New fish, three different concerns (with pics)

Torn

1. Size of aquarium (# of gallons) 30
2. Is your aquarium setup freshwater or brackish water? Freshwater.
3. How long the aquarium has been set up? It was fully cycled on the 18th May.
4. What fish and how many are in the aquarium (species are important to know) 11 Neon Tetras and some pond snails.
5. Are there live plants in the aquarium? Yes
6. What temperature is the tank water currently? 27C/80F
7. What make/model filter are you using? Eheim Classic 2213 external filter.
8. Are you using a CO2 unit? No
9. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? It's in quite a sunny room but it's about 8ft from the window so the tank doesn't get direct sunlight.
10. When did you perform your last water exchange, and how much water was changed? 2 days ago, 25%
11. How often do you perform water changes? I was going to be doing weekly water changes of 25% but I've done them a bit more often to keep the nitrates down.
12. How often and what foods do you feed your fish? Once a day, skipping one day a week. Flake foods mainly with freeze dried brineshrimp and daphnia as treats.
13. What type of lighting are you using and how long is it kept on? Fluorescent, 12 hrs a day.
14. What specific concerns bring you here at this time? One fish's colour fading, rapid breathing and white spot issues, see below for details.
15. What are your water parameters? Test your pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. PH - 7.6, Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - 0, Nitrate - 20
16. What test kit are you using and is it liquid or test strips? API liquid test kit
17. When was the last time you bought a fish and how did they behave while in the pet store tank? Saturday 26th May, they seemed fine, I couldn't see any sick looking fish in the tank. I probably didn't inspect them as well as I should have though.

Hello, my tank just finished cycling last week and I added 6 Neon Tetras on Monday 19th and I tested the water and there was still no ammonia or nitrite so I added 5 more on Saturday 26th (I asked for 4 but he gave me 5 by accident). On the Sunday I noticed that one of the fish was missing the tip of his tail and it looked a bit white, thinking it was fin rot I went and bought Interpet's fungus and fin rot treatment and added it to the tank. It looked much better the next day so I'm not sure if it actually was fin rot, it seemed to go away so quickly. Now today, I can see 3 little white spots on the same fish and it's breathing rapidly, but not gasping at the surface. The white spots are on the top of his head, one the the gill and one on his side. Another fish's red colour is faded and is also breathing quickly and another one's neon blue stripe stops and starts. Where the blue stripe stops, there is a slight lump, this fish has been this way since I got it, is it anything to worry about? Here's some pics, I couldn't get one of the fish with white spots.

Other than the interrupted blue stripe, this fish is acting normally.



The fish on the right has faded red colour and has rapid breathing but the blue/green stripe is still bright.



So now I'm not sure what to do, I have a carbon pad for my filter that I'm not using, I could use that to get rid of the fin rot medication, then treat for white spot? All of my fish are still eating well and apart from the three fish mentioned above all other fish seem healthy.
I bought Neon Tetras as my LFS didn't have any Cardinals for sale and the guy there told me that Neons are more hardy anyway...
It's probably something I've done wrong and I'm sorry if it is, please tell me how I can make them better.

Torn

Sorry, I meant Saturday 24th May. It's late ok?!
Goodnight!

Flashygrrl

If you have a hospital tank I suggest you utilize it immediately with any sick fish you see. If you don't, well, you need to go buy one. Have you noticed that these fish are a bit more restless than the others and swim all night? Your problem sounds like it could be Neon Tetra disease, which there are no treatments since the parasites have become resistant to any effective treatments. Get them out of that tank.

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/di...eondisease.htm

The only mistake you made was listening to the LFS. Ironically, Cardinals are immune to this disease. And odds are the parasites were in the burrowing stage at the time of purchase.

Lupin

It just looks typical columnaris, a gram-negative bacterial infection. You need Maracyn (erythromycin) here. Need to isolate the fish in a hospital tank as suggested by Flashygrrl.

I might add that your temperature is far too high for neons and at this temperature, the bacterial infection can progress easily. Keep it steady at 74-76 degrees Fahrenheit.

Flashygrrl

See, I figured NTD because of the lump mentioned on one of the fish.

Lupin

Hmmm..It would be great if there is a close-up pic for that lump. Could be a nematode, carcinoma or even tumor. Usually it goes away on its own but as this tends to happen internally, treating it especially with a small fish would be very difficult.

Torn

Thank you for your replies.
Oh dear....NTD, thanks for the link. The two fish that are gasping don't seem more restless than the others at night, they do seem a bit sluggish compared to the others though. The one with the little lump still seems fine. I noticed the fish with faded colour has actually been gasping at the surface today, the other one with the missing part on his tail doesn't do this but he hides quite a bit. The white spots have gone today. From pictures I've seen on the internet, it looked like ich to me, like little grains of salt stuck to the fish. If it is/was ich, would I not have to treat the whole tank for that? If so, what about the fin rot med, should I remove it with carbon first?

I do have a 10 gallon tank in the bedroom but it hasn't finished cycling yet, the readings are:
PH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0.50
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5 (same as tap water)

It has a mix of fine and coarse gravel, an ornament, a small piece of bogwood and a few live plants, would this be suitable for a hospital tank? Should I also seperate the one with the little lump even though he's acting ok? Sorry I tried to get a pic of it, but you couldn't see it. It's only a slightly raised area, it doesn't stick out far at all.

I'll cool the temperature slowly on the main tank.
Thanks for your help.

Torn

Update: I just found the fish with the faded colour dead on the aquarium floor. :( Before he died, he was having trouble swimming, he just seemed to be floating, getting pushed around by the current. Some of the other fish were pecking at him too, then I couldn't see him for a while and had the net ready to take him out but I was too late. I removed the other fish that was gasping and he's currently in a jug of the main tank water, I guess I'll put him in the 10 gallon by himself now. I won't put the fish with the little lump in just yet, until I'm told otherwise. I've just fed the remaining fish and they are all eating and looking good.

okiemavis

You should definitely add the carbon back in to remove any medications before treating with anything else.

Also, Maracyn will very likely knock out your biological filtration (although you may get lucky, sometimes it doesn't). So you'll have to watch your water parameters *very* carefully when treating with that.

Torn

Thanks okiemavis, I'll do that. I might as well put the lone Neon in the 10 gallon back in the main tank as all of my fish are gasping today.
I live in the UK and I can't find any Maracyn, I've read that they don't sell it here but I can get it shipped over from the US via ebay. I don't think my fish have that long, is there anything else I could use?

Unfortunately I live in quite a small town and although it has two pet shops, they're both pretty useless when it comes to fish meds. Neither of them sell live pets so I had to buy my fish from a store that's 20 miles away. They sell a good amount of medications but I don't drive so I won't be able to get there until the weekend when my boyfriend can drive me. I'm going to look in the local pet shops today but I need to know what to look for, any suggestions please?