Jump to content

what might kill guppies/glowlights , and finally the black n


Frankenfish

Recommended Posts

Morning all.

I'd like to figure out what might be wiping out guppies and glowlights but leaving Black neons unaffected.

During the process of setting up my first large tank (separate link about to be put up with the final results) and collecting fish along the way, I had a collection of fish plonked together in a mixture of tanks. (some very new to me via trademe). One of the tanks was at my old Mums, whose eyesight isn't the best, but when I checked there were a number of corpses, her guppies initially, and then my glowlights.

Immediate assumption was ammonia as a test showed maybe 1ppm, though the ammo alert dial was always showing as Ok (I have my doubts about those things).

Anyway, all fish immediately moved to another tank, good water and all testing OK, but most of the glowlights continued to perish over the next couple of days, plus a platy, but the black neons so far seem unaffected, (though I have slight suspicions about one). It came on really suddenly, and they are all QTD at the moment under observation

Some of symptoms seem to resemble Neon tetra disease, doing the google thing- colour loss, inability to swim properly, or ending up swimming upsidedown/sideways, but I haven't noticed any wasting first. I do have a video, but not sure how I would upload as yet.

Does anyone know how long it takes from infection to corpse in NTD, if that's what it is. I will also probably be too scared to put anything back in the main tank even if they stay looking healthy, but is there a time after which it would in theory be safe..3 months is what I have in my head.

Update- Black Neons are finally succumbing-doing the swimming at with head elevated thing. Still have 4 glowlights alive and flipping

Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do not know about neon tetra disease however the ammonia poisoning will effect fish in different ways. It can take up to a couple of weeks for fish, whose gills were damaged in the initial ammonia spike, to finally succumb to it. Ammonia burn can cause loss of colour as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The colour fading in neon tetra disease is characteristic of neons feeling out of sorts for all sorts of reasons. I have always thought of ntd being incurable although I have seen importers in the good ol days treat with formalin. I think it only held the signs off for a while until they could offload them. I would suspect it is something else but hard to guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Morning all.

Immediate assumption was ammonia as a test showed maybe 1ppm, though the ammo alert dial was always showing as Ok (I have my doubts about those things).

the ammo alerts only show the free ammonia.. i.e the form that is toxic and kills. The test kits usually test for total ammonia which includes free and the non toxic form . Thats why the dial can show ok while a test kit shows a positive result for ammonia.

My guess is that there was an ammonia spike and had you been there would have seen the alert register.. but now its come down and you've tested at the end of the spike.

Higher pH and warmer temperature will also cause more free ammonia from that total reading.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...