every new fish is dying

[Brent]

Hey everyone. Hadn't been on here for a while but I've got nowhere else to go. I have a fully cycled 55 gallon tank. Its been up and running with fish for over a year. I have healthy barbs, loaches, a cichlid, peacock eel, amazon dwarf frog, and snails. I perform water changes regularly and my levels are normal. Ph- 6.5 ammonia-0 nitrites-0 nitrates-10ppm. But here's my problem: even though my levels are fairly normal and I have several healthy fish, every time I try to add new fish they die within minutes. The first time it happened I figured it was a fluke since he didn't look all that well when they put him in the bag at the store (the fish went belly up for a while but then righted himself)? It was a pink tail chalceus. I slowly acclimated him to the tank by letting him float in the bag in the tank, slowly adding water from my tank into the bag and dumping some out into a separate bucket every few fills. He seemed fine until I finally put him in my tank. He swam aggressively for a few minutes, then belly up. So I waited a while, did more water changes, monitoring my levels, everything stays stabilized and seems OK. I went and got another pink tail chalceus, pictus catfish, and another amazon dwarf frog. The frog acclimated great and is healthy in the tank so far. But while the 2 fish looked fine and healthy while in the bags, a few minutes in the water and they are belly up, not breathing. I tried moving them back and forth to try and get water through their gills, but no success they are dead. The lights are off when acclimating to keep the fish stress down while introducing to the new tank.

My question is " any ideas on what is wrong with my tank or my intro procedures that is killing the fish I am trying to introduce?"

TLR any time I try to introduce new fish, they die. Levels are normal. Tank is an established, planted 55gallon about a year old.

 

[LuminousBeauty]

Just curious, have you tried testing the water in the fish bag, before you add some of yours? If the levels are quite different than your tank water, like a higher pH, hardness, temp, combination of things, etc. this could at least give you some answers.

 

[Oohitsae]

Now do you do the acclimation? Just by temp? Or do you slowly add new water into the new bag? Drip acclimate? Sorry if you already posted it, might have missed it.

Do you dechlorinate and if so, with what?

 

[Brent]

I have checked the fish stores water before and the parameters weren't bad, but I can't remember exacts or how far off exactly they were from mine. I will have to check next time I try for more fish.

I do dechlorinate. I use tetra aqua safe plus when I do water changes. I put water in a 5 gallon bucket, put in the amount stated on the bottle, and stir. I wait about a minute, then dump it in the tank.

I also acclimate the fish. I put the bag in the water for 15-20 mins to get close to temp. After that I add small amounts of water (think half of a drinking glass) every 10-15 minutes. When the bag starts getting full, I will empty about half out of the bag. I do this process for about an hour to hour and a half before putting the fish in the tank. I do not put the mixed water from the bag into the tank. I don't want the fish store water in my tank.

Im going to put some crushed coral in my canister filter tonight to attempt to bring the pH up to 6.8-7.0. I'll put it in the little filter media bags you can buy and put it in one of the trays in the filter.

Really hoping to figure this problem out. I lost 2 of my barbs last night after I posted. They have been happy and healthy for the past year up until I tried to add more fish last night. I'm guessing stress because they died only about 1-2 hours after I lost the new fish.

Thanks for all of your help!

 

[molliwopp]

Acclimate your fish and you should be golden. Float the bags and slowly add water from your tank over afew hours.

 

[bsantucci]

Personally I'd start drip acclimating them. It's the best and safest way to do so and if water parameters are that different from store to your house this will reduce shock.

 

[Brent]

Yeah I'll probably buy some air tubing and start drip acclimating into a bucket. I did add the crushed coral to my filter trays and hopefully I'll be able to stabilize the pH around 6.8-7.0. Thanks again everyone.

 

[Oohitsae]

I have checked the fish stores water before and the parameters weren't bad, but I can't remember exacts or how far off exactly they were from mine. I will have to check next time I try for more fish.

I do dechlorinate. I use tetra aqua safe plus when I do water changes. I put water in a 5 gallon bucket, put in the amount stated on the bottle, and stir. I wait about a minute, then dump it in the tank.

I also acclimate the fish. I put the bag in the water for 15-20 mins to get close to temp. After that I add small amounts of water (think half of a drinking glass) every 10-15 minutes. When the bag starts getting full, I will empty about half out of the bag. I do this process for about an hour to hour and a half before putting the fish in the tank. I do not put the mixed water from the bag into the tank. I don't want the fish store water in my tank.

Im going to put some crushed coral in my canister filter tonight to attempt to bring the pH up to 6.8-7.0. I'll put it in the little filter media bags you can buy and put it in one of the trays in the filter.

Really hoping to figure this problem out. I lost 2 of my barbs last night after I posted. They have been happy and healthy for the past year up until I tried to add more fish last night. I'm guessing stress because they died only about 1-2 hours after I lost the new fish.

Thanks for all of your help!

It sounds like you are already doing everything right. Drip acclimating wouldn't make much difference as opposed to the method you're already using, it'd take about the same time and everything.

I honestly don't know what it could be. Possibly some heavy metal that your existing fish have slowly become used to over an extended period of time? That's my only idea. I believe seachem Prime will remove those, worth a shot to see if using that as opposed to tetra would make any difference.

Hopefully someone else has a better idea of what's going on. I've never experienced this nor heard of it happened.

It's not like you are adding any extremely sensitive fish or anything, which would make more sense.

 

[Brent]

Yeah its really bugging me not knowing what's wrong with adding new fish. I've added crushed coral to try to get my pH up a bit. Aiming for a stable 6.8. Gonna try a new fish store and yes the old ones water.

Next time I'm getting some more tiger barbs because I only have one left and I'm pretty sure they should be kept in groups

 

[Brent]

OK so, I added 5 new tiger barbs to the tank this evening. They were small ones, and 5 for $5. It ended working out perfect since I wanted to replace the two that I lost. I acclimated them for a little over 2 hours and they have survived so far without any issues! I checked the LFS pH reading and it was around 7, so I think bringing mine up with crushed coral was definitely a good idea. Hopefully everything goes smooth from now on! Thanks again for the help guys!

 

[ashleynicole]

Sounds like old tank syndrome. I know you said you do "regular" water changes... but exactly how often do you do water changes and how much water do you change each time?

I always do a large water change before adding new fish... at least 50 percent. Of course my weekly water changes are 30-50percent. My plants don't do well otherwise.

 

[Brent]

I do water changes every 2-3 days. I do about 15-20 gallons every time. The tank is a 55 gallon. Ive never heard of old tank syndrome. I'll have to read up on it.

 

[Brent]

Also,forgot to add: I did 50% water changes the day before I added the fish that died. I did the water changes both times.

 

[Fishfur]

I'm glad the barbs are doing well. And while it's unfortunate the chalceus died, it might not have done that well in the long term. They get to be pretty large, ten inches or so, and can become quite territorial. They are famous for jumping out, so need a good snug cover, and while they are ok community fish with some other fish of similar size, they don't get on with all fish. They can live 15 years if well cared for, quite a comittment compared with some fish life spans.

And they'll eat any fish small enough to fit in their mouths, being carnivores. They need a very big tank and lots of swimming room as well. So perhaps a blessing in disguise, of sorts, for your other fish.

They are also sometimes delicate to acclimate at first, as they have such big scales, they sometimes get knocked off during capture or transport, which may make the fish vulnerable for awhile. No way to know now, but maybe your specimens had some damage that caused their deaths ?

 

[ashleynicole]

Its not old tank syndrome if your changing that much water that often. Old tank syndrome is usually caused by not doing water changes and just topping off the tank with fresh water, or doing very small water changes infrequently and topping off the rest of the time. Usually the initial complaint is "every new fish I add dies."

Just for the sake of reference, I like this article.




http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html






"Owners may assume all is well, because their fish are still alive, or at least most of them are. However, when new fish are added they usually die within a short time. The deaths may be blamed on the fish, rather than the underlying problem of Old Tank Syndrome. Some owners may have a clue that something is wrong at this point, and perform a massive cleanup. The result is usually the death of even more fish. Why? Because the fish have been subjected to rapidly changing water conditions."


Symptoms

*

"The primary symptom of old tank syndrome is the death of new fish that are placed into a long established tank, while the old fish remain alive and apparently healthy. This is because the old fish are accustomed to the balance of the water, even adjusting to conditions such as build-ups of certain chemical or bacterial levels. The old fish often do not show any signs of being affected by the unhealthy levels in the water. The new fish, however, have been accustomed to a different water balance and are shocked by the sudden change in conditions."


"In some cases, aquariums get little maintenance, but need to be "topped off" regularly with additional water to replace that which has evaporated. If the source water is buffered and its addition frequent, the pH crash and resultant ammonia rise might be forestalled, but a new problem is encountered. When water evaporates, only pure, clean, H2O leaves the system; all the other minerals and impurities are left behind in the aquarium. Adding more water means adding more minerals (and by definition buffered water has significant amounts of minerals), in effect concentrating them. Such aquariums often show acceptable pH and ammonia levels, but high nitrates and hardness."

 

[Brent]

That article was really good at explaining what old tank syndrome is. Thank you.

I added a blue ram chiclid last night. Same acclimation procedure that I've been doing all along, just instead of an hour and a half, I did it about two to two and a half hours. I think acclimating longer and having the pH a little higher from the crushed coral is helping.

As for the chalceus dying possibly being for the better, you very well could be right. I knew it jumps and I actually already have the top of my tank completely covered because I had shrimp and snails trying to escape almost daily. I knew it got big, but thinking about it, it might be too aggressive for my tank. The most aggressive fish in right now is an earth eater chiclid. I got him when he was about 2-3" and he is now 6-7". He's pretty mellow, but gets a little upset if something swims by his cave haha. The chalceus and him may or may not have gotten along.

My roommates are moving out in December, so with the extra room I'm thinking about upgrading to a 125 gallon. I'll start a thread on that though as I get closer to that dream happening.

Again, thanks for all of your help everyone