I got some neon tetras!!

[aqua001]

So, I got 6 neon tetras yesterday. They live in my 10 gallon by themselves. Yesterday, they were schooled tightly together, trying to get used to their new home. Late last night (about ten) I noticed that two of the neons were swimming around almost as if they were night guards while the other four were sleeping. Today, the "night guards" were tumbling over each other, fighting. Could anyone tell me why? My fattest neon seems to wander away from where all the other neons0 are and rub his mouth/nose against the tank's glass, like a male betta that saw another male. I don't think he/she has the neon tetra sickness thing because he/she is very active and when I fed them, she/he ate happily. Is this normal with neons? If not, what should I do? My ten gallon is cycled, filtered and heated.

Thanks!

[thekoimaiden]

Well I can tell you that the "rubbing" motion you saw was probably flashing. It's where fish are trying to rid themselves of parasites. It's very common for fish from pet stores to come with illnesses. Now we need to figure out what kind of parasites.

Do you see any white spots? What about long white stringy poop?

Also, what temperature is the tank set to?

[aqua001]

The tank temp is 79 degrees. What I did notice was that some tetras seemed to have a very dark body above their blue strip of color. Is this normal? How do I get rid of parasites? The one that was flashing is hiding a lot in the live plants so i'm guessing he/she is sick. I only saw one of them poo and it was not the flashing one. The poo was not like betta fish poo but was more like a little tiny cylinder brown thing.

[thekoimaiden]

That is a little warm for neon tetra. Set the temperature lower to something like 75F. They come from cooler than your average tropical temps. Any higher than 78F causes them stress as they have to work harder to maintain themselves.

Ich is the most common aquarium parasite. It's going to look like little grains of sand on their skin. If one has it, more than likely all of them have it. You should try to figure out exactly what parasite (it may not be ich) is affecting your fish before you treat them.

[aqua001]

I don't think it is ick. The flashing one has stopped flashing. S/he is still hiding a lot from the others. Is there another sickness that they might have? Also, I noticed that the neon that is hiding a lot has a spot the has no color in the middle of the blue line that goes across her/his body. Is this just scale loss? Will it grow back? Is there any way I can lower the aggression? The 2 smallest neons chase the others around like crazy. Their favorite neon to chase is the one that was flashing and likes to wander away from the group. Could it be that there is too many males and not enough females?

[thekoimaiden]

It could also be neon tetra disease. Neon Tetra Disease

The aggression that you are seeing is due to the small school number not the numbers of males and females. These fish naturally school in the thousands. Once you get the disease issue sorted out, try adding another three or four fish to the school.

[aqua001]

Alright. I think one may have the neon tetra disease:(. he/she is very skinny, aggressive and does not seem to eat when I feed them. All of them are stressed from something and they all like to hide in the live plants in the corner. Here is a pic. They only come out to eat.

[aqua001]

The first pic is of them huddling in the corner. The skinny possibly sick one is in front of the bridge.

In the second pic, you can see a reflection of the possibly sick tetra while I was feeding the others.

The third pic is of 5 of them. I couldn't get the possibly sick one to join the pic.

[LittleBettaFish]

If you have ruled out water quality (ammonia and nitrite), if they are constantly hiding in the plants, it could be your light is way too bright and there is not enough cover in your tank for them.

Neon tetra disease is also a possibility, but neons tend to be pretty fragile anyway so it might just be stress related or due to poor treatment at the store you purchased them from.

[aqua001]

I have tested my water and everything was fine. Where can I get duckweed to add some more cover besides aqua bid? I'm only a kid and don't have a paypal account so the places I can get my fish supplies are rather limited.