Mystery Death

[littlest]

My sparkling gourami died today. She appeared fine and normal yesterday but this morning was in a really bad shape, just floating around the tank with the filter flow, occasionally trying to swim but failing. I was running late for work by the time I realised so there was nothing I could do. By the time I came home she was dead and partially devoured by amano shrimp.

Tank details:

28L
temp 80F
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
Heavily planted with a recent BGA problem
Tankmates: 3 shrimp
Water changes 30-40% every 7-10 days
Water treated with Prime, Seacham Flourish and Seacham Flourish Excel.

The ammonia measurement was taken after the fish died (had no time this morning) and the body had been in there a while - possibly why it was high? Also I cleaned the filter last week, maybe I cleaned it too much?

The fish was originally one of four sparkling gouramis. One died within a couple of days, I lost the other two to ich. I treated with Octozin and then Formalin. I continued treatment for an extra week with the remaining fish. It had no signs of ich. That was about two months ago.

I'm worried about why this fish died. There were no visible marks or parasites so I'm concerned that it was bacterial. Even more concerned that the shrimp ate the remains. Will my shrimp be OK? Should I do something to treat the tank before adding more fish?
Since I have BGA anyway I was thinking I might treat with anti-bacerial meds but concerned about the filter crashing and losing my shrimp.

any thoughts welcome.

 

[Spooky76]

Before you do anything with medications, I would make sure you get the ammonia down to 0. Depending on your PH that ammonia could easily have killed an already ailing fish.

Anti bacterial meds shouldnt kill your filter bacteria.

I would treat with a broad spectrum anti bacterial medication, remove any carbon filter and just keep an eye on things. I had some gouramis die without much visibly wrong with them and never really got to the bottom of it.

 

[littlest]

Just tested ammonia again and it's gone back down to zero by itself anyway. Nitrite remains zero too.

I was planning to do a large water change tomorrow (prob 50%) and try and tackle some of the BGA. Then considering treating with Waterlife's Myxazin, which claims to be a broad spectrum bactericide

 

[vinylman]

Yes, I'd still do the water change; never a bad thing if anything like that happens.