Losing Fish in a 10 Gallon Planted Tank

[Beasttamer64]

Hey everyone, not particularly new to the hobby just haven’t had the opportunity to indulge in it for the past few years. I have a 10 gallon heavily planted tank set up with just your typical gravel and sand, some root tabs and 3 pieces of drift wood. The filter is a small internal filter that puts some pretty decent movement to the water. The tank had been set up for around 3 weeks to a month before I went ahead and added my fish. I started with 6 ember tetras and after around a week I lost two of them. The remaining fish seemed very healthy, bright, and active; and my water tested with 0 nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia. After another week I went ahead and added two more ember tetras and a betta fish. Slowly then over two weeks I lost the two ember tetras and then the betta fish. Any ideas as to why i may be having such a hard time, or any other factors i haven’t considered would be greatly appreciated!

 

[foxgirl158]

Well, betta fish shouldn’t really be kept with other fish so that might have been the cause of loss of the last two tetra’s, but I’m stumped at what would cause the loss of the others if your parameters are as good as they say they are. I’ll @ some people who can help more than I can.
@Essjay @Colin_T @itiwhetu @Slaphppy7

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Any chance of some pictures of the fish?
Did the fish act strangely before they died?

Are you doing water changes on the tank?
If yes, how much and how often?
Do you have buckets, hoses, etc, specifically for the fish?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?

Is the filter run continuously?

Do you have any cream, grease, soap residue or anything else on your hands that could wash off into the water?

Does anyone paint, smoke, use hairspray, deodorant or do anything in the room that creates fumes?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to TFF.

What kind of test kit are you using? What kind of dechlorinator?

 

[Beasttamer64]

So the Betta was not really aggressive with the tetras so i don’t think that was it. I am using the API 5 in 1. I do about a 10-15 every week to week and a half. I don’t have any of the bodies still, and the embers got completely eaten up by snails and shrimp so i didn’t even see them. The betta was acting rather lethargic and just breathing deeply while laying on the bottom. My water is ROI. I’ll try and upload a photo in a bit

 

[Byron]

I concur that the combination of the Embers with a male betta was not a good idea, but I also agree that this one fact may not have been the issue though one never knows how "undesirable" settings may affect a fish, even a betta. Bettas should be maintained on their own, individually; this is in their genetic makeup and often avoids loss of other fish, or the betta.