a few issues. ---- dead tiger barbs

[shankss69]

Hey all. So I ran into more problems again with my 29 gal... I had purchased 3 small tiger barbs from a local privately owned fish store... they are highly reccommended and take good care of their fish and tanks.... after 2 days all of my barbs died! I also have 2 mollies 2 mickey mouse platys and a sunburst platy and 1 pleco.... I tested the water 0 ammonia water is a little on the hard side nitrites are low and the nitrates are STILL AT 40.. this hasn't changed for weeks..even with water changes.... now this may be a coincidence but I just added a heater to my tank yesterday and not to long after that one died...I found the other 2 dead this morning...water temp is 76 degrees F...... none of my other fish are affected or seem to be affected at all....what's everyone thought on this one.... and also what's everyones thought on aqarium salt in this tank... good idea or bad?..... thanks for ur help! Joe

 

[ChelseaLake]

As far as aquarium salt goes, I add it to my guppy tank. Mollies and platys would probably enjoy it also, as they are also brackish fish. It can also prevent ich.

 

[shankss69]

Do u think the pleco would be okay with it? And how do u use the salt in ur tank? Just put it in or do u have a container like the petstore use?

 

[tyspot1000]

Plecos (and generally other catfish or sucker cats) do not do the best when aquarium salt is added. Im thinking it might of been the low nitrites and high nitrates that killed the barbs or they werent the best batch at the store.

I would just recommend doing a few partial water changes to get your levels down for any new coming fish.

 

[jsoong]

Ideally, you should be quarantining new fish. Fish from even the best store can contain disease, and you want to observe the fish for at least a week or 2 before adding to to your tank. <QT also eliminate some possibilities if the fish don't do well .. Eg. if the fish is fine in QT, but do badly in the main tank, then there may well be something in the main tank which the old fish had got used to, but is lethal to new fish .... possibilities being accumulated organics/nitrates, or some diseases that are in carrier state.>

In this case, with the high nitrate & presence of nitrite, it is quite possible the tank is overloaded or had accumulated stuff that the new fish cannot acclimatize to. I would get water parameters sorted out (get the nitrites down to zero, get nitrates to less than 20) before any new fish. How much pwc had you been doing? Is there nitrates in your tap water? Are you gravel vac-ing out all the gunk in the tank? How high is the nitrite?

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Sounds to me like your tank either is in a mini cycle or has not finished cycling.

How did you add the fish?

Salt (from my experience) doesn't sit well with tiger barbs.

 

[shankss69]

Thanks for the responses!

as far as the salt.. i didnt add it yet and by the looks of it i will not be adding it... i do around a 25% water change once or twice a week. and yes i have been gravel vac-ing most of the material in the bottom as well.. i have to get to the fish store to get a new api fw kit which ill prob do tommorrow since they are closed by this time ( darn work keeps me late ) the last test was nitrAtes 40 nitrites was at 1.. water was still a little on the hard side alkalinity was 40 and the PH was around 6.5

Also i have noticed within the last week or so the tank has seemed to cloud up just a little.. what would be the cause of this all of the sudden? could this be from a mini-cycle tim?

Edit: Well i think i might have messed up... i checked my filter.. when i put in back into the housing alot of darkish colored something went right into my tank... should i just wash the filter media off now that i most likely knocked off half of whatever was on it into the water?!!? ahhhh!!

 

[jsoong]

If your nitrites is 1, (assuming the test is correct), that is in the lethal zone & can account for all the troubles. I would do at least a 50% pwc ASAP & keep doing pwcs to bring all the levels down.

If your tank had been cycled previously, then this may well be a mini cycle. <One good thing about the mini-cycle is that it won't last as long as the original ....>

I would just swish the filter media in tank water to get rid of most of the crud & put it back in. Now is not the time to change filter. <You don't want to lose all the bacteria.> If the filter is super clogged up so no water flows through it, that can account for the bacteria dying off & giving you the mini-cycle. <And water do cloud up during cycling.> Getting rid of the crud to restore water flow is the best for now ... so you can keep whatever bacteria is left in the filter.

 

[shankss69]

okay starting today i will be doing 50% pwc ( just did one before ur post actually).. i also cleaned the filter as u said... swished it in tank water from the tank... i am gettin a new api fw kit tommorrow and i will post the results here.. that previous test was from a week and a half ago :/

thank you all for your help i really and truly appreciate it...(and my fish do too!)