Hi, all. Wondering if anyone can help me out on this: am posting here and at Planted Tank. My lovely planted 40g breeder was a betta sorority (with 2 males in the corners, using custom acrylic walls with water holes drilled in). I had Celestial pearl danios and ottos in as well; the system has been up for about 8 months. Aquaclear 70 and 30 filters. All cycled: params are regularly at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 30-40 nitrates with weekly 1/3 water changes and good gravel vaccing. The nitrate's high, I know; I'm suspecting the driftwood needs a cleaning. Excellent feeding: Thera-a pellets, Hikari micro-pellets, bloodworms, and fruit flies in rotations.
I started losing female bettas due to mystery causes a few months ago. At a rate of about 1 a week, their bellies would swell, they'd often get white abrasion-y looking stuff on them, like roughed-up scales, and die after about a week regardless of any med course in a quarantine tank. I tried kanacyn, maracyn 1 and 2, and parasite treatments on different individuals, and NO ONE recovered, regardless of treatment. ONE girl recovered on her own when I left her in the community tank.
Meanwhile, both males in their corners remained in the peak of health, same water and foods. I had a few losses of my smaller fish (like one mortality in 6 weeks): nothing that seemed out of the ordinary except for the high mortalities in my female bettas.
I decided that even though the sorority seemed completely peaceful, the girls were probably stressing each other to the point that they got sick from whatever in the tank that wouldn't make other fish sick. I dosed kanacyn and jungle parasite just to clear up the tank a bit of whatever might be in there. My stocking was very low at this point, so after the dosing (deaths had stopped) I decided to add 9 gold neons and a true Siamese algae eater and see how new non-bettas would do. The neons and SAE were completely fine, so I decided my theory was correct and after a 2-week wait filled out the tank with adopted fish from people who were moving.
These fish were 3 synodontis petricola, 1 panda Garra, 3 harlequin rasboras, 2 kuhli loaches, and 5 hatchetfish. I treated with General Cure, following directions, as I still had one female betta with the mystery symptoms and the SAE had gotten an abrasion. Everything seemed fine until I worried about the synos and Garra getting enough protein, so I chopped up a frozen raw shrimp and put half of it in the tank. The fish had a feeding frenzy, including my blue male betta who snuck out a gap in his divider and also gorged on the shrimp.
Everyone seemed fine, I got the blue boy back in his corner and fixed the gap. That was 2 days ago. However, both mornings since I have woken up to dead fish. I've lost 2 neons, 3 female bettas, 3 CPDs, a loach, and the blue boy betta. The bettas all had bloated abdomens. The other fish looked pristine. Temps and params are all fine. I saw almost all of the dead fish gorging on shrimp. However, many other shrimp-eaters are fine.
What the hell? Did they just overheat the shrimp? Could it be a reaction to the General Cure? Is one of my larger very peaceful-seeming fish secretly murdering others? Could what I assumed to be a simple bug that was killing stressed female bettas have really been something nasty that is still lurking in the tank? Any advice?
I started losing female bettas due to mystery causes a few months ago. At a rate of about 1 a week, their bellies would swell, they'd often get white abrasion-y looking stuff on them, like roughed-up scales, and die after about a week regardless of any med course in a quarantine tank. I tried kanacyn, maracyn 1 and 2, and parasite treatments on different individuals, and NO ONE recovered, regardless of treatment. ONE girl recovered on her own when I left her in the community tank.
Meanwhile, both males in their corners remained in the peak of health, same water and foods. I had a few losses of my smaller fish (like one mortality in 6 weeks): nothing that seemed out of the ordinary except for the high mortalities in my female bettas.
I decided that even though the sorority seemed completely peaceful, the girls were probably stressing each other to the point that they got sick from whatever in the tank that wouldn't make other fish sick. I dosed kanacyn and jungle parasite just to clear up the tank a bit of whatever might be in there. My stocking was very low at this point, so after the dosing (deaths had stopped) I decided to add 9 gold neons and a true Siamese algae eater and see how new non-bettas would do. The neons and SAE were completely fine, so I decided my theory was correct and after a 2-week wait filled out the tank with adopted fish from people who were moving.
These fish were 3 synodontis petricola, 1 panda Garra, 3 harlequin rasboras, 2 kuhli loaches, and 5 hatchetfish. I treated with General Cure, following directions, as I still had one female betta with the mystery symptoms and the SAE had gotten an abrasion. Everything seemed fine until I worried about the synos and Garra getting enough protein, so I chopped up a frozen raw shrimp and put half of it in the tank. The fish had a feeding frenzy, including my blue male betta who snuck out a gap in his divider and also gorged on the shrimp.
Everyone seemed fine, I got the blue boy back in his corner and fixed the gap. That was 2 days ago. However, both mornings since I have woken up to dead fish. I've lost 2 neons, 3 female bettas, 3 CPDs, a loach, and the blue boy betta. The bettas all had bloated abdomens. The other fish looked pristine. Temps and params are all fine. I saw almost all of the dead fish gorging on shrimp. However, many other shrimp-eaters are fine.
What the hell? Did they just overheat the shrimp? Could it be a reaction to the General Cure? Is one of my larger very peaceful-seeming fish secretly murdering others? Could what I assumed to be a simple bug that was killing stressed female bettas have really been something nasty that is still lurking in the tank? Any advice?
