What is wrong with my Tetra

[Ladyglo]

Tank

What is the water volume of the tank?45gallon Aqueon
How long has the tank been running? Started Jan 31, 2019 fish added March 2, 2019
Does it have a filter? Aqua clear 50 and small top fin from old tank
Does it have a heater?yes. Aqueon 300 and Aqueon 50Watt
What is the water temperature? 78F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) 5 male guppies/ 8 glofish tetras/ 5 glofish danios/ 2 Nerites and unknown number of small snails that came free with the fish. Just started adding plants a few weeks ago : 3 moss balls/ 2 java fern/ 1 Anubis nana/ amazon sword/ cardinal plant Plants were all disinfected with H2O2 and quarantined for 30 days

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? weekly
How much of the water do you change? 70 -75%
What do you use to treat your water? Prime and Glofish water conditioner. Flourish root tabs. Had had Thrive C but did not redoes with todays water change
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water?substrate

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish?yes
What do you use to test the water? API Freshwater master kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

Ammonia:0/.25
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:10-20 (used Thrive) Prior to Thrive had been 5 -10
pH:7.4

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? once or twice a day
How much do you feed your fish? what they eat in a couple of minutes
What brand of food do you feed your fish?GloFish flakes/ HakI'm guppy food
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? Blood worms as an occasional treat ( I gave them some this morning)

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish?March 2, 2019
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms?1530 today
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms?Fish is swimming head down
Have you started any treatment for the illness?No
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase?No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all?It's swimming with its head down and keeps floating up toward the top of the tank

Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness l. I did a water change this afternoon and then sat to watch the fish. I noticed that one of tetras looked like it was trying to swim to the bottom of the tank (they do that). However, this fish is continuously in this position and keeps floating up toward the top of the tank. I googled it and swim bladder came up but I don't know.
I will try to go to the app and attach a picture (couldn't copy and paste the template from the app). Sorry for it being disjointed.
Thanks,
LG

 

[jkkgron2]

Could be swim bladder disease, I have never experienced it in one of my tanks but I have heard that it can cause the fish to swim weirdly, float to the top, sink to the bottom, basically having trouble controlling going up/down.......I don’t know what meds you could use but I believe based on your info that your fish has swim bladder disease

 

[Ladyglo]

Thanks, that's my thought too. I'm just not familiar with treating sick fish These days its usually sick cats and dog

 

[GouramisAreSuperior]

Had a glowlight like that. Died in a day. This one is bigger, should be hardier and have a better survival chance. More water changes and diet fixes should help even a bit. Live food?

 

[ProudPapa]

As a disclaimer, I've only been keeping fish for 3 months, but I've done quite a bit of research and reading in that time. I wonder if smaller water changes would be better, especially since your parameters seem to be stable? Smaller water changes are less stressful on the fish, and there's less chance of causing problems if you done get the temperature just right on the new water.

I'm not saying that's causing the current issue, but it's something to think about. I do 25% - 30% twice a week, and my parameters are staying rock steady.

 

[GouramisAreSuperior]

yes 25%, just MORE CHANGES

Thanks, that's my thought too. I'm just not familiar with treating sick fish These days its usually sick cats and dog

Catfish and dogfish lol

 

[Ladyglo]

Live food?

NO

Catfish and dogfish lol

I get a string on a stick and catch furry cat fish

I do 25% - 30% twice a week, and my parameters are staying rock steady.

I'll think about it but, I've been doing large water changes for years without a problem. Parameters stay stable and you only bother the fish once a week

 

[ProudPapa]

I get a string on a stick and catch furry cat fish

I'll think about it but, I've been doing large water changes for years without a problem. Parameters stay stable and you only bother the fish once a week

You've been doing this longer then I have, so if it's working for you stay with it. Just to further my education, do you mind if I ask why you do such large water changes? I know people with fish that require extra clean water, like discus, do them, but why in a community tank?

 

[Ladyglo]

Just to further my education, do you mind if I ask why you do such large water changes?

Sorry it took a while to get back, the homework my daughter said was a couple of questions she could answer by herself, turned out to be 4 pages - that she couldn't.
Years ago, I had a Betta in a 5.5 gallon tank and did the standard 20-30% weekly water changes. Everything was fine, until I went on vacation, and came back to a betta with fin rot. I was only 2 days late on the water change and the parameters were still pretty close to baseline. The nitrates were a little higher than usual, but still within the range considered to be okay, by most sources. I wasn't a member on Fishlore at the time, and started searching the web and different fish forums on how to care for fin rot. Every article I read said the first step was to do large water changes, water changes, water changes. So I did ,among other things, unfortunately nothing worked, and months later the fish ended up dying. The whole thing traumatized me ( I have never had another betta since) but it got me to thinking. If fin rot is caused by poor water quality, yet the parameters we test for are all within normal limits, then it must be caused by untestable factors (micro organisms, bacteria, decreased minerals etc.) So, if I am only changing 25-30% of my water once or twice a week, it is like cracking a window open and only letting in a little fresh air as opposed to opening the door and windows and airing out the house. I again started looking around, and found that some people were doing weekly, large water changes without adversely affecting their fish. To me, it made sense and I thought that I would give it a try. That was probably 6 or 7 years ago. That said, my source water and my tank water are almost identical as is the temperature of the water I'm adding. If the parameters of my tank and source water were different, I wouldn't recommend or do such large changes.
I'm not saying that the smaller water changes are wrong, I realize that that is the standard recommendation and what most fish keepers follow. I think everyone has to do what works for them, and their fish. I like the larger changes and my fish always seem to swim around happier after the change. Maybe they just like having the whole tank back again , but I like to think it's that they like their fresh home.
Back to the original thread, my tetra is looking better today!!!

 

[ProudPapa]

Thanks for the explanation, and I'm glad your fish is better.

 

[Ladyglo]

No problem and thank you. Happy Thanksgiving!