Hi, I have had a neon tetra for about 4-5 days now & he was fine the first few days. Yesterday I found him swimming in the back of my fish tank low then I realized he was acting strangely, he started doing curve jumps and swimming oddly then he would flip over and float as if he died, but then he would regain consciousness and swim normal. Now it was doing that for about an hour (I managed to record with my iphone - the link to the youtube video down below).
now I'm not sure if this is neon tetra disease because I did not witness previous stages such as loss of appetite and colour changing. However he has yet to eat any food since I found him doing this yesterday. For precaution reasons and in case he died over night (fish would nibble on him then get infected) I transported him from my 10 gallon fish tank to my 1.5 gallon fish tank (I only filled the water half way). He has been there all day today and most of yesterday but he is not eating the food I provide to him, also he is still doing those curvy moves but he has stopped. Today all he has been doing is bobbing up and down with his face up. It looks like he is in a lot of pain. Can someone tell me what is going on and what I should do?
I can see that it is suffering and I would like to put it out of its misery (since neon tetra disease has no cure), but I refuse to take him out of the tank and have him suffocate to death. I also need the body to return to the pets mart to get it exchanged since I bought him a few days ago. I was really hoping id find him dead by this morning to end its suffering but all day today he has been bobbing up and down, it is really sad.
My tank: 10 gallons, it has fish, shrimp, and a moss ball.
Here is the youtube video that I recorded: