Neon Tetra In My 75 Community Tank Died Of Fungus!! What Do I Do???

I recently purchased 6 neon tetras and I’ve had them for a few days. Suddenly I noticed a white spot on one of their dorsal fins and didn’t think much of it, so I left it alone. BY THE NEXT MORNING (today), he was almost completely white and was barely alive so we flushed him. I have five more neons, three lemons, three jewels, and two bala sharks in my 75-gallon community tank. I believe the tetra was purchased with the infection. I have all live plants in my tank and feather rock. The parameters of my water is where it should be. I have a canister filter. Anyway, my question is, what should I do to prevent the spreading of the fungus to the rest of my fish? Should I treat the whole tank with Pima-fix? All of the fish are eating.

 

If I were you, I would either move affected fish to a separate tank to medicate them, or assume they are all sick and treat them all. Do lots of water changes and make sure there are no ammonia/ nitrite present in the water and that should hopefully get rid of the illness. However, if none of them seem to be affected then watch them closely and do bigger water changes to make sure the fungus/ white spot has died. I think that neons must get ill quite easily, mine seem to be carrying a disease but not be affected by it themselves as all of my other fish became sick when I introduced them Anyway, best of luck for your fishies

 

Big.chance it wqs bacterial (columnaris) instead of fungus.

 

As said by DoubleDutch the disease that Neon Tetras usually suffer with, especially shortly after purchase when many fatalities may be observed, is Columnaris (a bacterial disease).

It is possible to purchase Neon Tetras without Columnaris but there is a 50/50 chance they will arrive with the disease which may not be visible in the shop (because the shop removes dead or affected fish).

As I have not seen a single case documented where the Columnaris was cured with medications my approach is to concentrate on good maintenance of water quality.

Still, the Columnaris strains harboured by these farmed fish do seem to be carried by the fish for their entire life span. There may or may not be some white marks carried on the fish throughout their lives. Fish may be overcome by Columnaris spreading over and through the body if they are stressed e.g. by poor water quality, bullying by tankmates, elevated temperatures in summer etc.

However, one good thing I've observed is that the Columnaris strains carried by Neon Tetras seem to effect only the Neons themselves and do not seem to be transfered to other fish at least when environmental conditions are good.

 

Please don’t flush fish! Deseases gets into the water supplies and may effect your local fish and ecosystem.

 

Big.chance it wqs bacterial (columnaris) instead of fungus.

Brilliant post on Columnaris - thx DoubleDutch