Elle

Just wondering if anyone can provide info re having worms in your tank. If its a good thing and the benefits they may provide. I haven't provided live food for over a year now so either they stuck around or they we're introduced among plants or new fish. The worms look like bloodworms about 5cm long?

hi all,

I have taken a bit of a break from fish over the last few years and maybe become a bit laps with it. I was changing the water once a month and feeding my fish twice a week for about 2years now. I have not had any deaths in at least a year and a half. Just recently I had a few harlequins drop one by one over the course of months and we thought maybe it was the water (which was fine), the food, the plants. We looked up the life span of harlequins and found that they only live to 5-6 years old. I put the deaths down to this however did start cleaning the tank weekly or fortnightly, feeding them everyday and using filtered water. I bought a few emperor tetras and everything's seems all happy. I put a new log in yesterday and at the same time noticed that my only female bristle nose (12cm and about 5 yrs) had what looked like blood on her head and fin and was breathing quickly. The temp has been fluxationg with the heat resent,y going up to 29 some days but i get it back to 26. I have seen fish do some weird things and figured I'd see what happened. 24 hrs later she is dead. I don't really know what happened but I want to rule out infection and disease. I can't find anything online that would explain the colour change and death. Any suggestions?

Type of fish: 1 common female, 3common male and 1 comman male bristle nose about 5 years, harlequin and emperor tetra
Tank size / capacity:100L
Type of Food fed: flakes and alge wafers
Feeding frequency/amount:bristle nose every second day 2 wafers for 5 bristle nose but they seem to eat the dregs of the flakes also
Substrate: black complete something for planting
Type of filtration: trickle filter above
Frequency and % volume of water changes:40%
Last water change:week and a day ago