Help...have no clue what is going on

[NJNewbie]

Have a 65 gallon tank that was fishless cycled. The temperature is currently set at 75 degrees and I have 2 emperor 400's running plus 2 airstones....

I purchased 5 larger Denision Barbs (approx 3 inch), 1 red tail shark, and 6 Black Ruby Barbs from my local fish store Saturday afternoon. Brought them home drip acclimated them for 1 hour and then added them to the tank. I also went to my local fish chain and also purchased 5 smaller denision barbs, 6 tigger barbs and brought them home Saturday evening and drip acclimated them for an hour also and added them. I left my lights off the tank until 5pm last evening and only had the lights on for approx 4 hours before I shut off at 9pm. I fed the tank the first time yesterday at 5pm 2 pinches of aqueon Tropical flakes. I tested the water yesterday again with api test kit around 6pm and got 0 ammonia and nitrites, 5 nitrates and a ph of 7.6. So water is perfect. yet this morning I come down at 8:30am to find 2 dead Black Ruby Barbs and 3 of the larger Denision Barbs and I have no clue why or what is wrong????

Any suggestions on what to do???? Or how to find out what is wrong???? I also feed the tank another 2 pinches of flakes this morning after removing the dead fish.... Please help

 

[NJNewbie]

Just tested water to see if anything....

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 5 - 10

pH - 7.6

I am so confused to what is going on....

 

[blert]

Did they have any sores or missing eyes/fins or anything wrong with their bodies when you found them dead?

It really could have been any number of things when you add that many fish at one time. Could have been stress or injury from territorial aggressions or bullying, or possibly even not-so-good stock from the LSF.

 

[NJNewbie]

Did they have any sores or missing eyes/fins or anything wrong with their bodies when you found them dead?

It really could have been any number of things when you add that many fish at one time. Could have been stress or injury from territorial aggressions or bullying, or possibly even not-so-good stock from the LSF.

the only thing I remember seeing was small red blotches on the bellies on the denision barbs...the Black ruby's I didn't see anything but they are black and a deep red so maybe didn't notice....

 

[NJNewbie]

it is weird that all the fish from the LFS are the ones not doing well while the ones from the large pet chain seem to be fine....LFS bought 5 denision barbs (3 died) and bought 1 red tail shark ( he just hangs around the back and hides, dosen't swim the tank much), and 6 Black Ruby Barbs (3 died as I just found another one sunken dead in the plants in the back of the tank).....so out of 12 fish bought only 6 left.....not going back there any time soon

 

[blert]

Could be a possible quality issue from the LFS.

RTBS's can be a bit secretive at first, he needs time to adjust. Do you have a cave in the tank for him to claim as his territory?

 

[NJNewbie]

yes we have multiple caves in the tank...Saturday and yesterday he was in and out of the caves...today just hanging in the back of the tank behind the one emperor 400 intake tube....

 

[jcolon]

Denison Barbs and BRB's are fairly hearty fish. Sounds like a water quality issue between your water and the LFS water if only the LFS fish are the ones with the issues.
I've had better luck with stock from my local Petco / Petsmart than from LFS ... so it's not unheard of ... even with an hour acclimation.

I'd say for now, just let what's in there adjust ... Your tank is pretty well stocked for the moment ... your smaller (guessing about 1.5 inches) Denison's will grow within the year to 3 inches. Give the tank about a month for the BB to meet the demand of the Bio-Load (although it looks good for now.)

Sorry to hear about you losing the Denisons and BRB's ... both are my #2 & #3 favorite fish respectively. Hoping the rest of your stock makes it ok!

P.S. +1 with blert ... ensure you have DW, plants, ornaments, caves etc in the tank to give the RTS territory to claim. I'm assuming it's a juvenile ... 1 inch? Once they get to the 2.5 - 3 inch mark ... they become very territorially aggressive. Don't be surprised if it tries to claim the whole tank as its territory ... nature of the beast.

 

[NJNewbie]

It hasn't gotten any better I have now lost 4 of the 5 large Denison barbs and 3 of the 6 Black Ruby Barbs. The last large Denison Barb has a large round white circle around it's Dorsal fin....I think this might be ICH....How do I know for sure and how do i treat this??? Please help...

I'm going to try and get some pictures and post

 

[NJNewbie]

Here are some pics....all of the last Denison barb and 1 of the Black Ruby Barb's that dosen't look good and is hiding.

 

[NJNewbie]

Sorry here

 

[jcolon]

It's not Ich... I'm thinking those LFS fish were already infected ... A parasite or fungus? In the LFS tanks they were stable, because they may have been in those tanks for awhile, but it has manifested in your tank.

Are the smaller Denisons and tigerbarbs doing ok? If so, I'd say real bad stock from the LFS.

 

[NJNewbie]

Yes the 6 tiger barbs and the 5 little barbs are fine. Just looks like the LFS fish are the ones suffering from this. I added 5 tablespoons of aquarium salt this afternoon. I don't know if this will help or do anything....this really sucks. Makes me so upset to lose all those fish.

 

[jcolon]

Sorry you're going through this crap... I'd say it sucks and to also stay away from that LFS ... Sounds like they have stock issues. By chance... Will they refund / exchange dead stock?

As for the large denison and BRB's , if they're still alive tomorrow but not getting better, QT them in a large bucket or one of those Rubbermaid bins and treat with mardel / maracyn... Maybe also some salt until they heal. I treated a green TB with white patchy fungus using Mardel in a QT 10gal... it was gone in a week. You just need to add an airstone and maybe a heater to the QT. For the fungus, I didn't add a heater, I made sure to do PWC's daily, redose meds, and kept the house around 70-72F.

If they are showing improvements, keep them in the tank and continue with salt and PWC's. On a positive note, now you know where to stay away from and the value of a QT tank for new stock if you do add new fish. Personally, give it a month or two.