I think feeding Moina may have killed some of my Pseudomugil Signifers.

[trajama_rama]

TLDR: I think feeding Moina may have killed some of my Pseudomugil Signifers.

It's a sad day in the fish room, or rather, the fish office. One of my Pseudomugil Signifer males passed - leaving me with only one male and two females. I am used to death and death with fish especially. This passing isn't sad, it's frustrating. I had purchased a group of 6 fish - 4 females and 2 males. One female kicked the bucket during shipping and another female died within 24 hours of arrival. I was left with 2 males and 2 females - not ideal. I thought I'd see what I could do with these guys. The fish were timid for weeks. I never saw them do anything but hide behind the sponge filter in their bare bottom tank. I hadn't even seen them eat. I still have yet to see them eat any flake or pellet foods. I have been feeding them scuds, BBS, worms, and some frozen foods. I finally got some moina colonies running well (which took a surprising amount of effort) and have been feeding them to the signifers in small amounts for about a week. Yesterday I had a stellar moina harvest and did a big feed with all my tanks (I keep multiple Pseudomugil species tanks and one Peudomugil community tank). I guess the Signifers may have over eaten..? Maybe something else? My luminatus, furcatus, and others love to overeat - but not to death... I also noticed the signifers never looked full compared to my other species of blue-eyes. The other three fish in the tank aren't doing much and haven't moved all day. Normally after a big feed of BBS, they are very active with the mop. All other tanks are normal after being fed the same moina. My poor guys - they had finally established pecking order, displaying, and laying eggs. I can not say for certain if the dominant male died or if it was the other guy.  As far as water quality, water was changed 3 days ago. I change water 1-2x a week as I am running small bare bottom tanks. The water is RO and conditioned tap mix. I'll change the water again tonight and keep my fingers crossed the other three make it.

P.S. I wrote this a day ago and another female died over last night, even with the 50 percent water change. The remaining male and female are just swimming in the slow current. I plan on rinsing moina in the future in case there was something nasty breeding in their water.

[Colu]

What are your water parameters when you did your water change  did you use a water Dechlorinator like prime  did the ones that died have sunken bellys any rapid breathing hanging near the surface 

[trajama_rama]

@ColuI just use test strips but 0 nitrate 0 nitrite, pretty soft water, neutral PH, no dramatic temp changes or anything like that.

I used a dash of Fritz complete. The chlorine here is .2-1 ppm so I don't always de chlorinate - especially when mixing with RO water.  No sunken bellies - no indication of low oxygen in the water (our tap comes from a western river so very well oxygenated) and I am using an air driven filter. Nothing in the tank changed except adding the moina. The moina also only had this adverse effect on the Signifer tank and no other fish or shrimp. Its really having me scratch my head here...

[trajama_rama]

down to just one female now 😢

[Colu]

Nothing jumping out at me have you tested your ammonia levels it's possible the you got a spike after adding the moina if you added water from the moina culture  @trajama_rama

Edited June 8, 2022 by Colu

[laritheloud]

I'm not sure where you obtained your pseudomugil signifers from, but I will say that I didn't have the best experience with them. They were not hardy and the oldest lived for only 7 to 8 months in my tank; water parameters were always good and I attempted to treat them with appropriately spaced-out regimens to give them time to settle and possibly gain strength.

I hope you have a better experience if you decide to try and get more of them, and I'm sorry this happened!