First Losses... Need Advice

[mnemonik23]

I have first losses and need to figure out what can be the problem.
I just lost one panda cory and a biggest grown up bamboo (flower) shrimp - my favorite "bubba shrimp"

My tank (29g) has been running just fine after cycling for about 2 months now. Bacteria works great - ammonia and nitrites are always 0, nitrates between 5 and 10 at the end of the week (I do 25%-30% water change every weekend).

My stock before casualties:

8 x Harlequin Rasbora (young, about 1”)
7 x Neon Tetra (also about 1" yet)
3 x small Ottos
5 x Panda Cory (young, about 1.2”)
7 x Amano Shrimp
5 x Red Cherry Shrimp
4 x Bamboo (2 grown up, about 2.7"-3" and 2 about 1.5")
2 x Gold Mystery snail

What can be the culprit?

1) A few days ago I fed them with frozen blood worms. Panda cory didn’t seem to eat them though, at least I haven’t seen them do so. Other fishes and shrimps consumed them.

2) Bamboo shrimp was too old? But why cory died?….

3) Bamboo shrimps like to sit on a piece of decoration in front of power head pump and eat whatever comes from it.

4) Something killed them? Shrimps? Snails? I have noticed one panda cory had badly nipped tail. But he is well and alive. Another healthy looking one has died. I was monitoring them for awhile and haven’t noticed any aggression. Though, one Rasbora like to stay with corys when they digging the bottom and tend to be a tad aggressive to other fish that come close…

5) Nitrates to high? (between 5 and 10)


I’d appreciate any advice!

 

[Athena]

It could be your neons doing the fin-nipping as they are quite notorious for it.

Nitrates are fine.

Did the dead fish look diseased in any way? Sunken or bloated belly, raised scales, red patches, ulcers... or anything else that looked odd?

When you test your water are you using a liquid kit? Did you test the water the day of the deaths? Something may have caused an ammonia spike - maybe uneaten bloodworm in the water causing contamination?

Athena

 

[mnemonik23]

It could be your neons doing the fin-nipping as they are quite notorious for it.

Nitrates are fine.

Did the dead fish look diseased in any way? Sunken or bloated belly, raised scales, red patches, ulcers... or anything else that looked odd?

When you test your water are you using a liquid kit? Did you test the water the day of the deaths? Something may have caused an ammonia spike - maybe uneaten bloodworm in the water causing contamination?

Athena

Thank you for your reply!

Dead cory did have a bloated belly and was on the bottom of the aquarium. By the time I've noticed that he died snails ate his eyes and made a hole in a belly

I do use API test kit and I did test water that day (after they died) - no ammonia or nitrites.

Blood worms were gone by next morning (2 days before casualties), I think amano, rasboras and neons took care of them.

EDIT: Btw, my pH is 7.0 in case this is important

 

[Athena]

Hmmm... but if he didn't have a bloated belly before he died the bloating was probably due to being dead in the water some time, rather than disease.

Well, if your water stats were fine on testing after the death, then fair enough, probably wasn't due to ammonia/nitrites.

I've no idea!! Possibly it was bullied and got stressed. Stress or shock can kill a fish quickly. They can have heart attacks, apparently. One of those mysteries that might never get solved. I had a similar case with a white sailfin molly. He was swimming around happy as Larry all day - trying to mate with the female - next time I looked he was floating dead! I reckon too much excitement did him in!

Anyway, pretty looking tank, by the way!

 

[mnemonik23]

Hmmm... but if he didn't have a bloated belly before he died the bloating was probably due to being dead in the water some time, rather than disease.

Well, if your water stats were fine on testing after the death, then fair enough, probably wasn't due to ammonia/nitrites.

I've no idea!! Possibly it was bullied and got stressed. Stress or shock can kill a fish quickly. They can have heart attacks, apparently. One of those mysteries that might never get solved. I had a similar case with a white sailfin molly. He was swimming around happy as Larry all day - trying to mate with the female - next time I looked he was floating dead! I reckon too much excitement did him in!

Anyway, pretty looking tank, by the way!

What worries me is that bamboo shrimp died the day. When I came back from work they both were dead. I suspect it has something to do with frozen blood worms. Maybe worms had some infection, or parasite…? But I guess other fishes would be infected too...

 

[mark.w.jones]

Did you fishless cycle the tank with ammonia solution before adding any fish or did you use one of those cycling products. I would suggest that you may have stocked a little too quickly and that a spike in ammonia or nitrite may have been too much for your cory. However, there is also a chance that it was just a dud fish which died of natural causes. Over the next week keep a close eye on your fish behaviour and on your water stats. Anything out of the ordinary and do some water changes.

 

[mnemonik23]

Did you fishless cycle the tank with ammonia solution before adding any fish or did you use one of those cycling products. I would suggest that you may have stocked a little too quickly and that a spike in ammonia or nitrite may have been too much for your cory. However, there is also a chance that it was just a dud fish which died of natural causes. Over the next week keep a close eye on your fish behaviour and on your water stats. Anything out of the ordinary and do some water changes.

I did a complete fishless cycle with ammonia solution for about 1.5 months until 5ppm of ammonia was dropping to 0 in 10 hours for 3 days in a row as well as nitrites. I added fish about 2 months ago, after cycle was complete.

I also changed one of the inserts in filter recently and was afraid that it will take some time for bacteria to spread out from the rest of media to a new one. But I did ammonia tests at least 2 times per day and before bed time right after I changed filter media as well as during the next two days. No spikes were recorded.

Oh! Almost forgot. I covered both filters intakes (filter and power head filter intakes) with black window fiberglass screen (mesh net) in order to prevent cherry shrimps get sucked in (happened before). Though, I washed it very well under plain water before use. Maybe this fiberglass has something to do with deaths? The guy from local pet store has recommended me this and I saw he did the same in many of his tanks in the store…

 

[mnemonik23]

Another panda cory died today
I bought a second test kit just in case and water tests are normal.

It looks healthy outside but one side shows an internal red spot. An internal bleeding? A heart attack??

 

[Inchworm]

Hi mnemonik23

It looks like your Cory died of a bacterial infection. This is the most common cause of deaths among corys and is often the cause of the loss of other fish. Also, C. panda are not the most sturdy of corys. They tend to be somewhat delicate and more shy than other readily available corys. I would never have suggested them for a new tank.

Let me briefly tell you about bacterial infections. Every tank has some potentially harmful bacteria in it, but as long as the fish are strong they will stay healthy. This is much the same as if you go out into a crowd. You might catch a cold, but someone else might not. Certain factors cause the fish to become stressed and more likely to become sick. These include overcrowding, low oxygen content in the water, overfeeding, aggressive tankmates, high nitrites or ammonia.

If that lovely tank in your signature is yours, the first thing I would suspect is that there might be uneaten food that has settled into the coarse gravel. That's often the cause of bacterial infections in corys. Do you regularly clean it with a gravel vac?

 

[mnemonik23]

Hi mnemonik23

It looks like your Cory died of a bacterial infection. This is the most common cause of deaths among corys and is often the cause of the loss of other fish. Also, C. panda are not the most sturdy of corys. They tend to be somewhat delicate and more shy than other readily available corys. I would never have suggested them for a new tank.

Let me briefly tell you about bacterial infections. Every tank has some potentially harmful bacteria in it, but as long as the fish are strong they will stay healthy. This is much the same as if you go out into a crowd. You might catch a cold, but someone else might not. Certain factors cause the fish to become stressed and more likely to become sick. These include overcrowding, low oxygen content in the water, overfeeding, aggressive tankmates, high nitrites or ammonia.

If that lovely tank in your signature is yours, the first thing I would suspect is that there might be uneaten food that has settled into the coarse gravel. That's often the cause of bacterial infections in corys. Do you regularly clean it with a gravel vac?

Hi!

I do vacuum gravel every weekend... well around stones and where I can reach... I think amano shrimps clean bottom very well.
I also have a power head with plenty of oxygen going into a tank. I read somewhere that blood worms can be carry infections, even if frozen and I fed them with frozen blood worms a few days before first cory died. Unless those pesky neons have something to do with this...

 

[waterdrop]

Hi mnemonik!

Nice to hear from you. I do remember that you performed a very good fishless cycle and have had a very stable water environment with good maintenance habits!

I wonder if another possible factor for this mystery might possibly that the 5 panda cories sharing the lower section of the tank with the 16 or so shrimp were somehow feeling stressed about some aspect of "bottom territory?" This is pure specuation on my part, so others might be able to apply more experience to the speculation. Since any form of stress might add a bit to the vulnerability of the fish and the pandas are especially delicate, as we've learned from inchworm, the speculated stress plus the unhappy circumstance of a particular type of infectious bacterium being around might have been the explanation.

~~waterdrop~~