Extremely thin tetra - is she diseased? 9/5/08 Dear WetWebMedia Associate- <Ave,> I owe a nice 35 gallon freshwater tank with not that many fish (only 12, among them 8 tetras, 3 albino Corys, and 1 Pleco) but with plenty of aquatic plants. In general, I do not have any problems in / with the tank, the water is fine, the fish are healthy. I am a big fan of Bob Fenner's "natural" treatment of water so the weekly changes of 1/3 of my tank's water are a commonplace. <Sounds good.> I noticed that one of my tetra fish is 1/3 of the size of other tetras. Indeed, from the beginning it was smaller than the rest of the group. But, the way I see it now - it is way too thin. It's fins are huge, its eyes and head looks unnaturally big. This resembles me the pictures of a starving human-being. <Ah, yes, does happen. It may be genetic, a developmental problem, or physical damage such as damage to the jaws. Could conceivably be a parasite; live Tubifex worms especially can cause problems in this way. What kind of tetra are we talking about here? My gut feeling is that this is simply a "runt" and there's not very much you can do about it.> I was observing that fish eating habits and noticed that it tries to eat but whatever it takes to its mouth, it "puffs" back. Seeing this now, I am afraid that my fish is dying from starvation :--(( I offer my fish a variety of foods - krill, shrimp, Tubifex worms, blood warms, and all kinds of flakes. But everything is dried - no "life" or frozen food. <Good.> I mix the food before supplying. Also, I feed them once a day, in the morning. The rest of the fish look big :--) not to say "fat." This little tetra is the only one that wants to eat but it cannot :--( <Could be damaged in some way, or with a blockage caused by a tumour or cyst. With very small fish there's not a lot you can do. Force-feeding such animals tends to cause more damage.> I noticed that this tetra when it gets a piece of food, holds to it firmly and swims around with it. But, it does not eat it. Other fish bite everything and try to get as much as they can. <Does sound like physical damage. You could try offering some Liquifry (that's food sold for feeding baby fish). This is softer and easier to slurp. Alternatively finely powdered flake food or hard boiled egg yolk (sparingly!) can be offered. See if it is able to eat these foods.> Do you know what is going on with my fish? I look over its body - there are no signs of parasites or any outside diseases. The only scary think is its extremely thin look. Is there anything I can do for my fish? How can I help it? <Not sure you can.> Please, let me know. Thank you very much for your help. Anna <Sorry to say, but I suspect the outlook for this fish is grim. If the fish is big enough to manhandle, then a plastic pipette to squirt in some minced prawn or flake food suspension can work. But for that the fish needs to be above a certain size, something about the size of an adult Platy. Anything smaller would be too easily damaged. Putting the fish in a floating breeding trap might offer some respite from competition, and you could see if finely powdered or liquid food was accepted. But my gut feeling is that nothing will help, and this fish will, eventually, die. I suppose you could treat with an anti-helminth medication (e.g. Prazi Pro) but the problem seems to be eating food, not digesting it, so I don't think gut parasites are the issue. Sorry can't offer better news, Neale.> Re: Extremely thin tetra - is she disease? (RMF, thoughts?)<<Mmm, nope. RMF>> 9/5/08 Thank you very much for letting me know, Neale. I will try the liquid food solution; hopefully my fish will get better. Anna <Fingers crossed! Do hope this works out, and good luck! Neale.>

Tetras (Neons & cardinals) dying one by one in the dark in a planted aq. 8/7/08 I hope you can help. Please forgive the length, but I wanted to give you all the info I could think of. <OK.> 30g L, been up for about 8 weeks (cycled with seed filter from friends established tank), custom hood with AHsupply 96w CF bulb (3.2W/gal), eco-complete substrate mixed with fine gravel. Fluval 205 filter. Stealth 100W heater. <All sounds good.> Tank has the following plants (most of which are thriving): Cabomba (2 bunches of 5 stems each), Moneywort (4 bunches of 3 stems each), Melon Sword, Chain sword (just a baby), Microsword (2sq in patch), Ruffle plant, Wisteria (just finally establishing its fine submerged leaves - 1 bunch of 3-4 stems), Broad Ludwigia (1 bunch of 3-4 stems), small Java fern, small Anubias nana, and a large bunch (about 15-20 long stems) of Anacharis (from a friends established tank). Sounds crowded, but you'd be surprised how open it really still is. <At least some get pretty big -- Echinodorus osiris for example will quickly take over a 30 gallon tank if it thrives; mature plants can be 50 cm tall and 30 cm across! Echinodorus martii likewise.> To this there's the following fish: 5 spotted Corys, 6 Otos, 3 "mystery" snails, 6 zebra Danios, and originally 8 each Neons and cardinal tetras. <Right, well one issue here will be temperature. To wit, Neons prefer cool water, 20-24 degrees C; Cardinals need warm water, 25-28 C. There's no "happy medium" at which both can be expected to do perfectly well. Corydoras, Otocinclus and Danios are also cool-tropical fish, and will thrive at 20-24 C (I'd go for 22 C). But that's too low for the Cardinals. So one way or another, at least some fish are going to be heat or cold stressed.> The light is on a timer to cycle 6 hours on in the morning, followed by a 3 hour off break mid afternoon, then another 6 hrs on in the evening. Then off for the remaining 9hrs overnight. <OK.> All was well, the plants are thriving, the fish too. <Good.> Then I added the Anacharis about 2 weeks ago. Suddenly I'm missing cardinals and Neons overnight, just 1 or 2. at a time. Never noticed any trouble with the actions/attitudes of the tank mates, everyone pretty much sticks to their schools. But the losses continued. Everyone looked fine when the lights are on... healthy, active, feeding. It was great. Well it's a great mystery alright. <Well, Neons and to a lesser extent Cardinals can be plagued with "Neon Tetra Disease" and will drop off one by one until the cycle of infection is broken. But it is also possible the new plants brought in a predator, such as a Dragonfly nymph.> I finally started watching closer at night and I found that after the lights been off for about 90 minutes (+/- 15 minutes) I notice a gradual and frightening change. Both the cardinals and Neons lose nearly all coloration going nearly white/clear. <Quite normal.> Then one or two of them start going bonkers and lose their equilibrium swimming upside down, backwards and on their sides, barrel-rolls, tumbling end-over-end, etc., then death. <That is odd.> Turn the lights back on and gradually (within 20-40 minutes) all coloration has returned and activity resumes normally. <Ah, now, this is curious. Have you checked how pH is affected by photosynthesis? When plants photosynthesise they remove CO2 from the water, allowing the pH to rise. When they stop, CO2 accumulates and pH goes down. Alternatively, some (but only the minority) can perform "biogenic decalcification", and I believe Anacharis is one of them. What this means is that they remove carbonate and bicarbonate from the water as the source of carbon for photosynthesis instead of CO2. This is why these plants prefer hard water. Anyway, in the process the water loses its carbonate hardness and consequently its pH buffering capacity. The net result will be that pH will drop while these plants are photosynthesising, and the water pH will also become less stable with regard to other pH altering processes.> My water parameters have been rock solid since the beginning: Nitrite 0; Ammonia 0; Nitrate "nearly" 0; kH 5deg; GH 12deg; pH 7.6; chlor. 0. I've even tested right before and after a light cycle and saw no appreciable difference. Temp stays between 78.5 and 80.5F. <Do check the pH and carbonate hardness through the day to test my hypotheses above.> My thought were CO2 poisoning - but the zero change to pH leads me to believe the CO2 isn't reaching toxic levels. Second thought - The plants are using up all the available O2 (I'm not aerating) at night thereby starving the smaller, more sensitive tetras. So I added a small airstone to the corner of the tank and set a small air pump to kick on when the lights go out (my timer has day/night outlets). It didn't seem to help. <Leave CO2 off for a few days and see what happens. Won't harm the plants.> Last Saturday night was the worst, within 2-1/2 hours three tetras gone (down to 6 now, 2 cardinals & 4 Neons left), and all the fish (except the 5 Corys, 2 largest Danios, and 3 largest Otos) were pale. Even with nighttime aeration. <Hmm...> So as a stopgap measure I retooled the timer to cycle the light and dark to 3 hrs light, 2 hrs dark ('round the clock). Two nights of success now with no casualties... but even though there is the requisite "amount" of light and dark I cannot imagine the rapid time cycles are any good for either the fish or plants long-term. <It isn't good for the plants; they need a certain length of time simply too start photosynthesising, and 3 hours won't be enough.> My next attempt will be to get a larger air pump and drive an 18" bubble wand across the back of the tank rather than the small airstone driven by the smaller air pump. I know this will drive out more CO2 to the detriment of the plants (though probably not too much), but it should eliminate the worry of CO2 poisoning, and should add O2 in the dark for the plants and fish to (hopefully) share. Also, I'll be raising the filter spout up closer to the surface to provide a little more surface agitation (currently its about 2in below with no agitation). <Not sure this is the issue.> Finally, since this all started after adding the fastest grower in the largest number/mass plant-wise (the Anacharis). It's possible that plant addition might've pushed the balance over the edge with respect to CO2 and O2 respiration. So I'll be pulling that out and trimming it back to a more manageable (2-3 bunches of 4-5 "short" stems each) size. <Hmm...> Hopefully then I can gradually return to slowly extending the light/dark cycles to a more natural rhythm and keep my fish healthy and my plants growing. Any thoughts? other suggestions? etc? Anything I missed? Mark <Cheers, Neale.>

Dying Tetras 2/10/08 I have been reading through your site and couldn't get a definite answer about my dying neon tetras. So I was wondering about my neon tetras. I recently added 12 neon tetras to my old school of 5. So my school of 17 looked awesome, but then I lost half of my school in a few days. <This seems to happen quite often with Neons, and is one reason I have stopped keeping them and don't recommend them. The quality of the mass produced stock is fairly poor, and I suspect depends a lot on the use of antibiotics. As soon as the fish arrive at the retailer, the antibiotics wear off and the fish become increasingly sensitive to opportunistic infections. This may be aggravated by the fact most people keep Neons far too warm; in the wild their preferred temperature range is 22-25 C, so compared with most other tropical fish, they need something a little cooler. Failing in this regard may be stressing them, leading to greater sensitivity to infections. Pleistophora ("Neon Tetra Disease") may also be prevalent. Although more expensive, Cardinal tetras strike me as being better value.> The aquarium is 55 gallons and my water parameters are fine except for pH which may be a little high (7.6). <Well within their tolerances; if acclimated, Neons have been know to do well at up to pH 8, 30 degrees dH! Water quality and temperature are probably much more significant issues.> Ammonia is 0ppm, nitrites are 0ppm, and nitrates are about 10-20ppm. My other fish in the aquarium are 1 dwarf Gourami, 2 blue gouramis, 1 gold Gourami, 4 rainbow sharks. I also have 4 crayfish in my tank, biggest on is about 3 inches long max. I am thinking maybe they are catching my Neons and eating them. <Crayfish will indeed eat small fish. Under no circumstances can crayfish be considered safe additions to the community tank. While it is true crayfish are mostly herbivores in the wild, in aquaria they can easily catch small fish. Because Neons sleep close to the bottom of the tank, crayfishes could easily catch and eat them.> I actually saw one snacking on a tetra but not sure if he caught him. It might also explain why I only actually see a few of my Neons dead while the other ones are just not there. <Do check for signs of Pleistophora: Infected Neons lose their colour, become shy, stay away from the group, and often hide under plants. A few days later they're dead. Pleistophora is highly contagious once the fish is moribund or dead because opening the body cavity (e.g., as other fish eat the corpse) allows the parasites to swim into the water. The only way to effective stop Pleistophora is to remove infected fish on sight. They should be painlessly destroyed, as there is no reliable cure, and certainly not once the disease because sufficiently entrenched that you can tell the fish actually has it.> They didn't jump out of the tank because I have a very tight fitting canopy and there's no dried up tetras on the carpet. One more thing too, if my pH is to high I was thinking about using water from a local spring in which the pH is about 6.4, and no ammonia, nitrite or nitrates. I would also run it through my deionization filter to make sure any harmful things would be removed. I would greatly appreciate your help and advise. <Mixing soft water with hard water out the tap is fine. I do this by mixing rainwater with tap water to good effect. Filtering the spring water or rainwater through carbon will remove any nasties, but generally such water sources are at least as safe for fish as tap water, perhaps more so. In any case, do always remember to make water chemistry changes slowly, perhaps doing 25% water changes each week until you reach the desired level of hardness and acidity. Now, the crayfishes will not like soft water. They need to be removed anyway, but just as a heads-up, in common with all crustaceans, "the harder the better" in terms of healthcare. Also remember that as hardness drops, so does pH stability, and many is the aquarist who's softened the water in their tank only to discover the pH suddenly drops between water changes. I'd not take the hardness below 10 degrees dH. Remember: fish don't care about pH, so long as its stable; what matters is *hardness*, as that directly influences osmoregulation. Cheers, Neale.>

Tetra buoyancy 10/20/07 Dear Crew, <Hello there! Andrea with you this afternoon.> Today after feeding my Tetras I noticed that 1 of my Neons is floating toward the surface and actively swimming to stay lower in the aquarium. I feed them tropical flake food with the occasional freeze-dried bloodworms. <Sounds delicious...> I hadn't noticed this behavior before today so my theory is that he sucked in some air while eating. My water parameters are as follows: Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate all 0, pH 7.8. <pH is a little on the high side for Neons, but I wouldn't worry much. You might add some driftwood as a decoration to the aquarium to soften the water and bring it down. What does concern me is that the NitrAte is at 0. How long has the aquarium been up? Generally speaking, in the FW world, we want to see a little nitrate, as it lets us know that the tank isn't cycling. You should have something of a reading...5, 10, 15 ppm at least. What kind of test kits are you using? You might take a sample to the local fish store and have them test it. Having zeros across the board usually tells me that either the tank is brand spanking new, or the test kits have gone bad.> I do a 40% water change every 5 days. <Excellent regimen. Keep it up!> I don't feel that it is a water quality issue, he's not listing around or floating head up or down, but when he stops swimming he floats to the surface. <Could be swim bladder dysfunction. It's not fatal, just looks funny. Do a search on WWM for Swim Bladder for more information.> Is there anything I can do or is this just a "wait and see" type of thing? <If he is otherwise acting healthy, stool looks normal, eating well, I'd just let him be. Could be needing a good burp, could be the food is too fibrous, could be swim bladder, could be something else. You might also try giving him some mushed up blanched peas, in case he has a mild case of constipation.> If it is air and he can't expel it, is that a fatal condition? <No, the air will find a way out, one way or another ;-). They are kind of like us in that way.> Also, how long could it take for him to recover from this? <It really depends what it is. If it is swim bladder damage, he might always be that way, and it is just a quirk. If it is something else, it may pass, or it may not. Worst case scenario is he has some problem that is affecting him neurologically, such as a bacterial infection or parasite, but I'd say the chances of that are relatively slim if he is eating and otherwise well. Unless he shows other symptoms, I'd just call him "Bobby" or "Floaty" or "Bouncy" or something cute.> Thanks for your help, <Anytime!> Evan <Andrea>
Re: Tetra buoyancy 10/29/07 Andrea, et al: <Hi Evan, sorry for the delay. I have been out of town.> Thank you for your help earlier. <Most welcome.> I wanted to update you on the situation. After about 5 hours "Bob" seems to be back to normal. <Glad to hear it.> I've only been keeping fish for 3 months, so when I saw his behavior I was surprised and alarmed. <It happens to all of us. I've been keeping fish for years and years, and still panic often. The same with my cats, frogs, lizards, toads, nieces, nephews....call it human care instinct. =). It does ease up a bit though.> And on the water tests: I'm using Jungle 5-in-1 and Ammonia quick dip tests so the readings aren't super precise and some of the tests have a large gap between values. On the Nitrate the scale is 0 then 20 and it was definitely not 20. <The test strips are good for getting a general feel of water conditions, but since you are new to the hobby, I really suggest you get better test kits, with liquid reagents. They really are an invaluable tool, especially early in the hobby when you are just learning. The accuracy will help you both learn and get a better feel for the conditions in your tank. API makes good kits for freshwater that are reasonably priced and readily available. You will want to have Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte, pH, kH, and possibly Phosphate on hand. Salifert are also excellent, but more expensive. It will serve you and your fish well to buy these and familiarize yourself with them and their properties.> Again, thank you all for your continuing help to all of us fish keeping novices and experts. <Our pleasure.> -Evan

Glowlight tetra... hlth., English    7/16/07 hi there hope you can help, I have a 75 gallon tropical freshwater setup with gravel substrate bog wood pieces and a nice dense selection of plants, I have 6 Neons, 6 Glowlight tetras, 6 Rummynose tetras and one bamboo shrimp, all water tests are fine and I cycled tank with no fish but with some mature gravel for 6 weeks, anyway one of my recent additions is the Glowlights but one is very bloated since I bought him/her, seems to ok as swimming ok and interacting with other fish. do you think she maybe pregnant or is this some form of disease that needs treating? any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated, thanks Mickey <Hello Mickey. A nice collection of fish and a good sized aquarium for them! Glowlight Tetras are egg-layers, so the female doesn't get "pregnant" as such, though female fishes of most kinds look swollen when they are full of eggs and ready to spawn. That said, this usually only lasts a couple of days, and it is usually obvious she is ready to spawn because the male fish will be following her about all the time. What is more likely is that she has some sort of sickness. Dropsy is the worst option. This is a symptom (accumulation of fluids in the body cavity) caused by a variety of generally untreatable diseases. A tell-tale sign of dropsy is that often the scales bristle out from the body, so when looked at from above the fish looks like a pine cone. Not much can be done about dropsy, particularly in small fish, and destroying the fish painlessly is generally the best thing to do. It isn't particularly contagious, but the things that caused the dropsy, such as poor water quality, can of course cause the problem to occur in another fish. That said, a dozen tetras in a 75 gallon tank are unlikely to be causing water quality problems. If your nitrite, pH, and hardness tests all look good, then I'd be tempted to write-off the Glowlight Tetra as simply a specimen that was probably sick when you bought it. Constipation can also cause swelling in fish, though typically in herbivorous species like Goldfish. Glowlight Tetras are largely carnivores feeding on insect larvae so don't need the same amount of fibre in their diet. A few meals per week of algae flake instead of regular flake is an excellent idea though just to be on the safe side. A long-shot is Neon Tetra Disease (NTD). This could potentially infect a Glowlight Tetra since they're quite closely related. NTD is basically untreatable though some commercial medications purport to offer a treatment when used early on. Regardless, NTD is highly contagious and sick fish should be removed (and probably destroyed) at the first sign of trouble. The classic symptoms of NTD are loss of colour, lethargy, and a tendency for the fish to leave the school and hide in shady corners of the tank. Just as some "meta-advice", because tetras are small and largely collected from the wild, they don't travel well or keep well in overcrowded tanks at the wholesaler and retailer. Often they have gone without proper food for many days, if not weeks, for certain parts of the trip. Being so small, their reserves are slight and mortality is quite high. When buying tetras, it is not uncommon to lose one or two within the first few weeks, and then everything settles down and the rest last for years. So even if you lose this one fish, do not be too alarmed, and focus instead on making sure the aquarium is clean and the water quality/chemistry correct for the species you are keeping. Cheers, Neale>
Re: Glowlight tetra -- 07/18/07 Hi Neale thanks for your reply it was very interesting, as for my bloated Glowlight its still looking bloated but swimming and eating ok and joining in with community life, I understand the casualty thing but the scales aren't sticking out at all. I only bought the Glowlights on Saturday would this be sufficient time to lay eggs if any were present if so I think maybe I should take your advice and write this one off sadly to a sick fish when supplied. I also recently bought a scribble Plec and what I think is a bamboo shrimp which really freaked me out on the third day of it being in my tank, I awoke to find what I thought to be "chip's" dead body on the bottom of my tank Eeek!! so netted it out and done the old flush, only to discover two days later when I was sat watching TV who comes walking out of my plants but old "chip" turns out they shed there skin!!! anyway he's such a dude he looks great now real bright vibrant colours; cream stripe down whole of body and sort of red/brown horizontal wiggles on his sides and quite a red tail, do you think he is a bamboo shrimp??? I know without a picture it is very difficult to know. many thanks <Greetings. Unlikely to be eggs. Breeding Glowlights is difficult, and to get them "in condition" for spawning takes time and the right foods. Unlikely to happen in an aquarium shop. In the meantime watch and observe, and I'd recommend adding some anti-bacterial medication as well. Ask your retailer for what's on offer in your area. Early stages of dropsy can (sometimes) be cured by things like Furanol. Scribbled Plec is Hypancistrus sp. or L66. Like other Hypancistrus it's only "half hardy" so treat it gently. It won't do well in strongly alkaline conditions (ideally, you need pH 6-7 and low hardness). It also likes a fair amount of warmth, something slightly around 26-28C, in keeping with most other fishes from the Rio Xingu. On the other hand, it is very sensitive to poor water quality and low oxygen concentration. As for the shrimp, that sounds exactly like a Bamboo shrimp (Atyopsis sp.). Nice animals. Not hardy, but with good care easy enough to keep. Harmless filter feeders, despite their size. Since you can't filter feed these animals easily, be sure to offer it plenty of suitable food. Algae wafers, Plec pellets, and other plant-based foods are ideal. Cheers, Neale>  

Poorly Glowlight Tetra  7/5/07 Hi, <Ave,> I've got a 30 Gallon tank and I'm a total novice. You'll have to bear with me because I don't know much about the real names of fish so I'll just tell you as best I can. <OK. But a recommendation: go buy or borrow an aquarium book. Very useful.> I have 7 Neon Tetras, 7 Glowlight Tetras, 5 Black Neon Tetras, 1 Male Siamese Fighting Fish, 1 Tiger Barb and 2 other fish that I can't remember the name of but I know it's got the word bubble in it! <ONE TIGER BARB!!!! Tiger barbs are intensely sociable fish. They need to be 6 or more to be happy. An unhappy tiger barb is something you don't want -- they are terrible fin-nippers, and as sure as God made little green apples will soon shred your Siamese fighting fish's fins down to nothing. If you want a solitary barb, choose something like the cherry barb, which is territorial and does best either alone or in groups in a big tank. They're actually good fun in groups, chasing one another about. But one is fun, too.> The reason I'm e-mailing you is that I've just introduced the Siamese Fighting Fish yesterday, and today I've noticed that 1 of my Glowlight Tetra's (which have been fine for ages) is swimming on its side but is swimming happily it seems, it isn't listless or on the bottom or top of the tank. It's swimming with the others. <Possibly constipation, if the fish is otherwise healthy. Check the diet. Standard flake is fine for a while, but it lacks fibre. Crushed tinned peas and bits of cooked spinach or Sushi Nori are good green foods for small fish. Also try live daphnia and brine shrimp. Anything to get the digestive system working.> It also seems to have scales missing on 1 side from what I can see. Apart from swimming on it's side and the scales missing, it's not gasping or swimming erratically or anything. I don't seem to see any symptoms of disease other than the swimming on the side and the scales missing. <Missing scales are worrying. I wonder if it has been harassed by something. Siamese fighters are sometimes aggressive though not usually to tetras. Tiger barbs can be nippy, as mentioned. One other thought is physical damage, for example swimming into a filter or clumsy netting by you or the retailer when catching the fish. Either way, it's a good idea to treat with anti-fungus/anti-Finrot just to nip any potential problems in the bud.> I really can't tell what's wrong with him but I'm panicking in case it's a disease and all my fish will die! <Doesn't sound "catchy". Treat as recommended, and observe for other symptoms.> I don't know if the Siamese Fighting Fish has got anything to do with it, but the pet store I got him from assures me that he is perfectly healthy and he isn't attacking the fish at all he seems to be having fun on his own....? <Entirely possible he'll be fine in your tank. Siamese fighters are usually at the receiving end of trouble in community tanks though. They find it very difficult to swim because of their abnormal fins. This makes it difficult to feed and to swim away from trouble. Many fans of Siamese fighters simply recommend keeping them "in solitary" all the time. I'm not quite that extreme, but do watch things carefully.> I really don't know what to do. I haven't had my water tested as I don't have a kit as yet but I will get one straight away. I've been doing water changes weekly (about 25%) and I've been adding a weekly cleaner that I bought from a pet store. I doesn't actually have a name, it just says weekly cleaner on the bottle and I've also been adding a chlorine control when I do a water change. I add these chemicals on the advice of the pet store but I'm starting to doubt their advice as last time I visited the store 2 of their tanks had dead fish in which I had to tell them about! <Firstly, get a water test kit. If you're on a budget I recommend the dip strips. They aren't especially accurate perhaps, but they are cheap and easy to use. Each strip comes with nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, pH, and hardness indicators, which covers all the basic things you need. I cut the strips longitudinally, so get 2-for-1. Since a pack costs about £10 and contains 20 strips, that's 40 tests altogether at 25p a throw. Doing bigger water changes will do no harm; 50% a week costs nothing more in time and effort and doubles the positive impact of each water change on your fish! I have no idea what "weekly cleaner" is but it sounds like rubbish. The only thing you normally need to add to the tank weekly is dechlorinator, and that is added to the water before its put into the tank. Plant fertiliser is another thing, but it's optional. Otherwise, everything else is either more or less useless (tonic salt for example) or only to be used in certain situations (such as pH buffer). Pet shops want you to buy stuff you add weekly because its profitable for them. As well as providing a service, they are in business, so you can't blame them. But you can be a bit more discerning in what you buy. Some things, like bigger fish tanks and better quality filter media *do* make a difference and are worth spending the money on. But other things are often just nonsense.> HELP! Sam <Hope this helps, Neale>  

Neon Tetra with mouth stuck open.   6/21/07 Hi All, > I'm Fran and this question really does what it says on the tin. We have a neon tetra who appears to have his mouth wedged open. He sort of inhales smaller food particles so he's not starving, but it looks painful. My other half reckons it's just because he's old, and he does not seem the type of fish to leap about and injure himself, but I do not know what else could have done this and what I can do to help him. Many thanks on behalf of myself and Tetra, F. <Hello Fran. This does sometimes happen, and usually when I've seen this on tetras it is because of a congenital deformity. Sometimes larger fish, like cichlids, dislocate their jaws when fighting. But that's unlikely to be the problem here. I'm not sure how a neon might damage its jaw to this degree, at least, not without something obvious, like mouth fungus, setting in first. Since the fish is feeding and otherwise healthy, I wouldn't worry about it too much. FYI, Neons should live for around 3-4 years in aquaria, if that helps you decide whether he's "old" or not. Cheers, Neale.>

Death of our white-tipped tetra - overfed?   3/14/07 Hi, <Hello there> Thanks for such an informative and interesting site. <Welcome> Me and my boyfriend are reasonably new to the fish keeping game and sadly we've just experienced our first fish death. I'm really writing for some advice so that hopefully we can avoid any too many more in the future. <Sounds good> We have a 112 litre tank (just under 30 US gallons according to the online converter). We've had the tank since January and we cycled it for 3 weeks before adding fish (we have a very good LFS who wouldn't let us buy fish until we provided them with a water sample from our cycled tank!!!). <Good for them, you, the planet> Water parameters were fine when we tested on Saturday (nitrite and ammonia 0, nitrate 12mg/L, ph  8). <Yikes... this last is quite high... particularly for small S. American Tetras...> Sorry - not sure how parts per gallon work but 12mg/L is reasonably low. <Parts per million and milligrams per liter are equivalents... the same... Think about this... there are a million milligrams or water...> The tank is filtered, heated (around 76 F) and planted (grasses, a couple of broad leaf plants and some floating plants). We have: 3 bamboo shrimp 5 white-tipped tetras (was six) 4 Corys 1 whip-tail catfish 2 thick-lipped gouramis (male/female pair) <Sounds very nice... but do watch those Gouramis> Yesterday I did a 20% water change (tap water with dechlorinator added - roughly same temperature as tank water). Everyone seemed fine. A few hours later we feed them frozen bloodworm. We tend to do this once a  week - usually at the weekend when we can watch them going nuts over them! Again, everyone seemed fine. We first noticed things weren't right a few hours later when the male Gourami charged at one of the tetras (I know gouramis can be territorial but this was a major shock as we have the most chilled out and friendly Gourami). <At times...> On closer inspection I think it was because the tetra was behaving oddly - floating at the top of the tank and spasming. The Gourami didn't do him any damage, I think he was just curious. The tetra couldn't swim against the flow of the water and when he did try to swim he was spasming quite violently. He was looking swollen but other than that not a mark on him. He found a quiet place behind the filter and stayed there for an hour or so. Then he seemed to perk up a bit and went for a little swim. He was gasping for air though. He then went and sat at the bottom of the tank and after a few hours he died.   We scooped him out and my boyfriend gave him a close inspection - not a mark on him. The tetra looked very swollen so perhaps we overfed him. He was absolutely fine in the morning and acting as normal so it was a very sudden deterioration. We didn't feed any more bloodworm than normal but he was our smallest tetra by quite a margin and so perhaps he ate more than his share?? Does this sound possible? <Is, yes> I've read that bloodworm can be hard to digest - is this a big problem? <Can be for small fishes, yes> The other tetras didn't look swollen at all and were swimming around fine. We've had the tetras since the end of January and the last addition to the tank, the Corys, we have had for 3 weeks now. Could it be an infection and would you advise any action? <Not likely an infection... I would not "treat" here... more likely to cause harm than help> I can't help thinking we've overfed him, which makes me really sad. He looked swollen and uncomfortable and it all happened so quickly that I'm sure it must  have been something that day - the food or the water change. <These could both contribute...> Much appreciate any guidance you can give. Sorry for the mix of volume units - I'm British but thought you'd appreciate US measures where I could do them. Thanks Naomi <No worries... A third possibility is that this one fish had a sort of genetic/developmental disorder... Fishes aren't "quite developed" even at good size... Bob Fenner>