Any ideas?

[MoonShadow]

Lately I've been losing a lot of females. And I'm not sure what's going on. Tank stats are good, 29 gallon bow front tank.. ammonia: 0 nitrites: 0 and nitrates:10. So its not going through a mini cycle or anything. There are no outward signs of illness. They're fine one day the next day they're lethargic and not eating and then the next day they are dead. I haven't treated with more then clean water, salt and prime cause I'm not quite sure which direction to go. Any thoughts? Has anyone experienced this before?

[Oldfishlady]

Sorry you are having problems.....have a few questions....

In the 29gal tank- water temp, what type of filter and filter media care, substrate, any live plants, type of additives used, how much and how often are the water changes, how long has the tank been setup, how old are the Betta or how long have you had them and where did you get them, type/amount of food, have any of them been spawned or in sight of a male, any other livestock in the tank and number of females, do you have any aggression issues, health and treatment history if any......

Are you using aquarium salt long term and if so-how much are you using...

Can you post a pic of the tank....

[MoonShadow]

Thank you for your response! I will try to answer your questions as best as I can!

In the 29gal tank- water temp: 82 Degrees
What type of filter and filter media care: Tetra Whisper Internal Power filter 170 GPH Model 40i.
substrate: Gravel
any live plants: Mostly silk plants but I do have a few amazon swords and wisteria in the tank.
type of additives used: Prime, Tetra Aquasafe plus water conditioner, stress coat when adding new fish to the tank, vitachem.
how much and how often are the water changes: 50% water change and good gravel vac once a week.
how long has the tank been setup: A little over 2 years
how old are the Betta or how long have you had them and where did you get them: They are all different ages and from different sources, some from petco/petsmart, others from breeders. The oldest girl has been in the tank about a year, the newest I just got 2 weeks ago.
type/amount of food: Attison's Betta Pro and NLS Betta pellets daily, live or frozen brine shrimp or live black worms 3x a week.
have any of them been spawned or in sight of a male: None of my current girls have been spawned, and they are not in sight of any males.
any other livestock in the tank and number of females: The tank contains 4 peppered cory cats, 1 bristlenose pleco and 11 females.
do you have any aggression issues: Just minor occasional squabbles. The tank is heavily planted with tons of hiding places.
health and treatment history if any: Had an outbreak of Dropsy about 6 months ago, other then that Ive never had any serious problems.

[Oldfishlady]

About how old was the Betta that died....the reason I am asking....is that it may be normal die off and then with the sign/symptom of dropsy in the past they may already have compromised immune response. Did any recover or did you find out the cause of the symptom of dropsy since it has so many different causes. Sometimes with sororities the stress can be the cause-you husbandry all sounds fine....

Salt-is that used for treatment in a Qt or are you adding this to the tank-Long term use can cause dropsy symptoms too due to internal organ damage.

[MoonShadow]

I have actually lost 4 girls so far, of different ages, none of them had been in the tank longer then a month.

[Oldfishlady]

You may have a carrier of Mycobacteriosis....they will be asymptomatic but any new fish added that doesn't have antibody development to the strain they are carrying will become symptomatic and die...

Here is a good link...read the whole thing.....

http://www.bookmasters.com/marktplc/...ycoarticle.pdf