Help! We have recently got 8 neon tetras and most seem fine, however 1 has started lazily drifting and floating away from the rest, mostly near to the surface.

Having looked at it it seems to have an enlarged gill and a feathery, white, fan-like substance protruding from the base of it's mouth/gills.

Now I know very little about fish, we're just getting started, and the internet searches aren't helping too much.

It doesn't have any loss of colour.

Any ideas what it could be and or what could be done?

I don't want any of the other neons to get an infection or disease if that's what it is.

Thanks for any help.

It sounds as though your fish have a disease called white spot, this thread might be better in the pet section where people may know a bit more.
I know that you can buy medicine for this to put in the fish water from a pet shop, it is however very contagious to other fish.

I remember as a child having 2 black mollys, loved those fish to bits my step dad got some more fish and I think one of those must have given white spot to my fish George, never liked my step dad after I caught him flushing George and Molly down the loo.

Sounds more like a fungal infection to me, I take it that the whiteness has a more of a cotton wool type appearance. If that is the case then go to your local fish shop and try to get some "Interpet No 8" It's an Anti Fungal and Finrot treatment, it'll probably be too late for your infected Neon I'm afraid to say, but it should prevent any others from suffering the same fate.

I agree with Marooned. We have kept tropicals for a while and in terms of fish illness a good fish dealer is more knowledgeable about how to treat fish than most vets, are more accessible and cheaper! Dont know your location but Viscum at Barnborough are very good. Most of the people who work there are fish keepers themselves and have a good interest in it. I wouldnt bother asking in some places such as Pets at home because they tend to be 'shop assistants' and not specialists in the area of fish.

I think Viscum have a couple of shops in different places - I know they have a web site.

We had an expensive African Cichlid with what we now know was pop eye. we wnet to viscum, they instructed us what to do and he lived a long and happy life but was blind in one eye after it. We had to quarentine him in a seperate tank and treat him with a high dose of medicine and the others with a low dose.