Neon Disease

The inclusion of this disease in a booklet of this sort is fairly important. Actually the disease is nearly impossible to cure without certain drugs which are very difficult to obtain (as they are so very expensive). The drugs used are the same that are used for human tuberculosis infections.

Neon disease is really a tuberculosis and the organism closely resembles the germ which causes TB in humans (though humans could never contract the disease from infected fishes.) There being no treatment of the disease, and the infection being a typical "wasting away" disease, so we'd warn readers not to buy infected fish. You can recognize an infected Neon Tetra by closely observing the caudal peduncle (the part of the body right before the tail). Note that this area, on an infected fish, will bear two pale yellowish dots. At times these dots are difficult to see, but on larger fish they are quite distinct.