Gasping rainbow

[Lady Hobbs]

My luck with the turquoise has not gone well. Zero problems with the Splendida and Boesemani's but not doing too hot with the turquoise. Their demise has all come due to jumping from the tank, inadequete shipping or screw ups. Not illness.

I purchased 3 more turquoise at PetSmart last week only to have one of the males never act right. He spent a great deal of time hiding so I never really got to watch his behavior before his death. I still had a pair so was not concerned until the female also became ill.

She has been gasping for days and is in an isolation tank. She has not lost her color, shows no signs of anything other than gasping. She is not itching, twitching, rubbing herself nor doing anything she should not be doing. She is colored up as she should be. I treated her for internal and external worms and have her in salt water to improve her gill function. If it was gill flukes or velvet, she would be rubbing against objects and she is not. She is not laying on the bottom of the tank or gasping at the surface. She swims about but gasps constantly and does not eat.

My plan was to return to PetSmart and buy up the rest of their turquoise but due to two out of three becoming ill, I don't know as that would be too wise. The ones they have are nearly full grown so I would love to get them.

Any idea's what is wrong with her? Could this be bacterial? Nothing like spending $20 to cure a $7 fish but I am now concerned with the rest of my stock since she was sharing a tank with them, as well as the one that already died.

[Drip Loop]

I know this can be a topic of great debate so I will only preface it by saying its my opinion. I blame Petsmart. Their tanks are the worst where I live so it wouldnt suprise me if they were pre-infected with something.

[Lady Hobbs]

This is a nice PetSmart and very clean. What I did notice is the tank was on the top row and I was unable to watch and observe them. The lady had to get on a ladder to net them. (probably why the were full grown)

This happens to be one of the reasons I don't believe fish should be able to be returned. I don't want to buy someones else diseased fish.

[Ashley]

I had this same problem with my Furcatas rainbows. I truly believe it is where you bought them. I bought mine from Big Als and originally had 4, which dwindled down to one. Then I bought two more, and they died, I am still left with the original healthy one. So I luckily found something else he gets along with (cory cats), since I can't get a school of the same rainbow anymore. I truly wish you good luck, and your great knowledge of fish will hopefully keep them alive.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Hobbs, if she is in salted water then the oxygen content of the water is lower and she could very well be suffering from oxygen deprivation.

[Kaz]

I don't consider petsmart to be the best place, however they are certainly not the worst. It all depends on the specific petsmart though, the near me has a fairly large fish section(or least in the livestock themselves) and for some reason they have fish I can't find in other real fish stores like bichirs, eels, loaches, golden algae eaters and glassfish.

[Red]

Hobbs, if she is in salted water then the oxygen content of the water is lower and she could very well be suffering from oxygen deprivation.

I concur, even though the other fish arent gasping, its harder for her to get air.

[Lady Hobbs]

Update:

I was able to save the gasping female, but my boesemani's got this same thing. In all cases, the skin took on a grayish area, not fungus, but more of a pale area. There has been no jerking movements and no itching at all. They really don't act all that ill but I know when I see these faded areas, these fish are the ones in trouble.

As if everything isn't ducky enough, due to the stress they are going thru, I had an ick outbreak. (Cured in 2 days with Ick Quard) One rainbow that got mouth fungus, also cured and another got a touch of Velvet and I got that knocked down, as well.

In the process, I have lost one male and one female bosemani, one turquoise male, 11 gold tetra and 2 juvie boesemani. And thru all this not one single Black Skirt Tetra has been effected by any of this and I have 30 of them in the tank! The black neons are unaffected, the coreys fine and the rasbora's are fine. The Gold Tetra is taking a beating, tho. I did not wait for every gold tetra to die. After seeing that every fish that died had this gray area on them, I started simple removing some golds that had it.

Unfortunately, there were so many affected fish that separating them for treatment was fruitless and the whole tank is being treated but unfortunately, I have NO idea what this is so treating is doing only so-so.

Something is going on and it come with those new rainbows. I believe I will still loose several more fish to this and definately my adult female boesemani.

I've treated internal and external, bacterial and with salt. I am left thinking this is neon tetra disease. If so, this is incurable and I may as well start pulling out more fish to be eliminated.

[Lady Hobbs]

I concur, even though the other fish arent gasping, its harder for her to get air.

This I know. Two airstones going full, the canister filter and the Hang on the tank all whopping up the bubbles and lots of water changes.

[Sharon]

Oh dear...sounds frustrating! I don't think the rainbows can be affected by Neon tetra Disease...???...

[Lady Hobbs]

I don't know, Sharon. Angelfish, gourami's and others can so I don't know why rainbows couldn't be.

[Sharon]

You could be right. I thought that NTD affected only Neon Tetras...ah, the memory is not what it used to be!!!

[Lady Hobbs]

Whatever was killing the bows seems to have reached the end. Good thing as I have only two male boesemani left and my one pair of turquoise. I do have a dozen juvie boesemani's in the tank that seem unaffected. (yet)

Problem now is I'm afraid to move any fish from that tank into other tanks. Rather hard to treat something you can't identify. It may not be a disease but something environmental. Perhaps they didn't like my plant ferts? Who knows.