From: cs4gp6am@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Heide       BT)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria
Subject: (F) Sick tetra
Summary: fish is paralized but won't die!
Keywords: nitrite poisoning.
Date: 14 Apr 92 19:38:13 GMT
Followup-To: cs4gp6am@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
Distribution: alt.aquaria, rec.aquaria
Organization: Department of Computer Science, McMaster University

Hi. For the past few weeks I have been treating a sick silver-tip
tetra. The tetra appears to be completely paralized, yet is still alive.
It lays on the bottom of the tank in the same spot for days on end, only
able to move it's gills, eyes and front fins (though not enough to swim).
It has been this way for over a week now.

The fish has actually been sick for a few weeks - here is the story:

My setup is a 23g fresh water tank with 3 cardinal tetras, 2 white
clouds, 2 chinese barbs, 1 female green swordtail and 2 silver-tip
tetras (one being the sick one). The tank has been setup for about
7 months now. Water temp is about 76 F. Filtration is through an
Aquaclear Junior. Lighting is provided by a 20 watt flourecent. I keep
live plants in the tank.

Initially, the tetra started showing white patches on his skin. He
appeared to be losing his skin at these parts. The patches seemed to
get better and then worse on and off for about a month. I finally
purchased a 3.5g tank to used as a hospital tank and moved him into
that. As soon as I moved him he got worse and started swimming upside
down and the like. I filled the 3.5g tank with water from the 23g tank
so it must have just been the shock of netting the fish that made him
worse.

I tested for ammonia, and there was none detectable. I went back to the
fish store for advice and the first thing they told me to do was test
ammonia and nitrite levels. I had tested the ammonia but I didn't have
a nitrite test kit. Big mistake too, as it turns out that after buying
a nitrite test kit and testing my water, I had nitrite levels of about
.45ppm.:

Ok, so the fish had nitrite poisoning. This was further suggested by
the fact that it also had started to get blood in its fins. I did some
massive water changes over the next few days. The fish immediately 
showed signs of improvement. He started swimming almost normally and
started to eat again. He got some fungus on his fins, but that cleared
up over night after I added some sea salt to the tank. He seemed fine
for almost a week but still had fin and scale damage from before. Then
he got sick again and went back to laying on the bottom of the tank.
I tested the nitrites and they were high again so I did some more
massive water changes. I'm continuing to do partial water changes every
two days and I know I have the nitrite and ammonia under control now.

The fish did not get better the second time however and cannot move
at all now. It does seem perfectly aware of it's surroundings however.
When I get close to the tank it jiggles a little bit in an effort to
swim but gets nowhere and it moves it's eyes around watching me. I was
even able to hand feed it some freeze dried tubifex though I don't
know how much it swallowed. The breathing rate through it's gills seems
normal and relaxed (it was very rapid when the nitrites were high).

It has been in this state for over a week now. My best guess is that
it has caught some sort of nueral disease, or just been permanently
damaged by the nitrite poisoning. What I don't understand is why it
hasn't died yet! At this rate it will eventually die of starvation
simply because it can't swim to its food.

A few final notes:

- Hospital tank is a new setup and has not cycled yet.
- 50% water change every two days. Water conditioned using stresscoat.
- temp is 77 F.
- water is hard, pH about 7.2 (this is our tap water)
- sea salt about 1.5 level teaspoons/3.5 gallons.
  (fish shows signs of fungus).

This post is longer than I thought it would be so I will stop here.
Any ideas about what is wrong?

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brad Heide                              Department of Computer Science
cs4gp6am@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca         McMaster University
heide@SSCvax.CIS.McMaster.CA	        Ontario, Canada.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xref: sparky alt.aquaria:3022 rec.aquaria:3812