Fish dying mysteriously one by one.

[allysangels]

did this start when you added the green neons? I will check the rest at the shop today but they were doing fine last I saw them. how are you testing the water and can you please post the actual readings?

[suicune]

Yeah it starts around the time I added the green neon, I also introduced Hikari freeze dried brineshrimp around the same time, seeing how small these fishes are. Eversince I stopped feeding them the brineshrimp already to eliminate all the doubt. Checked the tank today, no more problem so far. Also stopped dosing excel for the last week as I suspect these particular fishes don't do well with excel.
Water Parameter tested this morning:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate <5
Chlorine 0
pH: 7.5
gH: 5 (moderately soft water)
Alkalinity: 150

Fishes lost so far: 3 green neon (I'm down to 1 left), 1 platy (2 y/o), 1 betta. All die 3-4 days apart from each other one after another. Symptom happened very quick, fishes usually die within 24 hours of first sign (fin rot > shy > swim bladder > dead)
Quarantined 1 guppy with sign of fin rot yesterday, although this one is still doing well and eating.

out of the 3 green neon that died, I was only able to find 1 dead remain, the other 2 were probably eaten by the platy and betta hence the disease transmitted to them. That's just my hypothesis.

As I said, they were totally fine when I got them from the store, and back home. So I suspect it could be either excel, stress of traveling, or the freezedried brineshrimp. The last green neon is doing fine, no sign of disease, but just to be safe I'll treat the tank with parasite guard.

Today no sign of disease.

[MURRAY]

This is strange as I have not lost any of the green neons

[suicune]

I dont think it's your tank either, because like I said I'm very picky as to where I buy my fish from, . As I said before, it's either difference in water chemistry (I do have strange water chemistry, relatively soft water with slightly alkaline pH), stress from the long drive, flourish excel, or the freezedried brineshrimp I got at around the same time I got the green neon. Could have been stress from being bully by the betta, but since that betta ignore even guppy fries I dont know what to expect. Well either way, the problem have stopped for the time being, I'll keep on observing and see what will happen later.

[allysangels]

looking at the green neons as I'm posting this, no dead in the tank, all look healthy and are eating flakes greedily. I'm thinking stress from the betta? I've never been able to keep them in a community. just keep watching and hopefully everything wil settle down.

[suicune]

it could be from the betta as I have heard about introducing fish after the betta was in the tank. I guess it's unpredictable that way since I introduced a school of 12 (regular) neon tetra into my tank the week before I got the green neon tetra. There weren't any sign of aggression and they are doing particularly well. I'll be more careful next time when choosing tank mate for betta. I got a really docile betta that ignored delta guppies even when they were in a much smaller tank (10 gallon). I'll make sure the problem settle down before I go on my quest to find another less-aggressive betta. I really like betta and I hope to keep one in a community that's why I invest in a big heavily planted tank.

[troy tucker]

Have you had Female batta's they are not the big fin pretty fish. They are pretty to me but you can put as many as 8 in a tank together.

[suicune]

I dont mind female betta, I'm actually looking into having short fin betta because they are easier to care for in term of finnage. Was looking at the plakat and king betta for that matter. The technique to choose a docile betta like my last one was i video another betta on my phone, a colorful attractive one, then after I picked the one i want i show him the video, the betta will either flare or just ignore it, you can also pick the betta bow up and go to a guppy tank in the shop and just put it next to the glass. Choose the one that is healthy looking and less reactive to other fishes or the betta video. It worked for my first betta before he got sicked and die.

[suicune]

4 days after the last death, no more sign of problem so far. The guppy with sign of fin rot quarantined 3 days ago still doing well. I guess I caught him at the right time and did the treatment just in time. Thanks Dawn for the parasite guard, some of the fishes seem a lot more active today I think the med really hit the spot, I'll keep on with the treatment slowly to make sure no more problem coming into my tank.

[ScorpiosWife]

Hope that takes care of the issue. Glad to be able to help & it was nice meeting you.

[suicune]

I narrowed the problem down to either Hex or Columnaris, which are common infection in aquarium. Probably stress caused the problem. I used melafix along with parasite guard to make sure. some of the affected fishes did have dark long stringy poo.

[suicune]

The Guppy with sign of fin rot is still doing fine and eating and this is the 4th days. Still no sign of fin healing though, dosing melafix and parasite guard in the hospital tank feeding food dipped in garlic.

[ScorpiosWife]

Good to hear he isn't worsening & that he's still eating.

[suicune]

New update, no sign of problem anymore, hopefully the disaster is over. The guppy with disease sign is still going strong and eating.

[ScorpiosWife]