other ones where you bought it may have had it. A good rule of thumb is to not buy fish in the same tank as affected ones or ones where there are dead fish present-I've made that mistake. I've had 6 neons dies because they were diseased with something-not ich, but my female fancy tail guppy noticed that they were sick and pushed some of them into the gravel until they died. Funny how fish can get. See if the water change helped, otherwise see what you can put into the water that will get rid of fungus or ich. Good luck!

Tom

I have my tanks all set for around 85F(just to help keep out ich) and my 6 neons all seem to love the high temp. They are really active and super fast compared to when I have the temp lower. It could also just be the personallity of the neon. Like some people like really sunny places and others like hiding in the shade.
Tom

Eskielvr

I raised the temp to 80 because I was told that's what your supposed to do when they show signs of disease. As for treating them with the meds, I have a lot of posts under the "General Discussion" trying to figure out what kinds of meds I need. I've also been on the phone for hours talking with fish techs, and two different fish stores trying to figure out what to do. I've lost 7 Neons and 1 Bumble Bee shrimp now. I don't think there's anything else I can do. My bottle of euthanize should be here any day now.

wolfman21

The high temp will defnitely help with the ich. As long as they like those kinds of temps, you might as well keep it that way to keep the ich away.