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one of my neons which had metioned in a previous post that had some lumps on its belly is not struglling to swim to the surface. When it gets there it gives up and starts to sink!!

Anyone know what this is?


by the way its color is fading in its tail

Last edited by highjinx at 01-Mar-2005 16:51

What colour are the lumps?

Also, have you implemented a recent water change & gravel vac to ensure that the conditions in the aquarium are not worsening matters? Only it's a small aquarium that you mentioned, and small aquaria get dirty fast.

Do the lumps look as though something is pushing against the body wall from the inside, or are they reddened ulcers?

The latter - reddened ulcers - is a condition known as furunculosis. Usually caused by Aeromonas bacteria. Aermonoas salmonicida is a well-documented disease in farmed salmon - see here for a fairly terse but accurate clinical description.

It can also affect tropical aquarium fishes. Barbs are particularly likely to be affected when it strikes. However, it can affect any aquarium fish species whose immune system is sufficiently weakened.

And, of course, having the tail eaten by another fish is not going to help it's immune system stress wise.

If your lumps are furunculosis, you'll need antibiotics to treat it. A Furan antibiotic or tetracycline is usually cited as suitable for treating bacteria in aquaria, but this disease is tough, and needs something more heavy duty. In farmed slamon, the usual treatment involves Trimethoprim. Failing that, you'll need to obtain a water-soluble penicillin from a vet, preferably a synthetic penicillin with no resistance contraindications.

If the neon is still eating, the antibiotic can be administered via food. If not, you might have to subject it to some fairly stressful bathing in antibiotic baths.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

ok... a $1 neon is not that important to me, though the rest of the fish are. I seem to also have a cannibal in the buch of rasboras, neons, and danios, unless my corys are getting that hungry, and last night a perfectly healthy danio dissapeared. My brilliant rasboras have grown fairly large as well as the final 2 danios that I have, perhaps large enough to be eating other fish, but I thought that all my fish were peaceful. My neons are that only ones that ever have this illness. None of the other fish have shown any signs of being sick. I do frequent water changes, but rarely stir up the gravel very much seeing how as I have the 3 corys, and algea eater and all live plants, so one if not all of the above keep the gravel fairly clean.

So is it best to just go ahead and flush the sick neon in hopes that the illness does not spread, clean the tank a bit?

I'd engage in some detective work and try and pinpoint the 'cannibal'.

I'd also give Neons a miss until you do.

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

lol i doubt it is a neon, but you never know

but as soon as i posted that last post the neon kicked the bucket

so i fluched it before anyone got the chance to eat it

neons are so touchy, I almost wouldn't miss em if they all bought the farm

well later I'm gonna do a 50% waer change clean the gravel and clean up some of my plant life( lil over grown and some leaves are starting to die.

the lumps is still a mystery... the best way to describe the lumps... it looked like it was constipated with eggs.