# Glowlight Tetras dropping like flies. What's wrong?



## A643578 (Jul 25, 2011)

I acquired a school of 16 glowlight tetras - 8 from Petco and 8 from my LFS. Two of them died the next day even though I drip acclimated them for 2-3 hours. 

A week has passed and then one of the fish looked abnormally discolored. I disregarded it since I just did a water change and that might have stressed out the fish. Well, the following day 5 of them showed the same signs. Yesterday (the day after that) one of them died. I'm not sure if it was the one with the discoloration and more displayed the same signs.

I'm thinking it might have been the water change that affected them BUT I let my water rest in a plastic container for about 3 days. Added dechlorinator and the usual amount of fertilizer for the plants. Temperatures, alkaline hardness, and pH for both tank and replacement water were the same. Nitrates are about 10-20ppm, 0 ammonia, and 0 nitrites. 

I looked around the internet and it SEEMS that they got neon tetra disease/pleistophora OR columnaris. I had something similar happen to another tank not so long ago where it wiped out my school of rummynose and cardinals. It stuck hard and fast, killing all 20 tetras in a period of 2 weeks.

I just pulled out a plastic container to quarantine the discolored fish. 5 of them remain in my tank and 8 of them are in the hospital/QT tank. 3 of them are in the freezer; I'll try to return/exchange them to Petco. I am afraid some of the 5 remaining are showing the same signs today. I dosed melafix just in case its a infection/bacterial thing but I doubt it will do anything. 

Notice the difference in color between the middle tetra and the rest:


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## lipadj46 (Apr 6, 2011)

melafix is more or less useless (pimafix is OK for light injuries IME), make sure you turn on a air stone with it or the fish will get stressed. they really don't look like they have columnaris or tetra disease. tetras from petsmart are a waste of money from my own experiences.


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## Imaginary1226 (Jul 27, 2010)

I would pull them all out and put them in quarantine.


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## A643578 (Jul 25, 2011)

Imaginary1226 said:


> I would pull them all out and put them in quarantine.


They are the only fish in this tank. Well I do have 2 bamboo shrimps in there. But these were with the rummys and the cardinals in the other tank and nothing happened to them. Should I still place all of them in the QT/hospital tank?


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Looks like NTD. Quarantine the tank and everything in it. I do not know how to sterilize the things after the fish die, but I would start with pretty strong chlorine bleach. Obviously the plants cannot tolerate this, and it will kill the cycled filter. 

Get new plants, and anything else that cannot tolerate being sterilized. 
Then do the fishless cycle and try again.
I do not know if shrimp are carriers, but if you want to keep them, I would put them in a tank by themselves and do LOTS of water changes, hoping to flush away any infectious organisms that might be hanging around. I understand the way it is spread fastest is when the other fish eat one that died of this disease.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I like Melafix and Pimafix personally, but only for minor injuries (bumps, cuts, etc). At the point where fish are actually dying, IMO it's time to pull out the commercial meds.

I'd personally hit this tank with some antibiotics.

I agree with Diana that it may be NTD, but another option that discoloration suggests to me is Columnaris. Both are really nasty and it's highly unlikely for Mela/Pimafix to be strong enough to do much against them. If it's Columnaris you can expect all your fish to be gone within a few days unless you get treatment going ASAP. If it's NTD then it won't respond to treatment and you may be stuck breaking down and sterilizing everything like Diana explained.


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## A643578 (Jul 25, 2011)

Well it has been a couple of days since the first sighting and now all the tetras show the same discoloration.

The weird thing is that the whiting is described as necrosis/dead tissue in the many articles that I have come across, but my tetras are swimming normally, they all dart to the top when I sprinkle flake food, and school normally.

I remember in one of my other tanks, a couple of months ago, something struck all my tetras. Part of their bodies whitened - normally around the tail - and the affected tetra could barely swim. They normally died 1-2 day after first seen with the white patches.

Picture of the affected cardinal in my old tank:


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

16 at once could be a big load on the tank, how big is your tank??? Once the fish are in the tank I don't see any reason to pull them it's too late and the water change can effect new stock that are stressed if you don't keep the water temp constant. Truthfully I don't ever add any medications to my tank because they seems to create more problems than they cure and after my first year of having a tank I have never added any in the past 7 years. I do think more info is needed about your tank to make an good recommendation.

Water quality and foods can be a big issue with fish heath, I see plant nutrient problems and some algae problems in your pics. Also mature Glolights have more red coloration than juveniles so with 8 from each store the ages could vary.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Yup- I think that's Columnaris or a similar bacterial infection.

I've found it can be a "sleeper" infection and re-occur months after an apparently successful treatment.

I'd get a really heavy-duty broad-spectrum antibiotic going ASAP if you haven't already started one- something like Triple Sulfa. I'd do at least one full course of treatment if not two. I lost a batch of new Cardinals to this or something really like this a few years back- took out about 40 Cardinals in less than a week.


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## A643578 (Jul 25, 2011)

150EH said:


> 16 at once could be a big load on the tank, how big is your tank??? Once the fish are in the tank I don't see any reason to pull them it's too late and the water change can effect new stock that are stressed if you don't keep the water temp constant. Truthfully I don't ever add any medications to my tank because they seems to create more problems than they cure and after my first year of having a tank I have never added any in the past 7 years. I do think more info is needed about your tank to make an good recommendation.
> 
> Water quality and foods can be a big issue with fish heath, I see plant nutrient problems and some algae problems in your pics. Also mature Glolights have more red coloration than juveniles so with 8 from each store the ages could vary.


My tank is a 29g one. I got this about 1-2 month ago during the petco $1 dollar sale. I used part of the substrate and media from my old tank. I let it run with just the shrimps and otos for about 2-3 weeks before adding the glowlights. All parameters stayed within normal. The second batch I added 3 days after I got the first one. I have been feeding them TetraMin flakes and for treats, Hikari freeze-dried bloodworms and tubifex.

My old tank did have algae problems but that's because I had too much light in my tank and got sort of lazy - college and all - with the CO2 and fertilizers. 

*More info about my tank:*

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 10-20ppm
gH: 3 degrees
kH: 3 degrees
Ph:~6.8-7.0
CO2: Hagen bottle with ladder
Temp: 84F (today)
Filter: SunSun/Perfect/Grechen HW-302 264gph
Lights: Current USA T5HO 2x24w (lowered it to 1x24w)
Substrate: 60 lbs of Eco-Complete
Ferts: Using liquid ferts (Kent Pro, Kent Iron & Maganese and Tetra FloraPride)

Also, I let the water rest overnight or longer plus dechlorinator before adding it to my tank. So the temperatures are pretty much the same. 50% water change weekly. I have been doing 20-30% every other day since I saw the discoloration.

And about the ferts, I had these liquid fertilizers before I knew about plantedtank.net or dry fertilizers. Just waiting for them to run out.


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## wendyjo (Feb 20, 2009)

I thought columnaris looked cottony? To me the fish looks opaque.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

Well 16 is a huge number in a 29 gallon, the Glolights in the upper photos look fine to me and the other pic of the Cardinal is old, right.

I think you may be jumping the gun, the difference in color could just be age and/or sex.


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## Deahttub (Apr 17, 2011)

I have the same thing running through my tank....hopefully it will run its course....


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## A643578 (Jul 25, 2011)

150EH said:


> Well 16 is a huge number in a 29 gallon, the Glolights in the upper photos look fine to me and the other pic of the Cardinal is old, right.
> 
> I think you may be jumping the gun, the difference in color could just be age and/or sex.


When I got them all of them were sort of translucent not white. 

Anyhow, the whiteness is fading and the tetras are regaining their original color. 

I had one of them die right now, but it was for a different reason. His eyes were kinda popped out. There is another tetra whose belly is pretty bloated and his eyes are kinda bulging out too. Hopefully this is not something contagious as I don't have any meds with me. 

Still doing 30-40% water changes every other day.

Tetra count is down to 12 of 16 - possibly 11 by tomorrow. 

By the way, thanks for the replies. Even though this forum is about planted tanks, it has been more responsive to my issue than other forums.


*Edit:
*
Here are two shots of the same tetra


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## wendyjo (Feb 20, 2009)

Sounds like you have pop eye and possibly dropsy going on. You should probably pic up some meds asap.


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## sam22sam (Nov 9, 2010)

Some of the symptoms is what I have seen in my tank also. I had a similar experience in my tank while trying to introduce cardinals. The cardinal that you showed with the missing tail and the white patch is the same.

Link to my post

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/fish/143327-disaster-trying-introduce-cardinals-into-my.html

I am using tetracycline. If you find a cure for this infection let me know. I will watch this thread also.


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## A643578 (Jul 25, 2011)

The cardinal tetra you saw in that picture died along with all the tetras in that tank. This includes the 12x rummynose I had and the 8x cardinals. At that time I didn't have any medications and I don't think it would have helped since the tetras died on me daily; it hit strong and fast. 

One difference between my situation and yours is that I had the cardinals with no problems for almost a year and the rummys for about 3 months. 

I did notice that it started happening after I tried introducing a school of corydoras (panda, peppered, and then bandits) and they all died for some unknown reason as well. I tried vacuuming the substrate, I changed the substrate to a fine one, made sure they ate, maintained pristine water conditions; but still their barbels eroded, then I would see a bloody mouth, and then they died. Some of then got stuck in between the gravel and driftwood - something that I have never experienced with other fish/invertebrates. Again, my substrate was as clean as a planted substrate could be.

I want to believe that I just had bad luck the past 1-3 months, as this never happened to my fish the many years that I've kept them.


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