# Orange glofish danio with crooked tail staying at top of tank?



## cowgirluntamed (Mar 6, 2014)

Hi, I'm wondering if my orange danio could have neon tetra disease or fish tb? I've tried looking it up but I'm not sure he actually has it. Here are the basics of my aquarium first...

20 gallon with 8 glofish danios. No live plants. Marineland biowheel filter where I am using a marineland filter pad that I cut to size as well as marineland Carbon/Ammonia dual stuff(sorry, I forget the true name). I also have a heater in there that keeps the temperature right around 75 degrees(not an adjustable heater). I have a 20 gallon airpump with an airstone that I have on just under half high because it was causing too many bubbles to form on the top.

I have well water which has a tiny bit of ammonia in it(which is why I'm using the ammonia neutralizer). My pH in my water is also a little high, at 8.2 but it is staying level. At first I was feeding a food that the fish were not eating well(cheap flake food from Walmart). It started off a problem of cloudy water. I had taken everything out of the tank and vacuumed the gravel and got all of that cleaned up. I did end up losing a danio(started with 9), due to this but not sure if it starved to death because it didn't like the food or whether it was just due to the cycling of the tank and the problem with the cloud. I did about a 20% water change from vacuuming the gravel out at this point). This was all about 2-3 weeks into having the tank.

Anyway, the cloud has now gone and I've only just been monitoring the tank, and adding water as needed from evaporation. I didn't want to stress the fish too much with the levels changing constantly.

I have been testing with the API master test kit. Feb 28th my levels were at pH-8.2, Ammonia - 0.25ppm(but I know it could be ammonium as well now with the neutralizer in there so I'm not particularly worried about this), Nitrite- 5.0 or higher (was way up from 2ppm on Feb 13th), Nitrate- between 0-5ppm.

I tested 3 of these again today. Ammonia- 0.25ppm, Nitrite(I did two tests of this to make sure it was correct)- 0.0ppm, and Nitrate-20-40ppm(the color was between these).


So I think my tank might have just finally finished cycling, though I'm not sure if the Nitrite level dropping so fast is normal? Anyway, one of my orange danios seems to be staying at the top of the tank in mostly one spot. It did seem to come out and eat and I did see it poop(which seemed a brownish color). It also has a crooked tail that I noticed and seems to swim a bit jerkily with the top and bottom fins tucked in(though I see all of the fish do this at one point or other at times as well, but he seems to be doing it all the time). And he is just staying in one spot. The other fish are not picking at him at all. I don't see any sores or bumps on him and he looks as fat as the rest of the fish(which are pretty fat!). Could this still be fish tb or neon tetra disease? Oh, and he also seems to have a shorter nose than the rest of them, so maybe it's just a birth defect that I didn't notice before? Hard to see details when they swim so fast. Could it be that the nitrite level dropping so fast has maybe stressed him out to this some? All the others seem to swim fine though occasionally they like to chase each other and do little weird circling things around each other(I'm not sure if this is a breeding thing? i don't know how to tell male from female either).

Sorry for the long winded post, just trying to tell all here. I did switch food after I noticed them not eating the other and they are eating these flakes just fine. And that's all I'm feeding is flake food. Any information on what this could be and what I should do I'd be grateful! And here are a few pictures of the fish, sorry for the darkness, he didn't like the flashlight I tried to put on him. Oh, and he's staying around where the water from the filter is coming out as well. Thanks!!
Kris


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

Welcome to the forum

In my opinion its best to cull fish that develop deformities, especially spinal deformities, no matter what the reason is. But fish TB and NTD are very rare diseases, so while it's possible that one of them is the cause, it's not likely. I know it's not what you wanted to hear and it doesn't really answer your question, but on one hand you have a quality of life issue and on the other hand hardcore diseases, TB being transmittable to humans. I just don't see a positive outcome for such a fish. However, it's tough to see what you are concerned about with those pictures. It certainly doesn't appear to be grossly misshapen or anything, so do go euthanizing the fish just yet. Danios are prone to spinal deformities. Can you get clearer pics? I know it's tough - most people have to take like 20 pics to get one good one.


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## cowgirluntamed (Mar 6, 2014)

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately he seemed to keep deteriorating. I think the other fish started to bully him. Ended up getting a red spot near his tail, then I saw some red streaks on the other side of him. Then I think they started to eat his tail fin off and he stopped eating. So I ended up euthanizing him yesterday. Everybody else seems to be doing just fine though. Thanks again for the info!


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

Yeah that's pretty common - when theres something wrong with a fish the rest of the school can pick on and bully it


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## Austin (Feb 1, 2010)

I've never had it but aren't red streaks a sign of ammonia burn (aren't curved spines as well?)? His "sickness" could just have been sensitivity to the poor water quality.


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## cowgirluntamed (Mar 6, 2014)

I don't think it was ammonia. I have a slightly high pH level but that's in my well water and it's at least stable. When I first noticed this my Nitrites were really high, and then within a few days they dropped to zero. I started noticing it then so he might have just not survived the cycle of the aquarium. It's only 2 1/2 months old now and just finished cycling.


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