Sudden death in Espei Rasbora

[chris601]

I am having an issue with the Espei Rasbora in my heavily planted community tank. Some details of the setup:

Tank size: 20g
7 Amano shrimp
4 Otocinclus
11 Espei Rasbora (was 12 yesterday)
8 Oygmy Corydoras
5 Clithon snails
No CO2
Filter: Aquaclear 50
Lean dosing fertilizer
Water changes weekly 40%
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10
PH 7.2
GH 10
KH 2

I have been running this tank for about 11 months now.

This morning I found one of the Espeis floating dead near the surface amongst some red root floaters. The fish was slightly bloated, with blood visible underneath the skin - possibly hemorrhagic septicemia (see pic).

I had what might have been a similar problem last month (hard to tell - I didn't locate the fish that died until a few days after it had disappeared at which point it was partly decomposed) and also back in October (also bloated with some blood visible on abdomen).

I only have trouble with the Espei's - everything else seems fine.

I've just noticed on the pic that there are some black specks on the fish if you zoom in. Could they be a kind of mite?

Is there anything that I need to do now to prevent whatever this is from spreading to other fish? Grateful for any advice.

 

[TNG]

I really can’t see any problem there, although GH of 10 is at the upper end for espei Rasbora.

 

[GaryE]

Your water change routine is good for the population of creatures you have. Everything appears right. You're losing a delicate species at a slow rate, with no apparent pattern. A store will tell you to buy some herbal or homeopathic remedy so you will feel busy, but there's nothing I can think of to do.

 

[chris601]

Thanks for the replies - much appreciated.