Madacascar rainbowfish

[Travis32]

This might be a tough question to ask, but we just bought 6 Madagascar rainbow fish from are aquatic store here locally and within 2 days every one of them had died, and I'm trying to figure out what went wrong. My tank has been cycled for many months. All the other fish in my tank are thriving. I have an angel fish, 5 cory catfish, 6 zebra danios, and 5 Bossemani rainbow fish. They all are doing fantastic and have been for many months. I don't know what the issue could be. Could the fish have already had a problem when I bought them? We were on a waiting list for those particular fish for 2 months. My tank levels are pretty much always 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates, 20 nitrates (tap water has nitrates), 77 degrees. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

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[brennae]

How long were they at the lfs before you purchased them? Did you pick them up the same day the arrived from the wholesaler? If so I'd say the fish were sick or over stressed.

How did you go about acclimating them to your tank?

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[Travis32]

Sorry, no idea how long at shop, probably 1 day or so. To acclimate them I put the bag that the fish were in into my water and let it sit for roughly 20 minutes. Then opened the bag put in some of my tank water to make the bag have half there water and half my water. Let that sit for another 20 minutes. Then scooped the fish up 1 by 1 into my tank. I did not pour their water into my water in the tank.

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[ImACoolguy]

I'd say a mix of stressful traveling in a short time frame and short acclimation (maybe osmotic shock?)


Caleb

 

[Pseudomugil]

Madagascar rainbows can be really tricky to keep, and believe it or not, they are not rainbowfish.

They are in the same order (atheriniformes)(silversides) but are actually their own family, the madagascar rainbowfish (bedotiidae) unlike true rainbowfish in the family melanotaeniidae.