This night, my pleco jumped out of the tank for the first time. This morning, a cory is dying with what looks like a wound on his stomach and a neon tetra is gasping and spazzing around. Also saw that like 4 shrimps had shed at once. Water parameters are fine, tested twice today. Three days ago I found and extracted a dragonfly larva. I fear that there is another one that attacked the cory and maybe causing the pleco to jump out? But that wouldn't explain the sick tetra. The other fish seem healthy but hide a lot, which may also be because I just trimmed the plants and it's brighter than before.
Pic 1: the tetra in my tank swimming kinda normal but you can see the color seems to fade, his body is also kinda crooked
Pic 2: that's how he swam most time in the tank, extracted him into a bowl with a few plants as I don't have a quarantine tank as of right now. He sometimes swims normal, sometimes like this. Mouth permanently open, seemingly gasping
Pic 3: the wound on the cory. Had to euthanize as he was visibly distressed and already floating belly up
Idk what to do??
Posted by rodleyMullet
1 Comment
Sounds like there are multiple things going on, but the dragonfly nymph is a big red flag and absolutely can maim or kill small fish and shrimp, so the tank needs to be checked thoroughly and any others removed. The crooked, fading neon could be dealing with a chronic issue like injury, genetic deformity, or a disease such as classic “neon tetra disease”, which often causes muscle damage, color loss, and spine problems and usually is not treatable. For any fish that is clearly suffering and unlikely to recover, euthanasia with a proper clove‑oil method is considered humane and is recommended by welfare groups and vets.