Fish dying and I am clueless what to do next

[aquarius]

It's best that you listen to the voice inside your head. Be patient and wait for things to really settle down first before introducing shrimps cos if they were to die and worst still, die in some corner of your tank where you're not aware and didn't remove it, it'll end up causing algae problems.

[Cyberkinetic]

Finally caught the little sucker after water change ... hehe...

I thought I saw a rotting stem on the air tube in the tank and was getting my tweezers to get it out... then i saw it twitched ... and on closer look.. it's the nymph!!! It turned from the white when I found it into a light brown colour and MUCH bigger.. probably around 1.5cm.

No time to waste, I just move in slower and squashed it between my tweezers... here's what left of it after i took it out of the water.


Btw, the damselfly nymph might have just finally turned into an adult damselfly and flew away. [/QUOTE]

[Cyberkinetic]

Found another damselfly nymph a couple of days after the first... managed to catch it as well with the tweezers. Strange, they doesn't seemed to move much in the water. I basically move right next to it and just "pinch" it with the tweezers. Held on for quite a while just to make sure it doesn't move anymore.


Never ever done something so diligently for so long... I meant the water changes. Tested the water parameters regularly and PH is hovering around 6-6.5 most of the time. Rest of the stuff, the ammonia, nitrate and nitrite are also pretty similar. GH and KH remains low though.

Finally on Saturday morning, I paid a visit to Seaview and saw several bags of Malayan and cherry shrimps and can't resist it anymore. Bought a bag of 100 malayan shrimps and 10 cherry shrimps. This time, i was extremely cautious... tested the PH of the water in both bags, the malayan shrimps was in PH 6.5 water while the cherry around PH 7. My tank water by chance was around PH 6 so I had concerns on whether they will be able to survive... But i decided not to rush it and did the drip method where I used air tubes and the valves to control the water going into the two bags of shrimps slowly.. drop by drop... Started around noon and tested the PH again in the evening but still pretty similar... so i continued the drips right up till around 4am where my eyes literally can't open and I surrendered and slowly released all the shrimps into the tank.

Couldn't spot any dead malayan shrimps although I lost 3 of the cherries while still in the bag... not sure if it's due to lack of oxygen or what... one was almost eaten up completely by the time i released them into the tank.

Happy to say, it's Wed now and I've not found any dead shrimps yet! Phew! Very different from the mass deaths previously. Either the water quality had improved or the acclimatization method worked. Malaysan shrimps started taking on funky colours as well and the cherries are really bright and colourful. Even the missus gave me a pat on the back and commented I probably survived the worst... hahaha.. after months of waiting, i finally can sit down and watch as the shrimps gathered around the algae wafers that i feed them and munch away... fantastic feeling.

[Lionhead]

Found another damselfly nymph a couple of days after the first... managed to catch it as well with the tweezers. Strange, they doesn't seemed to move much in the water. I basically move right next to it and just "pinch" it with the tweezers. Held on for quite a while just to make sure it doesn't move anymore.


Never ever done something so diligently for so long... I meant the water changes. Tested the water parameters regularly and PH is hovering around 6-6.5 most of the time. Rest of the stuff, the ammonia, nitrate and nitrite are also pretty similar. GH and KH remains low though.

Finally on Saturday morning, I paid a visit to Seaview and saw several bags of Malayan and cherry shrimps and can't resist it anymore. Bought a bag of 100 malayan shrimps and 10 cherry shrimps. This time, i was extremely cautious... tested the PH of the water in both bags, the malayan shrimps was in PH 6.5 water while the cherry around PH 7. My tank water by chance was around PH 6 so I had concerns on whether they will be able to survive... But i decided not to rush it and did the drip method where I used air tubes and the valves to control the water going into the two bags of shrimps slowly.. drop by drop... Started around noon and tested the PH again in the evening but still pretty similar... so i continued the drips right up till around 4am where my eyes literally can't open and I surrendered and slowly released all the shrimps into the tank.

Couldn't spot any dead malayan shrimps although I lost 3 of the cherries while still in the bag... not sure if it's due to lack of oxygen or what... one was almost eaten up completely by the time i released them into the tank.

Happy to say, it's Wed now and I've not found any dead shrimps yet! Phew! Very different from the mass deaths previously. Either the water quality had improved or the acclimatization method worked. Malaysan shrimps started taking on funky colours as well and the cherries are really bright and colourful. Even the missus gave me a pat on the back and commented I probably survived the worst... hahaha.. after months of waiting, i finally can sit down and watch as the shrimps gathered around the algae wafers that i feed them and munch away... fantastic feeling.

Nice kill the nymphs .
i got rid of quite afew caught them eating my baby fries got me pissed

[IrvineChen]

Attachment 41804

anyone know what is this mini bug?

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[Urban Aquaria]

Attachment 41804

anyone know what is this mini bug?

Looks like a seed shrimp/ostracod.

[IrvineChen]

seed shrimp? hmm... Their movement super fast.. used tweezer to catch but keep failing

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[Urban Aquaria]

Yeah, they can zip around quickly... very difficult to catch them with tweezers.

They usually hitchhike in with plants and thrive in the same conditions as shrimps (they are shelled inverts too), especially when there is abundant food available.

Some people use those snail traps to attract them to one spot with food bits and then pull them out.

If you have small fishes in the tank, they will usually eat up most of them and keep their population in check too.

[Cyberkinetic]

An update after more than a month since last posted.

I have been maintaining an alternate day or at most 3 days water change cycle of 25% each time.

The plants are growing very fast and I need to trim them almost like once every 2 weeks max. No additional fertilization as well(Excel or Flourish) as I am a little concerned over the Malayan and Cherry shrimps I had in the tank.

Lost 2 Rummynose tetras last week... one after the other on alternate days... not sure of the issue though. First deaths after quite a long time. However since then, no more new casualties and seems to be stable.

Snail population exploded as well, I must have at least 30-50 snails easily. Quite tempted to drop in an assasin snail or two. haha..

Didn't bother with testing for water parameters except PH which fluctuates between 6-6.5. Also no new addition of coral chips or any other additives.

A strange thing though is the shrimp population:
1) Cherry shrimps are increasing, I can find quite a few shrimplets in various sizes, from 2mm and upwards. Strangely though, none are of the solid reds that I bought... mostly a mixture of red/transparent coloured ones. And they are roaming quite freely in the tank coming to the front of the tank even in bright daylight. Something which they don't do initially, but which I observed since last week.
2) My Malayan shrimp population seems to be drastically reduced. From the 100 that I put in... I can only see maybe 3-5 shrimps each time now... a lot more was visible previously.
3) I had suspected that there might be a damselfly nymph or two still in the tank since I had caught 2 previously. But I don't find any dead carcasses at all, so that's the part which I have a problem with. In previous experience, i usually get to see some dead shrimps parts here and there ... but now, not at all. So can't confirm if it's damselfly nymph that is the killer or something else. But it's a fact that they seemed to have kind of disappeared from the tank.

Any idea or suggestion on what could cause the disappearance of the malayan shrimps? Am trying to control putting in another batch until i get this investigated and sorted out.

[Urban Aquaria]

Its probably nothing to do with any damselfly nymph, because if that's the case your cherry shrimp numbers will also be affected too.

It could just be the malayan shrimp population just wasn't as strong as the cherry shrimp population, so over time they just die off while the cherry shrimps increase in numbers. The shrimps will clear up all other dead shrimps very quickly too, so its possible not to be able to spot any dead carcasses (especially when you have lots of snails in the tank too, they are experts at eating up dead shrimps or fishes very quickly).

[Ingen]

Are you having a BBA outbreak?

[Cyberkinetic]

I suspected that too.. But not a trace of any remains.. Which I find strange..
Anyway I read that those nymphs spent more than a year in water.. Sigh.. I thought I'd just wait up and hope for the nymph to turn into the adult.. But I think not realistic... Lol

Its probably nothing to do with any damselfly nymph, because if that's the case your cherry shrimp numbers will also be affected too.

It could just be the malayan shrimp population just wasn't as strong as the cherry shrimp population, so over time they just die off while the cherry shrimps increase in numbers. The shrimps will clear up all other dead shrimps very quickly too, so its possible not to be able to spot any dead carcasses (especially when you have lots of snails in the tank too, they are experts at eating up dead shrimps or fishes very quickly).

[Cyberkinetic]

Yes.. Never stops growing.. I surrendered... Used to dose Excel which works... But now with shrimps... I'm not doing that... Probably had to painstakingly remove the stones into a bowl, add excel then wash it clean and reintroduce to the tank.

Are you having a BBA outbreak?