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Another one bites the dust
Apr. 25th, 2003 11:36 pmBooks on fish keeping are full of odd little lies. The one that's annoying me at the moment is the claim that neon tetras are robust fish and easy to keep. I started my first aquarium last August. So far, I've had something like a dozen neons die, from a variety of unidentifiable causes.
My primary reason for getting a fish tank in the first place was to have neons. I adore their colors, and the way they school together to create a kaliedescopic effect. They are pleasant, friendly fish whose only vice is that of being tasty to other beautiful fish, such as angel fish. They are prone to a disease that is called, imaginitively enough, Neon Tetra Disease, which is a sporozoan parasite. They can also get False Neon Tetra Disease, which looks identitical to Neon Tetra Disease, but which is bacterial. Since neither is curable, the fact that they can only be distinguished from each other underneath a microscope is not all that important to an aquarist.
Neons are small. Fucking small. Trying to diagnose one is enormously frustrating. Is that red around the gills? Oh, for heavens sake, hold still you foolish fish! Is the blue line starting to break in the middle? Maybe, but maybe that's just the light. Cotton mouth? Maybe, but wait, come back here! How can I tell what you've got if you won't hold still, eh?
The first sick neons I had I was sure had Neon Tetra Disease. Most of the books and the web sites say that it's not curable, but various advertisements for drugs claim to cure it, and there are other resources that are less definite about its incurability. Moreover, the resources span about a 50 year period, and it can be very difficult to tell if the information I'm looking at comes from Innes very fine but outdated classic work, or something more recent. There's actually remarkably little information about the diseases of freshwater tropical fish, in fact. Given how long people have been keeping fish, I found that surprising.
The first round of sick fish I treated with Furazone Light, Aquarisol, Melafix, Quickcure, and eventually Naladixic Acid. Naladixic acid is very harsh. The remaining 3 neons (out of an initial 5) became very pale, as if bleached, and one of them died in 24 hours of treatment. The other two lived another couple of weeks. One died politely on his own. The other I had to euthanize. I froze him. The whole ordeal almost broke my heart. I tore about to various fish stores, asking for advice and buying different kinds of medication. One of the stores I called told me that I was crazy to be spending so much money on a fish that cost $1. I ignored him. Once I bought them, they were my responsibility, and that included the best care I can provide.
The next round of sick neons came soon enough. I had read a great deal more by then, and had even less of a clue what was wrong with them. They had something that I call "gasping disease", which looks a lot like gill disease, but not quite. The primary symptom is hanging near the bottom of the aquarium and opening and closing its mouth very rapidly. The gills are also moving rather quickly. However, the gills don't look irritated until the fish becomes terminally ill. I concluded that probably the previous fish had not had Neon Tetra Disease, which was a relief because it meant that probably evil sporazoa were not floating about loose in my aquarium(s) waiting to infect another batch of neons. This batch got treated with Melafix, Aquarisol, Quickcure, MaracynII, and eventually, penicillin.
I came home from work one day to find that one of the sick neons had given up the ghost. It was on its back, caught in some plastic plant leaves. I got out a net to remove the body, and it started to swim away. I yelled, "Goddamn it, now I have to kill you!" I was very upset. There had been a lot of argument on the mailing list I subscribed to about whether or not it is humane to freeze a fish to death. I'm still not convinced that it's cruel, they are cold blooded creatures and all. However, clove oil will also anaesthetize a fish, and everyone was in agreement about that being painless, so I used clove oil. It doesn't take much, and it doesn't take long, but it sure is upsetting, nevertheless.
One of them survived. I bought three white clouds to keep him company, as I didn't know what he had, but I didn't want him infecting any more of my neons. That meant that I couldn't put him back in the main tank. on the other hand, neons are schooling fish and he was utterly miserable by himself. He did pretty well with the white clouds. Eventually, I moved him over to the 6 gallon tank, to live with the betta. I moved the white clouds there, as well.
Right before Minicon, I found that I had three neons with "gasping disease" and one with a strange black mass that was growing larger. I don't know what that last one is. His color is still bright, and he seems tolerably cheerful. One of the other fish is the one who survived through the whole second round of medication, that I had bought the white clouds for. I couldn't do anything before Minicon, as I didn't have anyone I could leave in charge of a hospital tank which needed to have not just meds put in on a regular basis, but water tests done regularly to make sure it wasn't building up toxins.
Back from Minicon, I set up the hospital tank again (why had I ever taken it down?) and transferred all the sick fish into it. They guy with the black mass looks the same. The black spot is maybe larger, but not a lot. I have no idea what's wrong with him. The ones with gasping disease were significantly worse.
Just now, I've euthanized the neon that had been schooling with the white clouds. I'm sad. I've gotten rather hard hearted in the months since I first started fish keeping. Fish must die pretty frequently in the wild, too, seeing as how they have such large numbers of babies. Neons are downright delicate fish, and very difficult to keep alive. Everyone I've talked to agrees -- and the book be damned. Still, I'm really sad about this one. He'd pulled through once before, and I'd gotten quite attached to him as an individual. Well, admittedly, he was only an individual because I could tell him apart from the other fish in the aquarium, but still.
Guess I'll buy some more neons this week. I'm down to seven in the main tank, and I'd really prefer something between 12 and 18.
My primary reason for getting a fish tank in the first place was to have neons. I adore their colors, and the way they school together to create a kaliedescopic effect. They are pleasant, friendly fish whose only vice is that of being tasty to other beautiful fish, such as angel fish. They are prone to a disease that is called, imaginitively enough, Neon Tetra Disease, which is a sporozoan parasite. They can also get False Neon Tetra Disease, which looks identitical to Neon Tetra Disease, but which is bacterial. Since neither is curable, the fact that they can only be distinguished from each other underneath a microscope is not all that important to an aquarist.
Neons are small. Fucking small. Trying to diagnose one is enormously frustrating. Is that red around the gills? Oh, for heavens sake, hold still you foolish fish! Is the blue line starting to break in the middle? Maybe, but maybe that's just the light. Cotton mouth? Maybe, but wait, come back here! How can I tell what you've got if you won't hold still, eh?
The first sick neons I had I was sure had Neon Tetra Disease. Most of the books and the web sites say that it's not curable, but various advertisements for drugs claim to cure it, and there are other resources that are less definite about its incurability. Moreover, the resources span about a 50 year period, and it can be very difficult to tell if the information I'm looking at comes from Innes very fine but outdated classic work, or something more recent. There's actually remarkably little information about the diseases of freshwater tropical fish, in fact. Given how long people have been keeping fish, I found that surprising.
The first round of sick fish I treated with Furazone Light, Aquarisol, Melafix, Quickcure, and eventually Naladixic Acid. Naladixic acid is very harsh. The remaining 3 neons (out of an initial 5) became very pale, as if bleached, and one of them died in 24 hours of treatment. The other two lived another couple of weeks. One died politely on his own. The other I had to euthanize. I froze him. The whole ordeal almost broke my heart. I tore about to various fish stores, asking for advice and buying different kinds of medication. One of the stores I called told me that I was crazy to be spending so much money on a fish that cost $1. I ignored him. Once I bought them, they were my responsibility, and that included the best care I can provide.
The next round of sick neons came soon enough. I had read a great deal more by then, and had even less of a clue what was wrong with them. They had something that I call "gasping disease", which looks a lot like gill disease, but not quite. The primary symptom is hanging near the bottom of the aquarium and opening and closing its mouth very rapidly. The gills are also moving rather quickly. However, the gills don't look irritated until the fish becomes terminally ill. I concluded that probably the previous fish had not had Neon Tetra Disease, which was a relief because it meant that probably evil sporazoa were not floating about loose in my aquarium(s) waiting to infect another batch of neons. This batch got treated with Melafix, Aquarisol, Quickcure, MaracynII, and eventually, penicillin.
I came home from work one day to find that one of the sick neons had given up the ghost. It was on its back, caught in some plastic plant leaves. I got out a net to remove the body, and it started to swim away. I yelled, "Goddamn it, now I have to kill you!" I was very upset. There had been a lot of argument on the mailing list I subscribed to about whether or not it is humane to freeze a fish to death. I'm still not convinced that it's cruel, they are cold blooded creatures and all. However, clove oil will also anaesthetize a fish, and everyone was in agreement about that being painless, so I used clove oil. It doesn't take much, and it doesn't take long, but it sure is upsetting, nevertheless.
One of them survived. I bought three white clouds to keep him company, as I didn't know what he had, but I didn't want him infecting any more of my neons. That meant that I couldn't put him back in the main tank. on the other hand, neons are schooling fish and he was utterly miserable by himself. He did pretty well with the white clouds. Eventually, I moved him over to the 6 gallon tank, to live with the betta. I moved the white clouds there, as well.
Right before Minicon, I found that I had three neons with "gasping disease" and one with a strange black mass that was growing larger. I don't know what that last one is. His color is still bright, and he seems tolerably cheerful. One of the other fish is the one who survived through the whole second round of medication, that I had bought the white clouds for. I couldn't do anything before Minicon, as I didn't have anyone I could leave in charge of a hospital tank which needed to have not just meds put in on a regular basis, but water tests done regularly to make sure it wasn't building up toxins.
Back from Minicon, I set up the hospital tank again (why had I ever taken it down?) and transferred all the sick fish into it. They guy with the black mass looks the same. The black spot is maybe larger, but not a lot. I have no idea what's wrong with him. The ones with gasping disease were significantly worse.
Just now, I've euthanized the neon that had been schooling with the white clouds. I'm sad. I've gotten rather hard hearted in the months since I first started fish keeping. Fish must die pretty frequently in the wild, too, seeing as how they have such large numbers of babies. Neons are downright delicate fish, and very difficult to keep alive. Everyone I've talked to agrees -- and the book be damned. Still, I'm really sad about this one. He'd pulled through once before, and I'd gotten quite attached to him as an individual. Well, admittedly, he was only an individual because I could tell him apart from the other fish in the aquarium, but still.
Guess I'll buy some more neons this week. I'm down to seven in the main tank, and I'd really prefer something between 12 and 18.
