Tiger barbs look cloudy after tank change

[FoxRob]

OK so after getting home to a long fin rosey missing it's fins and watching my tigers nibble on my bristle nose pleco the following morning. We bought another 29 gallon tank and decorations to mimic our 55 gallon tank. We rinsed the tank out and used the water from our 55 gallon(time for a PWC anyway) also used one of the filter cartridges from it's filter and moved all of our tiger barbs into the 29 gallon tonight they were not really eating like they normally do and there stripes look faded. The water temp is the same at 77* PH 6.0, Nitrites is 0, Nitrates is 20 PPM, I'm not sure about the ammonia level as I am out of the test solution for it. We also bought a common pleco for this tank figured with it's size they would leave him alone and they are.

I just noticed with the tank light off they are more active and now they are going after the food in the tank.

I'm thinking they are stressed from the tank change it wasn't fun trying to net them the are faster then I realized.

I figured the bacteria from our old tanks water and filter should help the tank cycle faster.

 

[dkpate]

The media does help the cycle, as long as the other tank was cycled also. The water in the tank holds very little bacteria, so essentially you just put dirty water in there.
I would agree that they are stressed from the tank change, give them a couple days and see what happens.
That pleco is going to get way to big for that tank, they can get up to 2 feet.

 

[FoxRob]

The media does help the cycle, as long as the other tank was cycled also. The water in the tank holds very little bacteria, so essentially you just put dirty water in there.
I would agree that they are stressed from the tank change, give them a couple days and see what happens.
That pleco is going to get way to big for that tank, they can get up to 2 feet.

Thanks for the reply, we lost 2 tigers since posting this some of them are getting there black stripes and orange color back but the older ones are still cloudy looking, we got a pair of gourami's and 3 cory cats to try and give them tank mates but they are still staying in the corners and not really swimming around.

As far as the pleco goes when he gets too big for the tank we are going to put it in our larger tank and probably move our rubber lip pleco into the smaller tank.

 

[dkpate]

Well, is it like a white film on their bodies, or just fading of the colors?

 

[jcolon]

Thanks for the reply, we lost 2 tigers since posting this some of them are getting there black stripes and orange color back but the older ones are still cloudy looking, we got a pair of gourami's and 3 cory cats to try and give them tank mates but they are still staying in the corners and not really swimming around.

Sorry to hear you lost 2 Tigers .... Hope the others pull through ... regaining their colors and eating's a good sign. I'd agree that the tank changed stressed them out ...especially if you had to chase them around a bit ..... yep .... they can be surprisingly fast

 

[FoxRob]

Well, is it like a white film on their bodies, or just fading of the colors?

Just faded colors

Sorry to hear you lost 2 Tigers .... Hope the others pull through ... regaining their colors and eating's a good sign. I'd agree that the tank changed stressed them out ...especially if you had to chase them around a bit ..... yep .... they can be surprisingly fast

Well two of the young ones have been chasing the gourami's trying to nip their fins so I guess they are returning to normal just taking awhile.