Sick Cardinal Tetra? Terra Disease?

One on my cardinals is looking wonky. Everyone including him looks healthy other than his wonky shaped body. I’ve owned these cardinals for about 4 months. I bought I dozen of them them and 3 died a few weeks after. Then another 3 died a few weeks after that. This is the only fish I don’t seem to have much luck with.

Is this neon tetra disease? I have tried to get a decent pic but it was quite hard.

Thanks.

 

Hi! It’s hard to say from the Pics look like he was moving at a good clip while you were snapping, but his caudal does look a little downturned. Is he looking lumpy or turning white anywhere? What all are you observing that seems off?

 

Hi! It’s hard to say from the Pics look like he was moving at a good clip while you were snapping, but his caudal does look a little downturned. Is he looking lumpy or turning white anywhere? What all are you observing that seems off?

If you look closely at picture 3, you'l notice that it is in a wonky shape. It's probably not as obvious in the picture as in real life.

 

While as I understood it, cardinals are supposed to be resistant to neon tetra disease, I don’t believe they are immune either. It could be something else besides that, too, like dropsy. How is he looking today? Do you have a hospital tank available to QT him?

Also, what are you water parameters looking like, including your ph?

 

The wonkiness seems to have faded ever so slightly. But he is definitely still wonky when compared to the others. I don't currently have any test strips. But I do weekly water changes at 50% and have a fluval 406 running on a 200 litre tank. I know that the ph coming from tap is somewhere between 7-7.5 from previous tests (I find the colour codes on test strips hard to read with accuracy).

The cardinal is also shoaling with the others as normal and feeding. The only thing that is out of the ordinary is the wonky body/tail.

 

Perhaps the fish has a genetic physical deformity of the spine or another deformity e.g. one caused when younger. It isn't uncommon.