Help - White fuzzy spots on new Glowlight Tetras

Hi There,

I've had an established 20 gallon tank for about a year. I managed to kill almost everything in my tank (1 fancy guppie, 2 swordfish, and 2 barbs) when I added new gravel (washed properly) to add plants to the aquarium.

I've got it balanced again (ie. the remaining 2 guppies fish and pleco are swimming healthy). However, I've been battling at introducing new fish to the tank. I've tried with a school of 7 glowlight tetras over the course of a week and 3 have died. Now a number of them have a fuzzy white looking growth on the mouth and tails. And between yesterday and today, it looks like of them is going to lose it's tail.

I did a water change of about 20% on August 14, and treated the water with 4 TBS of aquarium salt on Saturday, August 15. The water quality looks good. Today my plan is to do 50% water change, and treat with aquarium salt again.

Water parameters:
GH - 120ppm
KH - 80 ppm
ph - 7.5
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 0

I've had issues with the tank over the past year, a few fish here and there dying, a couple of algae blooms. I clean every every other week, and am running an Aqueon Quiet LED flow 10 filter. I'm wondering if I need to up the filtration game? Any suggestions, before all the fish go belly up, and keeping things healthy so i can introduce more fish?

 

Those tetras do not look good. I don’t know what to do for treatment but are you able to get fish from a different source? And, if the flow isn’t crazy fast then it’s always better to add more filtration

Edit: Can you test for ammonia?

 

I realize now that I don’t have an ammonia kit to test. Oops. That’s the next purchase

 

It's a reputable source that the fish are coming from, but now i'm noticing that other fish seem to have fin rot (i think), looks like the tips of the fins are missing. My guppies are fine (for now)...

 

Personally I'd say it looks quite like the issues a lot of neons have. A strain of Columnaris bacteria.

 

Reading more on that it seems you’re right. I don’t have a quarantine tank. I’m surprised I haven’t seen it spread to my guppies yet. Or maybe it’s just a matter of time.
I change my water regularly and I change the filter cartridge monthly and I also soak the new cartridge in water from the tank first.

 

Well the remaining tetra didn’t like the water change. I think the worst condition tetra will be dead within hours and another one is not swimming well. Only looks like one tetra is healthy out of the 4

my next predicament is what next. I haven’t been able to introduce any new fish without them dying. I think the new fish are too stressed. Other than the bag method to acclimate (I take about 2 hours and put water from the tank in the bag a little at a time) what else should I be doing?

 

Well the remaining tetra didn’t like the water change. I think the worst condition tetra will be dead within hours and another one is not swimming well. Only looks like one tetra is healthy out of the 4

my next predicament is what next. I haven’t been able to introduce any new fish without them dying. I think the new fish are too stressed. Other than the bag method to acclimate (I take about 2 hours and put water from the tank in the bag a little at a time) what else should I be doing?

Like I said before, I would try switching your fish sources. Even if it’s a reputable store sometimes the supplier they got the fish from isn’t. My LFS has amazing fish, yet they tend to have weak platys.

 

I have a big al’s and petsmart by me. I’ve been only going to big al’s. But I’ll give the petsmart a try. Maybe once things settle again I’ll just go back to guppies for now or barbs

 

I have a big al’s and petsmart by me. I’ve been only going to big al’s. But I’ll give the petsmart a try. Maybe once things settle again I’ll just go back to guppies for now or barbs

My petsmart is actually pretty good. Not as good as my petco but I feel like as long as I’m careful and make sure none of the tankmates look sick, I could probably get them and not worry too much about disease. Although, I do always quarantine just in case