Neon tetra disease

[Fishoutawater]

I have a tank with neon tetra disease running rampant.so after I have culled the tetras in there how long of a fallow period before the tank is safe again? I have MTS, bladder snails  and pygmy corys that appear totally unaffected in the tank as well so can they host it as well? My plan at this stage is to restock with p. Signifer   so are they susceptible to ntd? Because I've got fish in the tank already id really prefer to wait it out than break it all down and bleach everything and start again.

[Tlindsey]

On 5/3/2024 at 10:02 PM, Fishoutawater said:

I have a tank with neon tetra disease running rampant.so after I have culled the tetras in there how long of a fallow period before the tank is safe again? I have MTS, bladder snails  and pygmy corys that appear totally unaffected in the tank as well so can they host it as well? My plan at this stage is to restock with p. Signifer   so are they susceptible to ntd? Because I've got fish in the tank already id really prefer to wait it out than break it all down and bleach everything and start again.

A few years ago purchased a group of 7 neon tetra from a Petsmart.  The only tankmates were 3 Banjo Catfish. After a year started to lose neons and eventually ended up with one that survived for another year. The Banjo Catfish weren't affected by any neon disease. My Banjo Catfish are over 7 years old. I would just wait it out like you stated. @Fishoutawater

[Colu]

I would be very careful when you have had neon tetra disease it has been found in angelfish danio rasbora barbs guppies goldfish aquarium science.org has some good information on neon tetra disease @Fishoutawater

[anodyne99]

Spoiler

 

Do you know if it was caused by mycobacteria? If so, the only sure way to eradicate it is to cull the whole tank population and sterilize everything with a strong bleach solution, ethyl alcohol, or iodine. If you use bleach, it has to stay in contact with the objects for at least 20 minutes. Some people have had success preventing it from moving between fish and tanks with UV sterilizers, but other research indicates that the bacteria can heal itself after UV exposure. It's really tough to eliminate, especially in animals already exposed. Snails, shrimp and other types of fish can all contract and/or carry it. 

 

"Various disinfectants have been evaluated in our laboratory for their ability to disinfect the water, aquatic surfaces and equipment of an aquarium or aquaculture facility. An effective disinfectant is defined as one whose use results in a 3-log reduction of bacterial growth within 10 minutes of contact time. PVP iodine (100 ppm, 50 ppm), ethyl alcohol (70% and 50%), benzyl-4-chlorophenol/phenylphenol (Lysol®) and sodium chlorite (Clidox-S®) were the most effective disinfectants, each reducing the number of detectable M. marinum to zero within one min of contact time. Sodium hypochlorite (Clorox®) was moderately effective, but required at least 10 min of contact time to reduce bacterial counts and 20 min of contact time to eliminate the organism. Formalin (250 ppm), Chloramine-T (15mg/L), potassium peroxymonosulfate/sodium chloride (1%, Virkon-S®), and two formulations of N-alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (1:256, Roccal-D Plus®, 1:256, Micronex®) were not effective against M. marinum."

Edited May 6 by anodyne99

[PineSong]

On 5/6/2024 at 5:56 PM, anodyne99 said:

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Do you know if it was caused by mycobacteria? If so, the only sure way to eradicate it is to cull the whole tank population and sterilize everything with a strong bleach solution, ethyl alcohol, or iodine. If you use bleach, it has to stay in contact with the objects for at least 20 minutes. Some people have had success preventing it from moving between fish and tanks with UV sterilizers, but other research indicates that the bacteria can heal itself after UV exposure. It's really tough to eliminate, especially in animals already exposed. Snails, shrimp and other types of fish can all contract and/or carry it. 

This is what I also found in my research. I've been dealing with Neon Tetra Disease since April 2023 and started a thread about it. Since that time, I have lost maybe half of my neons.

As contagious as this disease is, I am surprised that half of the fish have survived for a year and some still appear perfectly healthy even though the disease is clearly still present as one guy has a chondroma right now. They live with guppies and platies and an angelfish, so I consider all those fish equally contaminated.

On the up side, those fish have had a year of life appearing well and happy, so it wasn't the immediate death sentence I thought it would be. On the down side, I have stopped breeding and selling fish and shrimp because I don't want to pass the disease to others.