One of my Lemon Tetras collapsed

Hello, I have just joined as I'd been seraching over the net for information about what happened to my Lemon Tetra. This place seemed to be the most informative I could find, however I still can't put a handle on what exactly happened to one of my Lemon Tetras, and was hoping someone may know what went wrong.

I fished him off the bottom of the tank this morning to put him out of his misery.

I put six Lemon Tetras into my freshwater tank exactly two weeks ago, along with a couple of Angelfish, to join two Gold Gouramis. Everyone seems to get on fine in the tank.

About a week and a half ago I noticed one of my Lemons wasn't schooling with the five others, and was just floating about by himself. He also wouldn't eat and seemed to be gulping all the time.

On Friday I went to the acquarium shop and took in a sample of my water. It all tested really well, but unfortunately I did not take note of the readings so I am not sure what they are exactly, but they said my water was fine and thought the Lemon may just be in a bit of shock and should come good eventually. All the other fish swim around all over the place and have large appetites. The tank is well cycled and was running a month before any fish entered, and I used a dead prawn to create bacteria.

The Lemon continued not to eat, continued to gulp, and then last night his eyes seemed to be bulging and he was sort of swimming on his side. When I woke up this morning he was nowhere to be found. Eventually I picked up the house I have in my tank and gave it a gentle shake and there he was lying on the bottom of the tank, gulping away. It was like he'd collapsed because he hadn't eaten for ten days. So I decided, rather than letting him suffer for maybe days just lying there, the kindest thing to do would be to get him out and let him pass.

I can't figure out what happened. Did he get some sort of disease? Could the other Tetras catch it? Could've I saved him if I'd done something back when I first noticed he was behaving unusally?

I've only had the tank for two months and am still learning about keeping fish and am a little disappointed one has died already.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

welcome to fishlore!!!!
I'm so sorry you lost your fish baby
without knowing your readings, its hard to tell..but it does sound like ammonia
if you can get yourself an apI liquid test kit , as it has everything you need and does a lot of tests , you won't need to ever rely on a pet store telling you the water is ok....I think even if you were cycled, adding that many fish at once, probably through you into a minI cycle ...

 

Ok, Welcome.

Sorry you are going through this. Since your tank is possibly cycled and your other fish are behaving fine it definitely sounds like a disease, but whitout knowing your exact readings it is hard to know for sure whether it is that or ammonia poisoning. Where there any spots on the fish? any signs other than the eyes? (Patches, did he look like blind?).

I had a very similar case in my tank a while ago.

Best thing you can do is keep your eyes open with the other fish, keep the quality of your water pristine and buy some jungle labs antiparasite and antibacterial food, just in case you may need it with the other fish.

It would also be good to set up a small quarantine tank in case you need to medicate other fish, or to quarantine new arrivals for a good two weeks before adding them to the main tank, thus reducing the risk of introducing diseases. (A small rubbermaid container with a sponge filter and a small heater will do). Also, I would recommend you having your own liquid test kits so that you can test your water when you suspect something is wrong. Other than that, it seems like you care for your fish and are doing the best you can to help them.

Good Luck

Alessa

 

Welcome to Fish Lore

Congrats on cycling before adding fish. I'm sorry you've lost your tetra, how kind of you to make such a hard decision so he wouldn't suffer.

I agree with Shawnie, not knowing your exact readings at this point, it would really be best if we could rule out ammonia.

When was you last water change? If it wasn't today, it would be a good idea to change it just in case.
The rest of your fish are doing fine, so other than that and checking your own readings with the test kit Shawnie recommends, keep you eye on them for a while.
You can post your readings and we can go from there.

Good luck and we'd love to see some pics

Edit: Good info from Alessa also.

 

Thanks to all for the response and advice. I thought the fish shop tested for ammonia. I know he definitely tested PH and nitrate levels. I will though get my hands on a test kit as mentioned ASAP. And it's probably a good idea of I test for ammonia immediately, just in case.

They basically told me not to be too worried because all the other fish were perfectly normal. And they also said the fish would get better or die. Guess they were right. Heartbreaking stuff though.

I did test for blindness yesterday and the Tetra definitely reacted when I motioned with my hand outside the tank. The other thing with him was he didn't develop any colour, and was always pale looking. I think he may have had some silver spots around the top of his head.

Couldn't bare to see him suffer just lying at the bottom of the tank.

I think I'll no doubt be using this site much more whilst I'm still learning. Will definitely put some pics up when I get a chance.