Lost a couple fish, Trying to find out why

[SempreFamiglia]

Hey guys,

I recently upgraded an established 10g tank to a 29g. In the 10g I ran a 10g filter and a 30g filter in tandem. I set up the new tank using the 10g filter to cycle it and get it ready. The fish I had were:

1 Male Betta
8 Neon Tetras
4 Ghost shrimp (originally had more, but some had died off in the 10g -- which I believed to be due to poor quality shrimp from PetCo)

Fast forward, the 29g tank appeared to be cycled -- test kit showed no ammonia, no nitrites and nitrates were ~10ppm

I began the process of moving fish into the new tank -- starting with a new species by adding 4 Emerald Green Catfish (Brochis Splendens) -- which I later found out aren't actually Cory's contrary to the wonderful information at PetCo.

A day later I added the fish from my 10g into the new tank. 2 days after that, one of the catfish died -- which again, I chalked up to poor stock at my local PetCo. After I found him, I removed him, did a 20% water change, waited a few hours and re-tested the water -- all Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels were again normal. I also tested pH to ensure nothing strange had happened and that too was normal (7.5).

Now, to the tragedy -- Earlier in the evening yesterday, I noticed that my Betta had been acting a little more shy than normal as I had not seen him most the evening. Turns out he was hiding in a log decoration in my tank. Once I found him, he came out, and seemed to be okay -- and also had a normal appearance.

Then I woke up this morning to find him with his fins appeared completely shredded/frayed with black spots on his abdomen, swimming erratically, and eventually dying.....this appeared to happen OVERNIGHT.

I immediately removed him, did a 50% water change and re-tested my levels and once again, they are normal.

What is happening to my fish?? So far the tetras seem to be doing okay (albeit not as vibrant as they were before, but I'm also now using a lighter sand substrate). Ghost shrimp are still alive and the remaining catfish are still active.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated, I want to get this solved before I get any more fish added to this tank.

Thanks

 

[TMaier]

I have read that ghost shrimp are night time assassins.

 

[SempreFamiglia]

I have read that ghost shrimp are night time assassins.

Wow, guess I never realized that was a thing

But it certainly fits the timeline and events. Wonder if they were the cause of the disappearing tetra in the 10g a couple months ago as well.....

Lesson learned. Now that I have cat's in there, I won't be adding anymore ghost shrimp in the future.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[JZK]

I don't know.... I had ghost shrimp in my 5g with my male betta and they just avoided each other. It sounds like something else is going on... like a bacterial infection of some sort.

 

[SempreFamiglia]

I don't know.... I had ghost shrimp in my 5g with my male betta and they just avoided each other. It sounds like something else is going on... like a bacterial infection of some sort.

I thought the same thing, although, this all happened in a span of about ~10 hours -- which I believe seems a bit fast for it to be a bacterial issue (I could be wrong though).

The Ghost Shrimp assassin seems more fitting with the circumstances. I'll be keeping a close eye on them over the next few days either way to see if any others start exhibiting issues.

 

[JZK]

JMO of course, but unless the betta was laying at the bottom of the tank, in which case something else is afoot anyway... how would the ghost shrimp get to him? Sounds more like an advanced case of fin rot than nefarious shrimp to me. Bear in mind, I have Amanos that tend to be more scared than scary.

 

[JZK]

you mentioned that the neons are paler than usual.... Neon Tetra Disease? I don't have experience with tetras, but some of the symptoms sound similar... it is not just tetras that get it.