Cardinal Tetras with disease i think???

[axl]

Hi,
i have lost 2 cardinal tetras lately, 1 was doing funny rolls in the water beofre his death and i reckon the other 1's are starting to loose there red in there body. Does this mean they have some parasites in them or what??. I put some epsom salt in there i used 7 tablespoons per 280ltr is that the right rate and should i put it everyday????

[jim from sydney]

cardinals and neons are disease carriers. your salt seems ok to me, how long ave you had them????? if just new they may have been sick when you bought them.......are they in with discus,,,,if so take them out for a while and see.....JIm

[Merrilyn]

Hi axl. I'm curious about the epsom salts. We use that for constipation in fish. I'm not sure that is appropriate here.

Your fish may have 'neon tetra disease' which causes a loss of red colour in the body.

A google search should give you lots more information.

[sammigold]

When neons start losing their colour they may have Neon Tetra disease. although I read that cardinals seem to be spared this disease. Its an actual disease and is incurable. Years ago we had some neons that this happened to and our LFS gave us tablets I can''t remember if they were triple sulfa or tetracycline but they stopped any of the other fish in the tank getting the disease and a couple of our neons who looked like they were losing colour actually got better. Your tetras may have a bacterial disease of some kind and it may be worth going to the LFS and describing the symptoms. they may be able to give you something to save the rest of your tetras. HTH