This experiment into having an ecosystem tank has been wild! I find it needs constant attention to stay stable. Recently I took off for a week and left it in the care of my mother. During this time something happened, not sure what, and I lost three of my five hillstream loaches including the two HUGE healthy ones I’d only recently purchased! Along with them there seemed to be a big wave of shrimp death despite the recent appearance of baby shrimp which I’ve been hoping to see for months.

My best guess is some plants died, the nitrites spiked, that killed the loaches, and the decaying loaches spiked the nitrates even higher which killed some shrimp and sickened one betta.

I was forced to do a water change to save the betta and stabilize the whole thing. Weirdly the tank also reaked of vinegar for no reason. The water change seems to have improved this.

But the tank remains a great mystery. For one bladder snails don’t seem to do well in it. Despite lots of waste from the bettas who practically demand food be placed directly into their mouths before they eat it, I’ve never had an over abundance of bladder snails. If anything you have to search to find them but in an even more bizarre twist I started seeing larger snails I couldn’t identify start to show up. It took more growth for me to realize they’re zebra nerite snail babies…. in a freshwater tank… where nerite snails aren’t supposed to be able to breed. Clearly my tank is suitable to them! So why not the common bladder snail? And why am I constantly battling waves of shrimp deaths? It’s taken almost a year for my colony of shrimp to start breeding and now that I’m regularly seeing babies the adults are dying off! Maybe they’re old or have grown too big (they are HUGE – everything in this tank seems to be almost double the size they’re supposed to be, especially the neon tetras and shrimp!)

After my small water change (9 gallons) my betta is improving. If she doesn’t snap out of her habit of sleeping on the bottom curled in half I will do another water change.

Meanwhile my rescue male betta is also shockingly thin, to the point I thought he was going to die. Turns out he doesn’t eat well. At all. He goes up to the top of the water and gulps air where he thinks there’s food and sometimes he lucks out. I’m wondering if he’s not blind?