Endler Dying... No Obvious Reason. Another Unwell Now Too

Hi Jesnon,
I am so sorry you have lost your little pets... It is very difficult to pin poiint anything without any particular symptoms – like in your case. To be honest, I think I agree with your guess that this must be something in your new tap water which your fish and shrimps are not used to... Again, if even both water supply companies agree to send you water quality reports, you will have a hell of a time trying to figure out what exactly is different...
I keep rather rare wild caught Caridina species shrimps – which are VERY sensitive to the change in TDS (total dissolved content that is). I have been wracking my brain why on earth the TDS from my tap water differs so much on different days – with all other “usual” parameters (like hardiness) being the same...Purely from observation, I have come to – probably not very correct, and not scientific in any means – conclusion that my tap water is at its best a few days after a heavy rainfall in the region (not immediately – a couple of days after it rains heavily)... What I am trying to say is that there are so many things in the tap water which being safe for humans may not be 100% safe for our fish – especially when the fish are moved as in your case...
What I would do now – decrease the amount of water at each water change (10% every other day perhaps? – whenever you can do it, but often and little... Also, I would not get any more Endlers as yet BUT I would think about adding a couple of locally bread shrimps...
As I say – this is, unfortunately, trial and error, and despite doing everything in a very proper manner, you have those losses...
P.S. I would also overdose the dechlorinator at each water change (2-3 times is fine, and even more!) and I would continue with the Beta G...

Very silly question. You said the water at your new place is hard - or at least the water supply is. Is there any chance that a water softener has been installed without you realising, or is that something you'd have noticed by now?

I think water softeners are attached to the mains pipe where it enters the property.
Some types replace the calcium in the water with sodium. Calcium is what makes water hard, but if it is replaced with sodium, it then qualifies as soft for things like washing but it is not good for fish. Very few freshwater fish can cope with high levels of sodium.
You could get some tapwater tested for hardness (GH) at a shop, it would be cheaper than buying a tester.


If there is building work nearby that could disturb the water mains, that could account for any difference in yourtapwater. Physical disturbance could loosen any limescale in the pipes, for example. And if the pipes are breached, it is possible the water supply could have more chlorine than usual added to cover any bugs getting in.

You may well not have a water softener, it's just that some people in hard water areas like to have them, and goodness knows what a previous occupant has done. Like the person who rewired the house my son rented with no regard for what should be connected to each type of ring circuit.

There are a few possibilties:
Planaria, though these are usually quite small and white and harmless
Leeches, but most will not attack fish
Worms of various types

There's a couple of nice pics here for you to compare your slug to. Though to be honest, slug does sound like another word for leech in my vcoabulary. Yuck.

Unfortunately it looks like I may have lost all of my shrimp :-( I saw at least one a few days ago but no sign in the last couple of days.  My remaining 5 endlers are doing okay though. . I hadn't had a chance to get any shrimp as the shops are all quite inconvenient for a non car driver.  Maybe I should just buy online just wasn't sure how delivery of live animals works!

Hi Jesnon and Sue,
Jesnon – I am sooo sorry about your news...  What I can gather from what you say (partially guessing as ever in these matters, unfortunately), what I can say:
First of all – and out of the way: the yacky thing you discovered is most likely to be a freshwater leech. I have oodles of them in my nature pond in my garden. This means your hornwort was grown in an open air pond and one of the creatures just managed to escape/survivewhen you were washing the plant... In itself, this is not a big problem but they (the leeches) should not be in a tank – just removing it will hopefully eliminate the problem (but be vigilant – just in case another one escaped!)
The more serious thing is that you think you lost your shrimps... From what I can gather now I can only suggest that there is something in your new tap water which is SOO different to your previous location that it is what is killing your little pets... If your remaining Endlers are O.K. – that’s good (fingers crossed, touch the wood, whatever – it seems that they have managed to adapt). As for the cherry shrimps – they are very resilient little things but they do tend to be very vulnerable to  extreme fluctuations of water parameters...
I have wild caught Caridinas in one of my tank. When I got them 2 years ago, I had to spend 7 hours to acclimatize them to my water – there is a method called “drip feeding acclimatization” which I used... Even now, I have to be VERY cautious with water changes for them. There is such a thing as TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) in water. I have a TDS meter – and what I have discovered is the fact that my tap water can fluctuate 50% plus-minus (and this is with the same hardness and other parameters being “fine” as the water Company says) (!!!!!). I did try to contact the water Company in a hope to speak to somebody who can explain such fluctuations... To no avail. I have been sent a “water quality report” – and that was it (needless to say the “report” was within “the guidelines” – who would doubt it?!!).
Sorry if the above seems to be quite “off-putting” about keeping dwarf shrimps. This is not the case! Sue’s ones are getting stronger - after some problems- or at least are doing well (fingers crossed) – so you can have a thriving colony as well!
As I now suspect that it is something in your new water supply, I would suggest the following ...If you do not see any more of “white fluffy” things in your tank – that means, it is getting stabilized to the new water/environment. This is good. No need to do frequent water changes now.
Bearing in mind your possible shrimp losses, I would leave any additions to the tank for a couple of weeks. Then I would start with shrimps – yes, locally sourced ones would be a better bet... Get your time to acclimatize them – a few hours of very-very gradual (a bit at a time with lengthy intervals) will – hopefully – get them used to your water (even locally bread ones need to have more time than fish). You either do it “drip method” (an airline tubing tied to create a “knot” and some water forced through it to drip into the bag with shrimps) or – with the local ones you can just add TINY amounts of water from your tank every 15 minutes, removing the excess every hour and when you get to about roughly  25% (or less) of “original” water and 75% of your tank water you can release the shrimps... I am guessing that Fluval Edge poses another problem – that is that you cannot really float the bag with new additions in it to stabilize the temperature...
You CAN acclimatize even shrimps bought from far away with this method but you should be a very patient– the closer by the shrimps are bought from, the more “slack” you can be...
Sorry, this all sound a bit of a “too much work” but it does pay dividends – from my experience, anyway...
As I am now convinced that your new tap water is “iffy” in its parameters, each water change (weekly ones should do nicely now, by the way!) has to be, probably, as I do in my wild shrimp tank – I add new water VERY gradually, making breaks: a liter first – wait for 15 minutes – another liter – wait for 15 minutes – 2 liters – wait for for 15-20 minutes...
I hope this does not put you off... I know you truly care about your little creatures, so a little bit of extra time should not be a problem...
In any case, I would wait for a week or two before trying to put new shrimps in...
Gosh, this is a LOOOOONG post... Sorry... and I hope it makes sense to you...

Filter media does take a while to dry completely. What looks just damp to us is wet enough for the bacteria. Once a filter is thoroughly established, the bacteria are embedded in biofilm. This biofilm takes a while to dry totally and it protects the bacteria. So long as you don't take several hours to do a water change you should be OK.

Newly cycled filters are a different matter as the biofilm is not fully developed and the bacteria colonies are much more delicate. Yours has beed cycled a good few months now and is mature.

Well I'd just like to say it's been over 2 weeks since my last fish died and nearly 2 weeks since my poor shrimp. I'm tentatively thinking my little tank is on its way to recovery and considering a visit to a shop relatively soon for some more fish, it's so sadly empty now without my shrimp and with only 5 endlers. I'll leave it a while longer for any new shrimp though and continue with slow water changes!