neon tetras dying

[mollymama]

Saturday I picked up 3 neon tetras from our lfs. We've lost 2 of them almost immediately, but the third made it. Yesterday I got 2 more to replace the first two, and one of them died within a couple hours of being in the tank, and a second fish was dead this morning when I checked. The third (maybe one of the original batch?) is still swimming lively.

I've checked the water and everything is normal. It's a 10 gallon tank with an appropriately sized filter. No live plants, just plastic ones, and a small population of snails.

Do you think the fish may have been sickly to begin with coming from the store, or could it be there's something odd going on with the water (even though the parameters read ok)? Or are tetras sensitive

I'm thinking of getting two more fish today from a different store to see if they fare any better. If they do, then I guess I'll have my answer.

 

[KatieJ]

Woah, stop stop stop. The worst - absolute worst thing to do if you have a bunch of fish dying is immediately go and get more fish, because you don't know if there's something in your water doing it

As far as your parameters go: define "normal"? Did you cycle the tank? If so, how long and using what method?

 

[mollymama]

The tank has been cycled for several months. Oooh yeah, I learned about cycling the hard way back in March. Had 2 mollies in there and ended up doing major daily water changes b/c I found this forum too late (i.e., after talking to the pet store folks when buying fish). The fish survived the cycling, but one was weakened and died about 3 months after we got it. We lost the second one about a week ago, and decided to try smaller fish so there'd be more to watch (it's actually my 5 y/o's tank).

Nitrites, nitrates & ammonia are at 0. If there's a water quality issue it's hidden to me, I'm not sure what else could be wrong?

 

[betta4me]

How are you acclimating your new fish? I prefer the drip acclimation method over the bag float method, it makes sense to me and I've always done it that way without any fish loss. Just tossing that idea out there.

 

[KatieJ]

Ah, okay. Yeah, I swear, they need to make a law about lfs false advertising/lying to customers. >.> The drip acclimation method betta4me mentioned is the best way - if you floated the bag for 15 minutes and then just released the tetras into the tank, the shock from the different water could kill them.

 

[barterking85]

The tank has been cycled for several months. Oooh yeah, I learned about cycling the hard way back in March. Had 2 mollies in there and ended up doing major daily water changes b/c I found this forum too late (i.e., after talking to the pet store folks when buying fish). The fish survived the cycling, but one was weakened and died about 3 months after we got it. We lost the second one about a week ago, and decided to try smaller fish so there'd be more to watch (it's actually my 5 y/o's tank).

Nitrites, nitrates & ammonia are at 0. If there's a water quality issue it's hidden to me, I'm not sure what else could be wrong?

Ok just wondering why your nitrates are 0 they shouldn't be you should show 5-10 in a cycled tank

Live plants?( would explain low nitrates)
Did you change gravel recently?(might explain a drop in nitrates ie mini cycle)
Do you change all your filter media?(bad bb is in your media this could cause a mini cycle or even starting over a new cycle)
Or anything else we should know about?

 

[LyndaB]

Nitrites, nitrates & ammonia are at 0. If there's a water quality issue it's hidden to me, I'm not sure what else could be wrong?

As ryan indicated, you should not have 0 nitrates unless you have a planted tank. What test kit are you using?

Also, to answer your question, yes, neon tetras are very sensitive due to overbreeding. They are prone to neon tetra disease which can actually wipe out your entire tank within days if you don't catch it. If a diseased fish dies, and other fish consume it, which they will, they will catch the disease and die themselves. It's a horrible cycle.

 

[mollymama]

I'll test the water again this afternoon...and revisit the nitrate reading.

No live plants, just 3 plastic ones that have been in there from the beginning. No gravel changes.

Adding fish: I've floated the bag (15-20 min), then let in some tank water (15-20 min), then let the new fish swim out. What is the drip method?

Thanks everyone, for your responses. I really want to figure out what's going on!

 

[barterking85]

YouTube

It's the drip acclimation

 

[mollymama]

Ryan, I tried your link but it didn't take me to anything relevant...but YouTube also said the site was undergoing maintenance so maybe that's it.

I've got water test readings from just a few minutes ago:

pH - 7.6

ammo - 0-.25 (it's somewhere in here...not quite yellow but it does have some greenish tint. I'm terrible at reading these things.)

nitrites - 0

nitrates - 0-5.0 (again, it's in between the color codes to my eye)

 

[aa108]

if you can, post pictures of it so we can help you tell what color they are

 

[barterking85]

Ryan, I tried your link but it didn't take me to anything relevant...but YouTube also said the site was undergoing maintenance so maybe that's it.

I've got water test readings from just a few minutes ago:

pH - 7.6

ammo - 0-.25 (it's somewhere in here...not quite yellow but it does have some greenish tint. I'm terrible at reading these things.)

nitrites - 0

nitrates - 0-5.0 (again, it's in between the color codes to my eye)

You can just google "drip acclimation" and find a video or wait till tomorrow and YouTube should be back up

 

[Homer8]

are there any other fish in the tank(sorry if yo said if there were or werent). if you cycled the tank and then didnt have any fish or ammonia to the tank then the bacteria could have died off which would mean you would have to cycle all over again. the bacteria need ammonia to live off of.

now if the tank has bacteria in it and they didnt die off then it could be because when adding multiple fish to the tank that they give off too much ammonia and there arent enough bacteria to break it down to nitrates.

if either one of these isnt the problem it could be that the water in your tank is completely different then what they came from. are you dechlorinating the water?

 

[bruinsbro1997]

Your neons are dying because they're not getting used to the water quality fast enough. When I used the floating bag method with neons I did it for almost an hour and added small amounts of water to the bag each ten minutes.

Hmm...no nitrates? Did you add any fish after the cycle was complete or did you wait?

 

[mollymama]

To answer questions posed:

I am dechlorinating the water when I do water changes.

We had a fishless tank for a little less than a week. Do you think that's long enough for the bacteria to start dying off? I never thought of that!

Ok, so now I have info for drip acclimation plus the advice for floating the bag longer...I'm going to have a different, locally-owned store test my water today (to see what they come up with) and maybe buy two more fish from there. Then I'll try going more slowly when adding the fish to the tank. Will report the results here!

Thanks so much for the info, everyone. I really appreciate it.

 

[LyndaB]

I don't think buying more fish for a tank where you have unexplained deaths is a good idea. You should wait at least another week and see how the existing fish are faring prior to purchase.

 

[barterking85]

Now I am not 100% sure but having no ammonia for a week. Could be the problem your bb needs ammonia to survive a week MIGHT have killed the colony I am not sure how long your bb can survive without ammonia but IMO a week might have been to long

I will wait till I see your results make sure they use a liquid test kit at your lfs and if I am still stumped I will bring eco the water specialist in to give his two cents

 

[tarpon]

He says he has 0 ammonia. And i dont think the fish wouldve died that quick in an uncycled tank. Probably acclimation or an unhealthy batch. This happened to me with panda corys. My julli corys had survived a long time but i bought pandas and they kept dying on me.

 

[barterking85]

He says he has 0 ammonia. And i dont think the fish wouldve died that quick in an uncycled tank. Probably acclimation or an unhealthy batch. This happened to me with panda corys. My julli corys had survived a long time but i bought pandas and they kept dying on me.

He says he has 0-.25 ammonia and 0 nitrates which is not normal

I've been following from the start

 

[tarpon]

Obviously. I still stand by what i said