leachim
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi All!
Decided to sign up for this forum to get some leads regarding my dead Rainbows.
But let me first tell the whole story. I used to have fish for a long time when I lived in Germany. Probably for around 15 years. I gave up the hobby when I moved to the US since I was always renting. Now that I have my own house and more space, i decided to start again. I bought a little tank (36G) and quickly discovered the beauty of Rainbows. I decided to buy five (Bosemani, Turquoise) - well, so I thought. Now that they are older, it turned out that they are Australian Rainbows, so I guess PetSmart did not even know what they selling. But that is not my problem. When I first bought them (first 3, then 2), one of them got quickly sick. They were getting a curved spine and dying quickly. It was always one of the two groups I bought which died. At that time, I thought the aquarium was not cycled properly so I did lots of water changes until it was stable. No problems since. I bought a bigger tank to house more Rainbows since I wanted to give the appropriate space. The cycle is completed since a few weeks and I introduced stepwise fish. On Friday my new 6 Rainbows arrived, in great color, adjusted quickly back to normal, were eating. Swimming around with the previously wrong categorized Rainbows, which I also transfered to the bigger tank. Last night, i was feeding fried Tubifex and I realized one Turquoise Rainbow was not eating, just listless between the other fish. It had good color, was just not paying attention to the food. While I was watching (litterally all within seconds), he developed a curved spine, really bent head, it looked crazy. Still with good color and some darker patches where he started to curve/bent. After 2-3 minutes, the color went away, white with dark patches, not able to swim, completely curved. He did withn 10 minutes. From perfect straight to dead within minutes. And this is kind of how it was with the previous Rainbows as well in the smaller tank. I read a lot about fish TB but I am stunned by this quick and sudden development, it is not a slow progress. All literally while watching the others eat. I attached two pictures I was able to take. Now, that this is happening again, I would really like to know what the deal is. It does not look like a disease to me, more like a "shock". But where the hell does it come from all of the sudden after being in the tank and swimming happily before. Any clues would be great. I love these fish but I never had such an experience before. Usually my fish only died when they got old, I never had a tank disease in my "career".
Here are the stats:
1- Turquoise Rainbowfish (introduced 1 day ago).
2- Amm 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0, 80°F, pH 6.8-7.0 (measured twice)
3- 75G, cycling finished for 3 weeks, stepwise fish introduced
(3 clown loaches, 1 thomasi pleco, 3 "old" Rainbows, 6 newly introduced)
4- Canister filter, 525 gph.
5- 13 fish total, all still pretty young, around 2".
6- Did a 50% WC the day before the new Rainbows arrived. Since they like WC, I usually do 25% every week.
7- Had the fish only for one day, acclimated the standard way with adding stepwise tank water to the bag over an hour.
8- Nothing else was done to the tank.
9- I feed various flakes, veggie stuff, bloodworms, tubifex
Any idea what this could cause so quickly go down is much appreciated.
Michael
Decided to sign up for this forum to get some leads regarding my dead Rainbows.
But let me first tell the whole story. I used to have fish for a long time when I lived in Germany. Probably for around 15 years. I gave up the hobby when I moved to the US since I was always renting. Now that I have my own house and more space, i decided to start again. I bought a little tank (36G) and quickly discovered the beauty of Rainbows. I decided to buy five (Bosemani, Turquoise) - well, so I thought. Now that they are older, it turned out that they are Australian Rainbows, so I guess PetSmart did not even know what they selling. But that is not my problem. When I first bought them (first 3, then 2), one of them got quickly sick. They were getting a curved spine and dying quickly. It was always one of the two groups I bought which died. At that time, I thought the aquarium was not cycled properly so I did lots of water changes until it was stable. No problems since. I bought a bigger tank to house more Rainbows since I wanted to give the appropriate space. The cycle is completed since a few weeks and I introduced stepwise fish. On Friday my new 6 Rainbows arrived, in great color, adjusted quickly back to normal, were eating. Swimming around with the previously wrong categorized Rainbows, which I also transfered to the bigger tank. Last night, i was feeding fried Tubifex and I realized one Turquoise Rainbow was not eating, just listless between the other fish. It had good color, was just not paying attention to the food. While I was watching (litterally all within seconds), he developed a curved spine, really bent head, it looked crazy. Still with good color and some darker patches where he started to curve/bent. After 2-3 minutes, the color went away, white with dark patches, not able to swim, completely curved. He did withn 10 minutes. From perfect straight to dead within minutes. And this is kind of how it was with the previous Rainbows as well in the smaller tank. I read a lot about fish TB but I am stunned by this quick and sudden development, it is not a slow progress. All literally while watching the others eat. I attached two pictures I was able to take. Now, that this is happening again, I would really like to know what the deal is. It does not look like a disease to me, more like a "shock". But where the hell does it come from all of the sudden after being in the tank and swimming happily before. Any clues would be great. I love these fish but I never had such an experience before. Usually my fish only died when they got old, I never had a tank disease in my "career".
Here are the stats:
1- Turquoise Rainbowfish (introduced 1 day ago).
2- Amm 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0, 80°F, pH 6.8-7.0 (measured twice)
3- 75G, cycling finished for 3 weeks, stepwise fish introduced
(3 clown loaches, 1 thomasi pleco, 3 "old" Rainbows, 6 newly introduced)
4- Canister filter, 525 gph.
5- 13 fish total, all still pretty young, around 2".
6- Did a 50% WC the day before the new Rainbows arrived. Since they like WC, I usually do 25% every week.
7- Had the fish only for one day, acclimated the standard way with adding stepwise tank water to the bag over an hour.
8- Nothing else was done to the tank.
9- I feed various flakes, veggie stuff, bloodworms, tubifex
Any idea what this could cause so quickly go down is much appreciated.
Michael
