FishKeepingBanter.com - View Single Post

December 7th 07, 04:04 PM posted to rec.aquaria.freshwater.misc

In article 40070ff3-47b6-4c0a-abfd-
, says...
You left out some needed information to help figure out what's going
with your tank.

First, what size tank is this you are talking about?

125 litres.

Has this tank been up and running for a while, or only a few months,
etc?

A couple of years.

Are you doing routine water changes?

Yep.

The most recent victims have been a beta and an otocinclus.

Just an FYI, that would be a Betta (It's pronounced "bet-uh". not
"bait-uh").

I knew that. I even thought about it while I was writing. D'oh. I'm
tired...

Did either the Betta or the Oto show any symptoms before dying?

The two latest victims had been in the tank less than 24 hours :-( - but
no, no symptoms.

How was the betta's behavior? Did he act any differently? Did his fins
have any damage or fraying?

They looked a little ragged, but you know how when a betta is swimming
the fins are all spread out but when they're not moving, they kind of
droop? It's hard to tell if the ragged appearance is down to that. There
were no clear signs of attack - but some of the previous victims did
look like they'd been attacked (though it's hard to know if it was
before or after death).

Even little changes in a fish's behavior can be a large clue somtimes.
This is why I'm asking.
Otos are known for just up an dying, and being sensitive, especially
new ones.

Mollies can get nippy or bullish at times.
Did you see any behavior like that towards the Betta?

The most recent betta victim was new. We've had bettas before which also
died. I had one male betta in there for a few months, with the mollies,
without any problems. Then we added three females. When the first one
died within a few days, we wondered if they were fighting, and kept an
eye on things. We thought we'd figured out that one of them was
attacking the others, and we isolated that one - but then the male died,
followed by the other female, so we obviously got that wrong. We
released the suspect back into the tank, and the next thing we knew, she
died too :-(

We have had one kind-of-aggressive molly in the past, so I'm aware that
they can be that way - but none of the current mollies seem at all
pushy.

Another thing that sometimes gets overlooked is were the otos getting
enough algae to eat?

Yep, the algae is one of the reasons we added the ancistrus and otos, so
no shortage there.

The Clown loaches and Shrimps will devour any dead fish fast as
lightening.
My money's on the clowns for sure!

But would they attack the other fish? They were in there with the first
betta too - and with ancistrus that we had before, and with neons and a
variety of other small fish, and we had no problems then. They don't
seem aggressive at all.

Most folks will say that Ghost Shrimp aren't going to catch a live
fish.
I was one of those many folks until I saw a large Ghost shrimp snatch
a good sized, juvenile female betta of mine, right out of the water.
I had to actually get the fish away from it.

Yeah, the shrimp move pretty fast sometimes.

The betta survived and grew up with a scarred up side.
Her horizontal barring went a little wanky in the middle too. But, she
lived many years.
The Shrimp.....lived about 3 seconds after that. It was tossed into
the Angelfish tank.
So, a smaller fish may be a possible target meal, but rarely ever are
actually caught.

Hm. So you don't think the shrimp are the culprits?

I'm sceptical about the mollies or clowns being the guilty ones, because
they seem peaceful, don't bother the other fish when I'm watching, and
have spent so much time in the tank with other fish before these
problems.

--
FishNoob