I'm so ticked right now =;

So last Friday I purchased five emperor tetras. I was all excited too. Well one was dead within two hours, and now today I have one more dead one and the rest are knocking on death's door so to speak. So I'm very frustrated. I go to fish out the dead body this morning to take back to the lfs and what do I see but my betta with fin and tail rot (I think) and a pristella tetra swimming kinda funky.

So I took the fish back to the lfs told them what was going on (lied a little and said that all five tetras were dead, because they will be shortly) and got a refund. I purchased Tetracycline tablets to try and help my betta.

And, on an interesting note while I was at the lfs the clerk asked me if I would like replacements. I said yes until I saw what their remaining tetras looked like. Lets just say I think my dead ones looked better than their remaining live ones! On Friday they had over 40 emperors, now today there were only six left. Gee, I wonder if they were sick?

I'M SO MAD RIGHT NOW!!!! This is what I get for not having a q-tank I suppose but still!

If anyone has advice for what I can do for my betta and the remaining emperor tetras I would absolutely love to hear it. Also, does anyone know if I should remove the filter cartridge (it has carbon) because the package just says to filter as normal so I'm a little confused.

Thank you!

 

I would remove the carbon anyway.

Although it's most likely that your fish where sick when you got them, what are your water parameters anyway? What are their symptoms? Is the betta in the same tank as the tetras?

-Chelle

 

Yes, the betta is in the same tank as the tetras. Right now, the remaining emperor tetras have white blotches near their tails and basically have no tails left. I'm thinking that the tail damage came initially from the lfs as well as they were in a tank full of serpae tetras. The tetras are just hovering at the top of the tank, not really swimming and haven't eaten since I got them.

The betta has a large light colored blotch coming up from from his abdomen and it about half way covers his face and gills. His fins are also turning a whitish brown color. He is not swimming around either, just resting on the driftwood.

I will remove the carbon. Thanks for your help.

Oh, and water parameters are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 25 and pH 7.6

 

Update: The death toll has now risen to 1 male guppy, 3 emperor tetras, and my betta is barely swimming at all. Maybe I wasted my money buying meds after all.

 

Im sorry to hear that!

 

aww thats very sad. when i bought 2 angel fish one was on the edge of dying so i took it to the lfs. I took a look at the other angels and my one that was almost dead looked better aswell. so i asked if for the same amount i could get other fish. with that i got two mickey mouse platy (they are dead now :cry: but one left me 3 fry)

 

really sorry to hear that i really hate when that happens

 

I'm sorry about your fish. :cry:

Hopefully the tetracycline will start working in time.

-Chelle

 

wait.... is the tetracycline just a play on words for tetra antibiotics, or is it ACTUALLY tetracycline?

 

Thanks everybody, I appreciate it. What is listed under the ingredients on the med I bought is "tetracycline" which is also the name of the product. Does that help at all bill? I'm afraid I'm quite dumb about medicine's and what not.

I've been informed by another forum after showing a pic of my betta that the picture is a dead ringer for ammonia burn. Which I really don't understand as my kits all read just fine and the guy at the lfs didn't say I had any ammonia present after testing my water when I returned the bodies early today.

Here's a before pic of Spike the betta:



Here's a pic of him now:



And another:



You can definitely see the fin and body detirioration ( can't spell tonight sorry) and well as the color change. He did not eat and honestly if I could see his gills moving I would think he was dead.

On a brighter note about the tetras, the one without a tail who how has his back end sort of rotting off is trying to school with the one other surviving tetra that oddly enough, isn't showing any signs of being sick. Could this be a good sign? I doubt it as he really looks as though he should've been dead a very long time ago.

Here's pic of the really bad off emperor (if you are squeamish please do not look:



Now as I said this tetra is still swimming against all odds. I really feel I should be euthanizing it, but at the same time I am hoping against hope that it will pull through. And if nothing else I want to watch the progress of the illness so that I can learn something of it and hopefully figure out what has gone so horribly wrong.

Here's a bad pic of the last remaining healthy emperor:



I really thank everyone for the help so far and would love to hear any other suggestions on what I can do to prevent this from happening again. I will be using a quarantine tank for any additions in the future. But all suggestions are welcome.

Sorry for the pic intensive post dial up users.

Tina

 

Hi bill_lumbergh, As cute as it may sound, Tetracycline is not made from or for Tetras any more than Terrimycine is made from or for people named Terri. I believe the Tetra portion of the name actually refers to the number of chemicals used to produce the cycline.

 

Hi tina 1, The best thing you can do is to look over the tanks at the pet shop thoroughly before buying any fish. It is best to watch any particular fish you are interested in at the pet shop for several days before making your purchase, and not going in the day that they arrive at the pet shop and buying them. Also the two best times of the day to buy fish at the pet shop are as soon as they open in the morning or a half hour before they close in the evening. The reason for going in the morning is you can see what dead fish they are pulling out of their tanks. A shop will always have some loss in each tank, but you can see if they are having to pull 4 or 5 fish out of one tank. The reason for going a half hour before closing is this is the usual feeding time for most shops and you can see if the fish are eating well and appear to have healthy appitites. Hope this helps.

 

wow your betta was so nice! pitty though. you can see the damage to the fins. I am not sure what you can use for cure i hanvt even heard of the chemical you are all talking about. :0011: its sad about those tetras they were cool! i havnt ever seen them, our lfs never sell them sadly. i wish they did, i would have a tank full. lol.

 

Ok thanks everybody I appreciate the help. My betta, the sick emperor, and another guppy were dead this morning. No one else is showing any symptoms at the moment so I am keeping my fingers crossed and will finish the course of meds just in case.

Just on weird note. My ram whose supposed to delicate beyond belief if you believe all the hype is still just swimming around happily showing no signs of anything being wrong around her. So the moral of the story: Only buy "delicate" fish lol!

Thanks again everyone

 

lol

 

lol

 

any new updates? how is your betta doing?

 

Sorry, been a bit busy.

Spike the betta died (RIP little buddy), all the emperors but one have died and I've lost a couple more guppies. I haven't seen anyone else showing symptoms for two days now so I think we're pretty much in the clear. I'm finishing up the Tetracycline on Friday and will do a large water change then and see how it all goes.

I feel guilty for saying this but all I keep thinking is thank god I didn't put them in with the rams! Nothing like playing favorites right?

 

lol ::cough::favorites::cough:: jk, to bad about your fish that died. its sad. i lost my male platy died today :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: he was such a nice fish. he was a nice yellow with a nice orange tail and black body. great fish! but i was so sad to see him die. i hope nothing else happens to your other fish. it would be sad if anything did.

 

That's really sad!