Mystery Tank of Death ... please help!

[janky]

So I've got a 10 g planted tank that nothing (but shrimp) seems to be able to live in.
We initially got a dwarf puffer, and it died in 2 days.
We put the shrimp in after, and they've been doing great!
We got an otocinclus to aid in the tank cleaning, and it lasted a week, but is now dead. Just lost all his color and started flopping around on the sand

Since the oto did great for a week, we thought the tank was ok and put in a new dwarf puffer, but now I'm worried he's going to be next!

I scrubbed the walls into oblivion, vacuumed the sand, and stay on top of 25-30% water changes weekly.
The ammonia test at zero, the nitrites are at zero, and the nitrates hover around barely any. It's been testing great for a month or so.

I use DIY CO2, so I dunno if it's gassing them to death, but I can't imagine so. It's one 2 liter bottle filled 3/4 way and the CO2 usually only lasts a week or two max.

There are "copepods" (maybe?) from time to time - little jumping white fleas in the sand...
and I get this weird white fuzzy mush growth around the suction cups of the heater from time to time, but I stay on top of wiping it down and vacuuming it out.



Any ideas on what's going on?
Please help! I'm tearing my hair out and worried sick about the dwarf puffer. I'm on the verge of rehoming him and just scrapping this tank for parts on craigslist.

 

[janky]

I also don't overfeed the tank; I put a tiny chunk of algae wafer (maybe like 1/16th of a wafer) on a rock once every three days for the shrimp and they usually ravage it.
Any left overs I vacuum out.
I've been giving the puffer a couple of bloodworms 2x a day

why is everything (except the shrimp) dying in this tank??

 

[janky]

any ideas?
am I gassing them with co2?
are these little white 'fleas' something that's parasitic?

 

[janky]

my shrimp and snails are breeding/populating like crazy, but no other fish will survive in this tank!

Can anyone chime in on what may be going on? Ideas? thoughts?

 

[jlbfish]

I'm totally new at this but I searched google. It said if there Was too much co2 the fish would be gasping at the surface. Can you remove it and see if it changes anything?

Have you already posted the water parameters ?

And this website has some possible answers to your fleas http://www.planetinverts.com/what_is_that_bug_in_my_aquarium.html

HTH
Jana

 

[Sake]

ottos are known to be frail, they just seem to croak for no reason. Most people believe it's because they are wild caught and handled poorly. Dwarf puffers tend to have internal parasites, terrance usually chimes in about them, you may want to send him a pm he's the puffer guy from what I've seen. The fact your shrimp are doing fine leads me to believe it's the fish themselves considering shrimp are pretty sensitive. What type of shrimp are they? Just regular ghost shrimp or cherry shrimp?

 

[miran3773]

Maybe its the fish? Where are you buying them, is it a big chain store or a ma and pop business, we had an issue a while back with death and came to the conclusion it was the store we were getting them from

 

[jlbfish]

+1 that. Good point if you are getting the fish from the same place in a short period of time maybe try a different store.

 

[LyndaB]

Otos are very sensitive and require established tanks and tanks with rock steady water parameters. It's not unusual to lose one within the first few weeks to a month.

Dwarf puffers require snails in their diet or they have problems with their beak (I think that's what it's called, I don't have them). You might want to research species caresheet on the puffer to see what might have gone wrong.

 

[Sake]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f29/dwarf-puffer-profile-166924.html
That's terrance's write up on dwarf puffers. I don't think the teeth would be the issue if they are dying that quick. He says he has shrimp/snails in the tank, so the puffer could eat the snails if he wanted to. I'm sticking with parasites or maybe just plain old fashioned stress.

 

[janky]

I'm totally new at this but I searched google. It said if there Was too much co2 the fish would be gasping at the surface. Can you remove it and see if it changes anything?

Have you already posted the water parameters ?

And this website has some possible answers to your fleas What is that bug in my Aquarium? .:. Various small creatures that can inhabit a Freshwater Invertebrate Aquarium

HTH
Jana

never seen them gasp at the surface. and since it's DIY CO2 I take it out at night because the plants aren't using it anyway and I can't just "turn it off"

The water is steady at
NH3 = 0
NO2 = 0
NO3 = maybe .1 ..very close to 0, trace amounts

I haven't tested the pH in a while , just the big 3.

Now I don't know if the little white 'fleas' are shrimp fry, snail fry, or what. I'll do some research on that link, thank you!

ottos are known to be frail, they just seem to croak for no reason. Most people believe it's because they are wild caught and handled poorly. Dwarf puffers tend to have internal parasites, terrance usually chimes in about them, you may want to send him a pm he's the puffer guy from what I've seen. The fact your shrimp are doing fine leads me to believe it's the fish themselves considering shrimp are pretty sensitive. What type of shrimp are they? Just regular ghost shrimp or cherry shrimp?

I did not know that about otos. Thank you.
They are RCS. Doing great, eat like crazy, swim around all day, have tons of babies... snails are doing fine as well, and everytime I look there are like 3 more of them!

Maybe its the fish? Where are you buying them, is it a big chain store or a ma and pop business, we had an issue a while back with death and came to the conclusion it was the store we were getting them from

Could be. I get them from a mom & pop place that I've been going to regularly for a while now. We have tons of fish from them and they've all done great. We even bought a crayfish there that is still doing awesome in our big tank.



We've since moved the puffer to a 6 gal hex spare that we had sitting around. Since it's just him I think the size will be OK (not ideal, but OK).
Now we're trying to figure out why the temp in this tank is always at 86 degrees +
always something!!!!

I still need to figure out what's up with the mystery tank though.
I'm going to read up on that flea article, and I dunno... maybe we just chose some very weak un-hardy fish

The guppies and endlers we have in another tank just had babies, so maybe when they get a decent size I can put one or two in there and see if they do ok? I know that's kinda cruel... but I'm grasping at straws here - totally out of ideas