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hi im really hoping someone can help me. i have a 4x2x2 which has been set up for about 9 months. ive got 6 clown loaches, 30 neons, 6 panda corys, 4 scissortails a leopard plec and some shrimps. i change 20% of the water every week my ph is 6.8,kh.3,gh.7, no3.25. 10 days ago i added 10 neons without quarantine since then ive lost almost half of my fish. none of them have shown any sigh of illness until they act very strangely(swimming eratically, bumping into things)and die very quickly. ive done a 50% water change and im keeping a close check on the water quality but they are still dying rapidly ive had another 6 neons die today!!. can anyone please offer me any advice? thanks

Sounds like it could be whirling disease, some neons of late have been fairly notorious when it comes to spreading the protozoan and mycobacterial infections , a lot of which have similar symptoms. If you can give us a close up photo's of the neons, especially near the tail area , it could help a great deal.

Also, its worth looking through the disease profiles if you havent already.

http://www.fishprofiles.com/profiles/diseases/

It will also help diagnosis if you list the species that have and have not been hit by it so far, some of these diseases are species or group specific and it will help eliminate a few causes.

0.25 is low for present nitrate, and its possible that ammonia and nitrite may still be being produced, or that a recent spike may have contributed to the proceedings.

Thanks for replying it is very much appreciated. im sorry im being really thick and cant figure out how to post pics(even though i signed up to prem member)
so far 1 pearl gourami, 3 panda corys, 3 red platys, 15 neon tetra,3 black neon tetra,2 black phantom tetra,1 goldring sucker have all died. so far 4 scissor tails, 6 clown loaches,1 dwarf gourami,1 zebra plec, 4 peppered corys, 5 algae shrimp and 4 rock shrimp have thus far been unaffected. ive had 3 more neons die today none of them showed any sign of illness though i have noticed they seem bloated when they die, is that normal with any death?also as im unable to post the pics what should i be looking on the tail area?

To be bloated when they die could mean a number of things, possibly a protozoan or bacterium that attacks liver and kidneys thus causing fluid retention, or bacterium like aeromonas that can cause gas in the gut to swell due to necrosis of gut tissue, and the respiration of the aeromonas in that area.The gas is usually hydrogen sulphide, which in itself is pretty toxic.

The aeromonas infection could be secondary to a protozoan infection, so my instincts tell me to go for furan and metronidazole in combination. Thiose two evil little diseases do seem to be doing the rounds at the moment. The shrimp probably wont be affected.

Look up aeromonas hydrophilia, the treatments are listed there, and use the same treatment protocols for protozoa as you would for hexamita intestinalis, the profile of which is also there. Hopefully that should do it.

If you havent tried any treatments yet, pull the ol' finger out and get to it, time is a factor in survival here.

Good luck!

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Yup, no secondary infection or spots near the caudal peduncle, no sign of muscle damage, skin is clear, no spinal curvature, but a great deal of swelling at the gut. Looks like either aeromonas or salmonella bacterium, amoebic infections of the gut etc etc. The clown loach also had symptoms that are conducive, with some secondary septacaemia. Id use furan on the non-loaches and non-scaless cats, as clown loaches etc can be very susceptible to treatments, for the clown loaches themselves id probably go for a half dose of protozin, or similar med.

What meds can you get? Any major antibacterial med will do to buy you some time for now, maybe maracyn etc, this has been going on for a few days now, some treatment really needs to be put in there, like I said, to wait is to fail.