Please Help My Tetra!!!!

[FishFan95]

I recently acquired a 5 gallon tank and bought 9 neon tetras to go in it. (and 1 otocinclus.) All the other fish are fine and happy but one tetra had a very small piece of his tail missing. The other fish bullied him. A peachy colored substance started coming out of his tail. 2 days later and his whole entire tail turned an orangish peachy color!! All of it and when I say his tail I mean the WHOLE BACK HALF! I can tell that when he swims he is in pain. He sits in the tank and drifts and usually ends up with his nose pointing down and his tail pointing up. He can't compete for food and hasn't eaten anything so far and it has been 4 days. I am getting really worried. I don't know if it will infect the other fish in the tank.
I am hoping you can help me by telling what it is. Also I would like to know how to treat it. I do not have a quarantine tank but I do have a very small Betta tank. Currently there is a Betta in it but I could move him to my 5 gallon tank with the tetras. Will they get along? I am planning to move him there anyway but I am wondering if he will get along with my otocinclus cleaning fish. I read that the other fish need to be faster than the Betta but he needs to stay still while he cleans. Will this combination work?
The Betta tank does not have a filter but could I clean the tank daily?
I will try to post some pics but all of mine have been blurry.
And, lastly, if I do transfer fish to different fanks will my work be a wasted effort?

Thanks for any opinions!
FishFan95

[gregpape23]

For a start, I think 9 tetras in a 5g tank is too much.
It sounds like he has just been getting bullied around and such. A pic would be nice though.

[FishFan95]

Originally Posted by gregpape23

For a start, I think 9 tetras in a 5g tank is too much.
It sounds like he has just been getting bullied around and such. A pic would be nice though.

Here is a picture of him. He looked normal when he was put in the tank. He is not swimming down in the pics but drifting like that. I think now he is too far gone. What should I do with him? His tail fin is obviously missing.

Will they continue to bully each other even after this one is gone? Is this likely to happen again?

Will adding my 1 male Betta be too much on the tank?

Thanks for the help!
FishFan95

[Judge]

Hi there FishFan 95 and welcome to FTF. Is this your first tank? Did you research about the cycling process? Have you tested your water and if so what are your params? I think Greg is right in that you may have too many fish but I sure would not add the Betta.
What kind of filtration do you have? If you are cycling with fish the perhaps Tetras was not the hardiest of choices.
It looks and sounds as if the tetra is being picked on and he also looks very stressed. If the tank is cycling I am not sure there is much you can do at this point. Sorry. For more info on cycling you can go to our video tutorials and there is also a good sticky article entitled Fishless cycling for Dummies by our won RJR that is quite informative while being entertaining! Good luck and keep us posted. If you have any more questions by all means jump in and ask. We will try our best to help.

[FishFan95]

Originally Posted by Judge

Hi there FishFan 95 and welcome to FTF. Is this your first tank? Did you research about the cycling process? Have you tested your water and if so what are your params? I think Greg is right in that you may have too many fish but I sure would not add the Betta.
What kind of filtration do you have? If you are cycling with fish the perhaps Tetras was not the hardiest of choices.
It looks and sounds as if the tetra is being picked on and he also looks very stressed. If the tank is cycling I am not sure there is much you can do at this point. Sorry. For more info on cycling you can go to our video tutorials and there is also a good sticky article entitled Fishless cycling for Dummies by our won RJR that is quite informative while being entertaining! Good luck and keep us posted. If you have any more questions by all means jump in and ask. We will try our best to help.

Sorry I got back so late. Thanks for the help! I ended up flushing him to put him out of his misery. Yes this is my first tank and I did not cycle the tank first. I am letting everything run now and I really hope they can tough it out...Is there any chance of that? It has been two weeks so I don't have too much longer. No I did not test the water. I really didn't understand how to start a fish tank.
Thanks again for the help!
~FishFan95
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[louistheloach]

sorry to hear of your loss. If I could suggest another way to more humanely dispose of fish who are clearly not going to make it, but are still alive.

I put them in some tank water in a container just large enough to hold the fish and put it in the freezer. The fish will just go to sleep and then expire. Unfortunately that probably did not happen with the flushing method....they do not die immediately and probably suffer for a short time before expiring.

Also in my opinion 9 NEON tetras in a five gallon with one otto is not too many when you consider they are around an inch long and the standard for 1 inch per gallon is based on bigger barrelled fish like mollies and platies.....it is full no doubt but they are a schooling fish and always do well in groups....the fact that the other fish were picking on him may have more to do with the fact there was something wrong with him.....he was the weakest one of the bunch......like baby chicks will do to one another.

hope you get the rest of the cycling thing sorted out.....lots of good info in this forum. Get some tests and keep track of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate levels as well as pH. The fish can tolerate slightly elevated levels of ammonia and nitrites if the pH is kept around 7 - 7.2 and if the water temp is no higher than 77 - 78.

hope this helps

ltl

[louistheloach]

oh, by the way.....I love your little fishies that you typed in

><)))*> very cool.

[FishFan95]

Oh that's a great idea thanks very much!!! I knew he would suffer and I really hated doing it but I couldn't think of anything else! I hope there will never be a next time but if there is I will do it like that! Thanks again!!!

~FishFan95
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