skinny old glowlight tetra

[yng...@aol.com]

I have a skinny glowlight tetra that has been hanging at the top of
the tank for weeks. I've had a school of glowlight tetras in this tank
for about three years, so I just figured he is old and on his last
legs. The other glowlight tetras and my 7-8 rummynose tetras all
appear healthy and are behaving normally.

I thought any day now this skinny tetra would be found dead, but he's
still hanging on. He seems to have figured out that if he is at the
surface, I'll put in a few micropellets for him, which he eats (until
the hatchet fish come and grab what's left).

Does it seem fairly safe to assume that whatever is wrong with him is
just him and not a disease in the tank, since all the other fish seem
healthy? I originally thought of moving him to a hospital tank, but
the stress of that would probably kill him faster. I don't know how
long glowlight tetras normally live and of course I don't know how old
he was when I got him, but is it normal for old fish to get skinny and
weak? I guess he could have parasites but I don't see any sign and
anyway if anything goes wrong in that tank, it's usually the
hatchetfish that get sick first and they all look fine.

Thanks-
yngver

[NetMax]

Old skinny tetra floating at surface = euthanize. Anything inside
him, consuming him from the inside (parasitic, bacterial) will enter
the water column and spread, or be ingested into a healthy fish to
establish a new host. It's not pretty, but in nature, that tetra
would not be at the surface for very long, and would be picked off by
a predatory fish or a bird. Since you have no low-flying birds in
your house, I think you need to do the deed.

Got a garburetor? Alternately, move him into a wet tissue, into a zip
lock bag and on a concrete floor to smash with a shoe heel. For
larger fish, I have other techniques, but for little tetras, I go for
a quick grab & smash. jmo

NetMax

[yng...@aol.com]

Really? He looks better today. I am starting to wonder if he just
learned to hang around at the surface to grab food with the hatchets.
I put in some wingless fruit flies today, which the hatchetfish love,
and that tetra, who doesn't look as skinny now as he did, was up there
trying to grab some too.

I haven't ever killed a fish on purpose (have killed accidentally,
naturally) so I am not too keen on euthanizing.

I don't have anything in the tank that would eat him when he dies, I
think, except mystery and assassin snails and amano shrimp. My
inclination is to wait and see, and if he starts to struggle or seems
worse, then I guess I do need to remove him.

-yngver

[NetMax]

ok - but solitary behavior is not generally a good sign for a shoaling
fish, and being skinny while opportunistically getting food ahead of
others also raises a flag, but the moment of maximum contagion occurs
at death, so if you can intercede then, it's just as good.

I'm more cold-hearted about it, probably from working in pet shops
where you cannot micro-manage situations and the good of the many
outweights the survival chances of the few. If I see a sickly fish,
I'm happy to have seen it, as early action is far better than meds,
quarantines, hospital tanks etc.

In a home tank, you have a lot more options. FWIW, the shrimp and
snails will likely happily dispatch the remains as they (like most
fish) are quite opportunistic. They are also less likely to be
affected by fish diseases, but they might release something which can
survive for a short time in the water column, looking for a new host.
Fish do not die from 'old age'. Old age causes some of their organs
or their immune system to weaken, which allows pathogens (like carrier
TB) to take hold, so generally fish die from disease-related causes or
mechanical damage. Not all diseases are water-column contagions, and
often healthy fish will be unaffected by the release of a pathogen
into the water (like they fight off fungus species which are always in
the water), so there's always many variables at work.

NetMax

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