miraloma

I have a 14 gallon tank with some plants, moss, etc, along with 2 platy (1 fat female and a juvi), 4 neon rainbow (2 male and 2 juvi female), 3 neon tetra, 2 feeder guppy and some glass shrimp. The 2 male neon rainbow were new, joined the tank last Friday. I was gone for the weekend and when I came back, the fish were all still alive but the green mossy plants all turned gray. Any idea why?

Isabella

The 4 neon rainbow fish that you have - are they some variety of platies? If so, then you have 6 platies total. That means your tank is already fully stocked with the platies alone, and with the neons + guppies it's quite overstocked. Are you planning on getting a larger tank for all of them?

As for the moss dying, it's a little strange for a plant to die over the course of two days only. I know if a plant doesn't receive light regularly and sufficiently long per one day, then it will die, but I don't think it should die if it didn't have light for 2 days. Are you sure your moss didn't start dying before that weekend? Also, Java Moss (which is the plant I assume you have) is a non-demanding low-light plant that should do well even in very low lighting.

I'd understand if you said that some fish died after you introduced new fish to your tank (as new fish can carry diseases that can infect and kill other fish you already have), but I've never heard of new fish infecting and killing plants. Or, have you added any liquid commercial products to your water before you left that weekend?

miraloma

The neon rainbow fish are dwarf rainbow, not platy. Adult grows up to 2" while the ones I have are only about 1/2" at the moment. The 2 platy I have one is a full grown female while the other is a juvi, only about 1/2". I plan to move the platys up to a 28G later but the rainbow and guppies will stay. The guppies are feeder guppies, which means they are smaller than fancy guppies. The male is 1/2" and the female is about 1".

The plants/moss/green algae were very green and overgrowing in fact, before the weekend. I did toss in 2 Hikari algae waffers as food source before I left for the weekend. I have a million snails and a handful of glass shrimp. So, I figured between the fish, snail and shrimp, there's enough food for everyone.

The lighting didn't change in that the aquarium sits by a window so it receives natural (sun) light during the morning. Since I wasn't here, I couldn't swear by the amount of light actually hitting the tank. I did notice the water being white and cloudy when I got back from the weekend. I figured it was just a bacteria bloom. At that time, I didn't realize that my plants were also white/gray.

I did not add any liquid product to the tank before departure.