Tetra Jebo

February 19th, 2008 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

Tetra Jebo
Why is my neon tetra so damn fat?

My tank is fresh Water tropical "Jebo". Its a community tank with several well matched variety. For the past 2-3 months one of my, what I can only describe as hardy, Neon Tetras has become very very fat. At first I thought there was a pregnancy, but now he is so fat it looks like he is panting. He isnt eating the other fishs' food. About to pop.

Looking for experienced people who know fish to reply. No points for stupid answers. Please dont guess. I can do that already.
Yes there are some raised scales. However he is acting normally aside from that. Sorry for lack of full info, I am novice.

You didn't mention if the scales are raised or not but he might have an internal tumor. If he had an infection then he would have gone downhill in the last couple of months.

To make sure it's not the food, try fasting him (which means all your fish unless you can separate) for a few days. You could also try an epsom salt bath. Set up a container with dechlorinated water and add one tea spoon per gallon of epsom salt (make sure it's just the salt and that there aren't any other ingredients). The water should be the same temperature and around the same pH as the main tank. Leave the tetra in there for about ten minutes before returning him to the main tank. A quarantine tank would be ideal but I'm not sure if you have one. If not, then at least turn off the lights on the main tank when you put him back. The bath can be pretty stressful on fish but it might be all you can do.

The "panting" worries me, I would get your water tested just in case something else is going on.