FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Two of my neons died the other day for no apparent reason. Looking closely at my fish I saw several had ick spots. I dosed the tank. This evening I did a water change and realized my oldest tetra (a 2" bleeding heart) was covered with ick and several others were showing spots. Then looking saw that all my neons appear to have had their tails chewed off. While my daughter and I were looking at the fish we noticed that they most of them seem to be tilted when they swim or hover. They are all swimming around like they usually do and eating. And one of my plants suddenly sprouted a leaf that in one day grew the entire height of the tank. I can't figure this out.

Prior to dosing the tank for ick I had done a check on my chemicals and everything is in normal ranges. The pH is hovering at 6.5 and my ammonia is non-existant, the nitrates very low, temperature in the tank a steady 70 degrees. The tank has been set up for about six years without a single problem since day one.

The last new fish I introduced was about two weeks ago - a chocolate albino pleco that shows no signs of ick. I've got a 90 gallon that is home to two plecos, a large cory, two khulis, and lots of tetras --- neons, silver, bleeding hearts, lemon, and several different zebra danios and four rasporas. Plus two golden mystery snails.

I'm concerned about the condition of my tank. Some of my fish I've had for as long as five years. I don't want to lose them. Does any of this sound like something anyone has heard of?

Rae

Can't help you much on the odd happenings in your tank... I haven't had to compete with ich *knocks hard on wood desk* as of yet.

The tetra tilt though... I've noticed this in tetras, barbs... they all seem to tilt slightly to one side. Like they rarely swim upright. Drives me batty, almost as much as the tetra twitch does. You know, how they hover in mid-water and just... twitch? I've noticed this is just about every tetra I've seen (I've got black neons that are the bane of my aquarium life, and a really sweet barb that I rescued as a fry, who also tilts slightly to one side while swimming).

Not sure why they tilt like they do, but I've seen it in perfectly healthy specimens, so it may not be a product of illness.

What kind of plant is the one that shot up the miracle leaf? *chuckles* I had an aponogeton that practically took over my ten gallon... shot up new leaves every other day and would go from new growth to longer than the height of the tank in less than a day. Was quite a cool plant... then I took out the flourite (which it loved and I hated)... now it hates me and doesn't grow much at all. *sigh*

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~