Skirt tetras disintegrating?? (Photo included)

[Sunny]

*There are pictures of this at the end of this post, so don’t scroll if you don’t want to see it*

Hi all… lots been going wrong over here lately. Just when I was thinking I was doing great, my two guppies don’t make it through quarantine, my seemingly healthy dwarf guarami just got dropsy, now my skirt tetras are… disintegrating? 
 

I have some skirt tetras from when I first set up the tank in December. They had ick when I got them but after the med trio have seemed healthy. They spawn every other week or so. About two or three months ago, I noticed that one of them looked like he’d been half eaten. Tail and fins ripped up, bloody gash on side… really gruesome. I thought the dwarf gourami had got him, or maybe he didn’t like the recent water change? I dosed the tank with maracyn just in case.

Tonight, I noticed another skirt tetra like this! He seemed absolutely fine the past few days and even this afternoon when I checked the tank. Except this time, the guorami had been in a hospital tank the past few days with dropsy.
 

Any ideas?! I’ve felt awful losing the other fish but it’ll really suck if this is the fate of the rest of them. 

Water parameters below. Other tank mates are cherry barbs (not in the tank when the first tetra died), 4 more skirt tetras, and two guppy fry in a floating Tupperware.

Help, please 😞

 

[Colu]

What's your ammonia level

[FiShrewd]

first of all move them to another tub with only one plant -duckweed works fine cause you will dose the tank-

use a clean sponge filter one that is cycled

chek you nitrates and ammonnia

did you use some sort of disinfectant near the tank which was ammonium based

[Sunny]

Ammonia is zero on API kit. I haven’t used disinfectant near, but we do spray fabreeze (I try to keep it away from the tank but I know it travels some)… does that stuff kill fish??? I have a tank in the hallway that has had absolutely no issues, and it’s near where I have the cat litter so all sorts of air sprays going on there.

I have two peace lillies next to the tank… trying to think of anything else different than my hallway tank. Picture below, maybe you can see something I’m missing. I do have an HOB on this tank, versus a sponge filter for the smaller hallway one.

@FiShrewdare you suggesting moving them to a QT and dosing salt? I’m in the US so I have access to meds, I can dose the whole tank as well (I don’t want whatever is happening here to hurt the cherry barbs).

 

[FiShrewd]

ok move them to qt tub [get something like seachem stability, and use a new uncycled sponge if you have it on hand]

the ones you have should be fine

use some duckweed as a floating plant in the tub and use reverse osmosis water [the one you drink of course]

people will be more than happy of course to give you some duck weed

now you can start observing for a day or two and start dosing a little later

do daily water changes and keep the water quality like a breeding setup

i also suggest that you use some stress reliever like stress zyme. seachem makes a similar one too

[Colu]

Do you have an intake sponge on the HOB filter

[Sunny]

@ColuYes, a coop one that’s covered in hair algae 

[Colu]

On 10/29/2021 at 5:13 PM, Sunny said:

@ColuYes, a coop one that’s covered in hair algae 

It's an odd one as it looks like it's  I've injuryed itself or it been attack  i suppose the most likely option is that it's swim into something in the tank  and injured itself that would explain the ripped tail fin and reddening on the body what I would do is treat with antibiotic medication such as maracy kanaplex to provent it getting an secondary bacterial infection hopefully he will put thought and add a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 5 gallons that will help with gill function and add essential electrolytes and at that level it shouldn't harm your plants

Edited October 29, 2021 by Colu

[Sunny]

On 10/29/2021 at 6:22 PM, Colu said:

It's an odd one as it looks like it's  I've injuryed itself or it been attack  i suppose the most likely option is that it's swim into something in the tank  and injured itself that would explain the ripped tail fin and reddening on the body what I would do is treat with antibiotic medication such as maracy kanaplex to provent it getting an secondary bacterial infection hopefully he will put thought and add a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 5 gallons that will help with gill function and add essential electrolytes and at that level it shouldn't harm your plants

What’s odd too is that this exact thing happened to a skirt tetra a few months ago. Exact same tail injury, anal fin completely ripped off… maybe they made the other skirt tetras angry somehow??

 I’ve got him soaking in 1 tbsp per gallon salt and antibiotics in QT, but if I had clove oil I’d euthanize him. He’s clearly getting worse… poor guy…

[Colu]

Sorry to hear he's not improving I kept a group of 20  skirt tetras years ago I never had any aggression issues from them