Sick fish - what would you do?

[Wolf6]

I have an ember tetra with what I believe is neon tetra disease. His spine is curved and he has the typical discoloration at the tail. But he seems fine and eats well. I've put him in a quarantine tank, but he is alone there with some shrimp and snails. Its kind of sad, as I cant risk putting other fish with him. How would you go about this? I'm probably going to leave him in there till he dies, but then what to do with the plants and shrimp and snails? I havent the heart to kill an energetic fish (lethargy is usually my queue for any animal that its really over). Just curious as to what you would do in this case.

 

[PARAGUAY]

It could be just a birth defect if keen on movement and eating . Seen this a lot in guppys and seen shop tanks with full tanks of tetras the odd one with a slight defect but otherwise healthy.

 

[Wolf6]

It could be just a birth defect if keen on movement and eating . Seen this a lot in guppys and seen shop tanks with full tanks of tetras the odd one with a slight defect but otherwise healthy.

If it was just the curved spine I would probably risk it, but the discoloration at the tailbase (sometimes its almost white) makes me think its more then just that. He's still trucking on happily though, if a bit shy.

 

[PARAGUAY]

From your image looks hard to tell but obviously you have better view of the fish. Quarantine and treat if its a sign of something serious

 

[Wolf6]

He passed away and the shrimp and snails ate his remains. How long should I wait before releasing the shrimp and snails back into the main tank?

 

[Angus]

Protozoan Diseases [ZIRC Public Wiki]

zebrafish.org

Some good reading here on protozoan diseases, myself i don't have much experience with it, but i've read it can remain in the water column for a while, and obviously anything that has eaten the fish is spreading it, i would definitely be cautious.

"Microsporidian spores may be resistant to disinfectants (Shaw et al. 1999), and Ferguson et al. (2007) found that chlorine levels routinely used by zebrafish facilities (i.e., 25 or 50 ppm for 10 min) was not effective for killing spores."
Hardy little buggers.

 

[Wolf6]

Protozoan Diseases [ZIRC Public Wiki]

zebrafish.org

Some good reading here on protozoan diseases, myself i don't have much experience with it, but i've read it can remain in the water column for a while, and obviously anything that has eaten the fish is spreading it, i would definitely be cautious.

"Microsporidian spores may be resistant to disinfectants (Shaw et al. 1999), and Ferguson et al. (2007) found that chlorine levels routinely used by zebrafish facilities (i.e., 25 or 50 ppm for 10 min) was not effective for killing spores."
Hardy little buggers.

Yeah, I'm definitely not moving the snails (just some rams), plants or soil and will disinfect the filter and heater thoroughly. But the shrimp... I can clean the tank and place them in fresh water, then leave them in there for 2 weeks or so... hopefully by then anything inside of them will have been expelled. Still feels risky though, but I'm not willing to just kill a bunch of shrimp

 

[Angus]

I would just wait it out, without any host they will die off in a few weeks, i wouldn't want to kill anything else either.