Leaderboard

Hi all, I’ve had my 65L tank for almost 2 years (April 1st) marks the date. For the last probably 9 months I’ve only lost one fish, due to growths. I currently have 3 Cory’s 2 Cherry Barbs 3 Black Widows 2 Harliquin Rasboras 5 Black Neon tetras Yes I know that it should be more like 4+ of each species, but 18 months ago, when I got them I didn’t know any better [emoji2369]. Do you think that this tank is full stocked? I do 30% water changes once a week. If I can add something, would I be better to add more to Cherrys, and Rasboras? Or could I get something like a dwarf gourami? I would like a peppermint bristlenose, but I think they get too big. I believe the tank is 90cm in length, and peppermints get to a max of 15. I want one, but also want the bet for it, and the rest of the tank. Thank you! Any advice on other options would be appreciated Also, would get shrimp but aren’t allowed to have them here... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you plan on having mixed species in each tank, then it's very hard for us to agree with those water parameters. It's either going to be at the upper limits for one shrimp and the lowest limits of the other. That's probably why I end up with so many tanks ?

It's unlikely to be Scutariella. It's too "fat" to be that. More likely to be a leech, that is biting down to latch on, causing distress/flinching to the shrimp. In general, parasites and leeches, do not kill the host. It's not in their interest to kill the host, if it's food source is dead. But there is always a first time for everything. A salt bath should work well on parasites, and it's relatively safe for shrimps. But try to get a full water parameter test just to rule out other issues. Please report back with your water tests. The 2nd vid of the shrimp struggling is classic ammonia poisoning. So please check ammonia, nitrites.

I think you guys are right about them being separate issues, but what a strange event of coincidences. I got home today and no shrimps are to be found anymore along with the mystery parasite. Fish all look great. I did a water test and the ph came to 7.2, ammonia was .15ppm, nitrite was 0 ppm and nitrate 0ppm. This was after the water change I did the other day so perhaps high ammonia levels got to them or how I was speculating originally there may have been pesticides on the plant I ordered. It wouldnt really make sense for a parasite to be killing all of its hosts. Id still love to try and figure out what the thing was though. I looked up water mites and I think it’s a possibilty, but idk if there are parasitic ones and this creature looked like it had a long antenna or probe like thing. Its hard trying to match stuff from just my low quality i phone vids. Thanks for the help and ideas!

I had a thought yesterday, is that thing just a water mite? I had them once and they run over everything and I can imagine a shrimp trying to get it off! I don't think they are harmful though, just creepy!! As JayC says of the leeches, they don't kill the shrimps but I never saw one on a shrimp, they may stress a shrimp but as JayC says the struggling shrimp looks more like poisoning. It may be that the critter and the deaths are not connected but two completely separate issues? Simon

Yeah Assassin Snails are illegal here in Australia.

Hi @ryanfleming, what filtration do you use on the tank? I would not say it is fully stocked yet, and would advise maybe to try to reach that 4+ with a couple of the species. I wouldn't say a peppermint bristlenose is entirely out of question with your size of tank. Yes, they can reach 15 cm but they also can live for up to 20 years. It'll take at least 5 years I think for it to even reach 10cm, if you get one that's 3cm or smaller. Blazepelt has a longfin BN in his 40L, and plans to keep it in there for a while still. So if you would prefer that over getting more schooling fish, I would say it's still an option. Do remember to quarantine with situations like this, though, as you seem to have your tank finally settled down, and it would be a shame to ruin it all with a couple diseased fish.

I should mention that the crystal/Sulawesi tank setup will be well Filtered and have an active substrate. I know this will be important.

I live in the US, and I have seen Seachem ParaGuard thankyou for the suggestion. Ive had this tank for about a year now, but have had fish and shrimp for only 4-6 months. I ordered the plants from amazon and it had all great reviews for the most part and nobody mentioned their shrimp or fish being poisoned. As for the movement of this thing... it definitely moves, sometimes I thought it was gone, but had moved to another side of the rostrum. I was observing this thing for a while and I am almost certain it isn’t Scutariella, unless perhaps this is a less common species? Plus I felt as if the movement of this thing was disturbing the shrimp, see him flinching in the first vid? I don’t have much experience in the aquarium hobby, but I do taxonomy on insects irl, so I feel pretty confident in my observations. I could be wrong, but if anyone has any other ideas or possibilities that would be great I want to come to a solid conclusion on this thing. Thanks!

I think it is Scutariella or maybe "leech", as shown in this thread: I have had those in the past too, and yes it wriggles quickly and yes it can easily detach and land somewhere else, and yes you can nuke it with a salt dip and no it is not killing your shrimp - something else is.

So sorry that you are having this problem. The nearest I came up with from the first video was possibly the Scutariella, but the other video looks a bit like it may be poisoning so I am baffled? Are you sure it moves about and isn't anchored but swaying about? I don't believe you can rinse/wash off pesticides! Which country are you from? It may be worth trying Seachem ParaGuard if you can get that where you are? Did you get the plant from a business or privately? How long has the tank been running successfully? I hope someone may be able to help? I have had small white dots in my tank which run around (I assume they are seed shrimp but too small to see even with a magnifying glass) and they seem to make the shrimp very occasionally jump/twitch, and years ago I had tiny leeches when I sourced stuff from a lake, but neither attacked shrimps as you describe/show. It actually sounds more like it is predating the shrimp and when they die it goes for another??? Unless its actually not the critter but poisoning (from the plant assumedly) as shrimp are extremely sensitive to that? Simon