Dead Danios

[Coralocean]

Here we go. I have 2 fatalities already. Those of you who know my struggle with cycling - I am starting to wonder if my test kit is bad. I bought 6 danio rerio 2 days ago my water has been pristine. I acclimated them for an hour. The 2 that died were very small males. The females are having a blast swimming around like little nut cases.

Ammonia: less than 0.25ppm (yellow maybe heading green)
(Just found dead fish about to do a wc)

Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Ph 7.4
Temp: 79.5

 

[coralbandit]

Bum deal.
Fingers crossed for the other 4.
Sometimes things happen.
If the dates on your test are good and you are doing them proper it is unlikely they are bad.
If you can run carbon on your tank I would get it going..As much as you can,and maybe even change it in a couple days...
I had problems with a tank a couple years ago because of how I stored the water..
Tank tested good for over a month while I killed what would be the first fish [ in a 120 g] every week only to replace with another that would die .An easy common fish..I figured something was in the water I could not test for ? I ran carbon[a lot and changed like I said] and got my first fish the next week..He was fine and still alive today..
There can be things in our water we as people or fish keepers are never going to be able to test for ..Do you watch the news and the whole towns being ruined due to their contaminated water supply ? I don't trust someone saying it is all good personally..
The symptom of not being able to grow bacteria would be another indicator IMO now..

 

[Coralocean]

:Starting to wonder about the water. No one drinks it in this town they sell lots of bottled water. The bio-sponge will be here soon if I lose the rest of the danios I may just have to give up.

 

[coralbandit]

Carbon could work?
Then you just run your tanks source water through carbon canister[house filter] ,and stop drinking it completely..I am in NY and a few counties away the water is no joke...
Communities ruined..Peoples houses worth nothing now basically since the whole water table is bad ..PFOAs in this area I believe from a 'teflon' plant...We cook on that stuff still....

 

[Coralocean]

Ouch that is bad. I will grab some carbon tomorrow and put it in the filter. The landlord is still deciding on what to do for the whole house. That's their decision but I know they constantly complain about having to buy so much water. I'll tell them it's killing my fish, they LOVE this fish tank always wanting to see it.
Thanks Coral.

 

[agrasyuk]

Dont kick yourself to hard. You already filtering your water. It also might be the stock quality. Just came back from work, tetras in the 55 are down to 11, soon to lose another buddy of theirs - poor dude breathing hard laying on the substrate...

 

[Coralocean]

Sorry about your neons. I am now down to 2 females and 1 male. These 3 are the largest of the batch. The ones that died were tiny, just thought they would grow up. Tomorrow I'm exchanging the test kit (just to rule it out) and grabbing some charcoal. If the water here is poison my anubias loves it, growing like mad. These are Petco fish, no outward sign of disease.

 

[King Fisher]

Petco phenomenon. Lol. I've been there.

 

[agrasyuk]

Actually these were from "aquarium adventure", chain of only 3 stores. Really nice selection of both fresh and saltwater (even corals)I'd say tripple the size of any Petco/PetSmart store fish section. They have exotic stuff like axolotls , piranhas, rays and lungfish on display. And big open tanks of plants. The only problem is that outside of few exceptions we could never keep anything alive out of there. It's a longer trip we don't go there often, we swore this time we only getting plants. We got plants allrright , and then we stand in front of tank full of neons looking at each other, I mean this time they look very lively, right? Right?... Yeh, this this time it suuuure as hell will be different... I'm not sure why are we so optimistic about that place, we need to stop doing this. I'm not surprised at the least, just kicking myself for giving in. At least this time it's not Cardinals

PS,
Surprisingly enough school of neons I got from PetSmart on last 1$ a fish sale are all alive and well.

 

[Coralocean]

The local shop has Arowana, ghost knife fish, huge coral display, many varieties of shrimp, some of the brightest cichlids, Piranha, big silver dollars, Rams etc... every tank is pristine. I know he uses RO/DI water. I was afraid to buy from him as my water is so different. I may break down and grab what he calls "starter fish" if I can figure out my tank problem. Could be a bad batch of Petco fish. *shrugs*

 

[King Fisher]

Actually these were from "aquarium adventure", chain of only 3 stores. Really nice selection of both fresh and saltwater (even corals)I'd say tripple the size of any Petco/PetSmart store fish section. They have exotic stuff like axolotls , piranhas, rays and lungfish on display. And big open tanks of plants. The only problem is that outside of few exceptions we could never keep anything alive out of there. It's a longer trip we don't go there often, we swore this time we only getting plants. We got plants allrright , and then we stand in front of tank full of neons looking at each other, I mean this time they look very lively, right? Right?... Yeh, this this time it suuuure as hell will be different... I'm not sure why are we so optimistic about that place, we need to stop doing this. I'm not surprised at the least, just kicking myself for giving in. At least this time it's not Cardinals

PS,
Surprisingly enough school of neons I got from PetSmart on last 1$ a fish sale are all alive and well.

Actually my experience with neon tetras is they seem to be one of the hardiest fish I've ever owned outside of catfish and pleco.

 

[Coralocean]

The danios I have left are thriving, they even played in the water coming from the bucket during the water change. lol

I did get a betta (named it Guppy I couldn't resist him he begged me in the store to save him ) on 1/24 and put him in my 10 gallon, he is thriving and has grown a bit but still no nitrite or nitrate readings. He gets a 50% water change every day. Still going to get charcoal and exchange this test kit and going to have my water tested by the local guy with big $$ fish.

 

[Coralocean]

Got the charcoal, exchanged the test kit, got a free bottle of Prime and cash back. How often does that happen? The water test at the store showed a teeny smidge of Nitrates. I stopped cold looking at a dwarf blue gourami - then saw a dead fish in the tank- The 3 danios left are still happy.

 

[SryImABiologist]

chicago water is weird, i know its very soft but its also sourced from lake Michigan, maybe treat your water with chlorine first then dechlorinate see how much calcium you got in it and if there are enough electrolytes in the water your LFS should do water tests that go more in depth. try to find out if you have any heavy metals in your water too some of the older chicago homes still have lead pipes, good luck!

 

[Coralocean]

chicago water is weird, i know its very soft but its also sourced from lake Michigan, maybe treat your water with chlorine first then dechlorinate see how much calcium you got in it and if there are enough electrolytes in the water your LFS should do water tests that go more in depth. try to find out if you have any heavy metals in your water too some of the older chicago homes still have lead pipes, good luck!

Thank you for the response. I live in a suburb of Chicago and my water comes from limestone wells. Still not a bad idea to ask the lfs to test for heavy metals. I assume the water is hard as it leaves deposits on sinks and showers like crazy, and my tanks. Ph is around 8.4 - 8.5. My remaining danios are doing great.

 

[Coralocean]

Following up with a personal opinion. I just iced my glo-danio rerio. Out of the 6 I bought I have one left. This one lost it's pigment turned almost white and was struggling today. I spoke with someone at Petco about these a while back and I was told in a whisper that they rarely make it during shipping. I thought I wanted a tank full of pretty colored glo-fish as I am back in the hobby after many years. It seems that many of the glo danios were a little deformed. I never saw ich on them or any sign of disease. I will never again buy glo-fish. I am not saying they are all bad but something is up with the genetics I got from Petco. I have a honey gourami, 4 black neon tetras and 2 mystery snails, and the last danio. All these are healthy and happy. The danio needs a group but I don't know what to do with it as I won't get more and it's chasing my neons.

Done with glo-fish.

 

[King Fisher]

I bought a half dozen glo fish tetras two years ago from Petco and they all are still alive and well. Maybe a bad batch or mishandling by your Petco? Not saying Petco is great at handling fish period.....

 

[Coralocean]

I bought a half dozen glo fish tetras two years ago from Petco and they all are still alive and well. Maybe a bad batch or mishandling by your Petco? Not saying Petco is great at handling fish period.....

Yeah I don't think they handle fish well. This store has a couple of employees that have tanks of their own. When they are working they take excellent care of the fish, they have healthy bettas that get water changes and food. I noticed when they are not working things don't get done.

 

[King Fisher]

Might be bad luck on the picks. You seem to have a good knowledge of keeping your water quality good.

 

[Mulch05]

Actually my experience with neon tetras is they seem to be one of the hardiest fish I've ever owned outside of catfish and pleco.

The neon tetras are so hardy but are kinda more soft water fish but will go anywhere they don't care. I have just nearly fully stocked my tank.