MOG2012
Well-Known Member
One of my guppies might be dying tooMy shrimp have all died today. My mystery snails might be dead. What should I do? I drip-acclimated them into my quarantine tank and they were active. Then, they died a couple of hours later.
MOG2012
Well-Known Member
2 Guppies Died (only one left)One of my guppies might be dying too
4 Mystery Snails Died (0 left)
I moved all of the fish to a different tank with no ammonia water. It's 5 gallons. I'm going to get more fish and hopefully more invertebrates tomorrow. I'm also going to buy more microfauna
Mossman Joe
Well-Known Member
2 Guppies Died (only one left)
4 Mystery Snails Died (0 left)
I moved all of the fish to a different tank with no ammonia water. It's 5 gallons. I'm going to get more fish and hopefully more invertebrates tomorrow. I'm also going to buy more microfauna
Before going to get new fish, I think it's important to identify what went wrong with the aquarium that caused a relatively catastrophic crash.
Since the last change you mentioned was that you added new Glofish tetras and microfauna, perhaps there was an issue there.
How did you identify that the shrimp and snails had died?
Snails, like your assassins, can sometimes hunker down and seem dead, make sure there aren't any off smells.
Both snails and shrimp are sensitive to copper-based medications, did you add any during drip acclimation?
Did you notice any bullying of the guppies by the tetras?
Did you notice any deformities in the dead guppies? (Eg torn fins, bent posture, etc.)
And lastly, what are your water parameters?
MOG2012
Well-Known Member
I haven’t actually added the micro fauna yet. The tetra is healthy. The snails were dead because they had an off putting smell and hadn’t moved at all in 2 days. The shrimp curled up and likely die in stress shock. I didn’t add copper. The guppy isn’t bullied but the dead guppies started off with murky eyes, then ragged find, then started swimming vertically and finally barely swimmed. Ammonia levels are the only problem and are slightly too high (2 ppm). I think that might be the problem but I’ve used ammonia deactivator for last two weeks
Mossman Joe
Well-Known Member
2ppm is quite high, ammonia deactivator only works temporarily, the best way to remove ammonia quickly is through multiple (30-50%) water changes, then adding a deactivator like Seachem Prime. It's often not recommended to do so many water changes at once, but since your ammonia is so high, I'd do it this once before your other animals get harmed.
My guess is that the snails died, creating an ammonia spike which in turn harmed the fish and shrimp. Next time, when you see a fish struggling, quarantine it immediately as it may be suffering from disease or poisoning.
MOG2012
Well-Known Member
- My last guppy died , it was likely due to stress. Ammonia wasn’t present. It was still in my quarantine tank
- All of my tanks have stable levels except for copper
- My snails arrived though, they are housed with the trumpet snails(no copper). There are assassin snails, mystery snails and Japanese trapdoor snails which are thriving
- I also got more plants and added leaf litter
- What should I do?
Mossman Joe
Well-Known Member
- My last guppy died
- All of my tanks have stable levels except for copper
- My snails arrived though, they are housed with the trumpet snails(no copper). There are assassin snails, mystery snails and Japanese trapdoor snails which are thriving
- I also got more plants and added leaf litter
- What should I do?
I'd first find the source of the copper in your aquarium, perhaps from the tapwater?
Then once the sourcr has been found, use certain products that remove copper from the water column such as Seachem Cuprisorb
MOG2012
Well-Known Member
The copper is gone now. I found some hitchhiker snails (golden mystery?). Everything is thriving... for now. Thanks for the helpful advice. I think the copper was from the mud
MOG2012
Well-Known Member
Now my catfish have all died and a dwarf frog has died. They were decomposing when I woke up and the dwarf frog was stiff and not moving. A dwarf frog is missing but the remaining one is okay. What should I do? I moved the dwarf frog out of it's tank due to being in high ammonia levels
Mossman Joe
Well-Known Member
That's quite a harrowing development, sorry for not replying sooner.
This has the signs of some sort of disease ravaging through the aquarium, possibly a bacterial infection, that killed all your fish, raised the ammonia and in turn killed your frog.
I would honestly use this opportunity to start over, throw out the substrate and filter media, then disinfect the tank, any decorations and the filter. Then once you fill the tank with new substrate, plants and filter media, you can gradually do a fishless aquarium cycle, feeding the tank daily with fish food or ammonia while having no fish in it to build up the number of beneficial bacteria.
By itself, fishless cycling usually takes 4 weeks, you can use a product that contains beneficial bacteria, but I'd still let the tank run for a few weeks, testing weekly or maybe even bi-daily to see if ammonia is being converted to nitrites then to nitrates. It's better imo to take it slow.
Once you are confident the cycle is complete, you can reintroduce your frog and slowly add in fish, allowing the beneficial bacteria numbers to rise with every new addition of stock.
MOG2012
Well-Known Member
They were in my quarantine tank though as I was adding some stuff to my main tank. My frog is doing well though. I also added leaf litter with microfauna. The snails are doing well too