Hi everyone,
I was wondering if I could please have some guidance/help on an issue i'm currently experiencing in my community tank. Apologies if this is in the wrong sub-forum, i saw the disease sub-form and did think about posting my question in there but trying to get clear pictures of my nano fish has been challenging.
I've had my community tank setup for two years now and I'm struggling to keep my fish alive which is really bringing me down. I've tried various different things ranging from a filter change (done safely by running the old filter until new canister filter was established) , changing foods and keeping on top of regular tank maintenance.
I tend to stick to nano fish and recently in the last 3 months brought some galaxy rasbora , a honey gourami and koi guppies to add to my chilli rasboras, endlers and two mollies that i had. Slowly over these 3 months i've lost a lot of fish. The symptoms of the fish tend to be the same, the fish start looking skinny, perhaps not as active but still feed, when I return in the morning i either see that a fish has passed or they have gone completely. I'm putting disappearance down to the shrimps and snails doing their thing.
The shrimp and snails in my tank seem to be doing great, lots of new baby shrimp from the cherry shrimp, Amano shrimp are doing great and the nerite snail has been doing well since i got it last year.
I've assumed that there is an internal parasite that has been introduced. As i have shrimp/snails and i'm based in the UK i've been limited with what treatment I can put in the tank. I went with Vetark Fluke Solve Aquarium and have just finished a 2nd round of treatment (2nd round completed after 3 weeks post a water change).
Parameters of the tank are fine. 0 Ammonia, Nitrite and between 10-20ppm for Nitrates - should be good for a planted tank. PH is 7.4.
My tap water is very high in Nitrate at over 40ppm so i tend to do water changes with a bit of treated tap water and RO that has a re-mineral powder mixed in with it.
I'm stuck on what to do next , i only did the second round of treatment last Friday so i'm keeping my fingers crossed that in the event it was a parasite then it's been treated. In the meantime, what else can I do? There will be no more fish introduced until i feel confident that i've sorted this problem out.
Thank you for any support/help