Why do my Tiger Barbs keep dying?

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yankeeslover

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Jan 4, 2012
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75 gallon tank... ac70 and ac110 filter.... I now have roughly 15 Tiger barbs, 1 rainbow shark, 1 red spotted severum, 1 blood red parrot and 12 corys(7 albino,5 juri). All the fish are young. I have had the tank setup roughly 3-4 months now. Ammonia and Nitrite levels are zero... I do a 50% waterchange every week and i use Prime conditioner. Ph is around 7.8 and temps are roughly 80-81.
It seems like every other morning i find a dead tiger barb.. i cant figure out why.. I have lost around 7 barbs in the past month or so. Its bugging me on why. I do know that every now and then the shark chases a barb, but I doubt a young rainbow shark is killing off my barbs.. they are just as aggressive with each other as the shark is.. and this all started before i got the young severum and the young parrot so i cant see them causing this(besides they are very docile so far). How do i check to see if some kind of disease is killing them off? I see nothing showing that they are sick... they are healthy at night, and then in the morning i find a dead one...Its very odd...I have 15 left and this is driving me up a wall....any ideas? thanks.
 
Your Barbs

Hello Yank...

These are aggressive little guys, for sure. They're sensitive about their water. Your water's pH is high for Tiger Barbs, though and the temperature is on the high side. Adding pieces of driftwood will drop the pH a bit.

If you're doing 50 percent water changes weekly, you don't need as much filtration and water surface movement in the tank. The water changes will easily take the place of the smaller Hagen for keeping the tank water clean and oxygen mixed into the tank water.

Just a couple of thoughts. Every tank environment is a little different.

B
 
Sounds like you have had a lot of fish coming and going. If you have purchased any of your fish from a LFS like Petsmart, then you could have introduced a harmful bacteria into your tank (especially if you put the store water in your tank). I had the same problem with my cories in my first tank.
One day after I added a couple from Petsmart, they started dying off one by one. None of the other species in the tank were affected. I was really frustrated because my water parameters were fine, the fish looked healthy, but they just kept dying. Then I went out and bought Melafix. I treated every day for seven days, and the last cory standing (or swimming, I guess) turned out fine. He had been in the same spot, unmoving for days, then after the treatment he came back to life. I suggest treating the tank with Melafix.
 
As I previous owner of tiger barbs I blame the shark. If there is not an underlying disease on them then undoubtedly I would say it is stress from the shark. I housed 5 tiger barbs in a 10 gallon (was going to rehome them very soon) and had to put my dojo loach in there because I got an ick outbreak in the other tank. Within a week they all died of stress and my loach is a peaceful fish. Sharks are semi aggressive and the smaller your school gets the higher the stress level. I would find a new home for the shark because the bigger he gets the higher the stress level becomes on them and more than likely they will become a snack.


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS
 
I don't see anything to heap the blame on the shark based on what's been posted so far. As aggressive as the barbs are with each other, I doubt an occasional chase from the rainbow is going to kill 7 barbs in a month.

Suggest keep providing info and maybe a clue will develop as to what is really killing them off.

Based on this thread:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...long-till-i-can-remove-old-gravel-327297.html

I would think this is more likely the issue. That was a lot of bioload at once for a new set up. Looking at your post history, there have been a lot of fish moving in an out of that tank in the last 2 months. Doesn't sound like you have a quarantine tank so i'd be looking in the direction of parasite, disease etc as the culprit
 
I don't see anything to heap the blame on the shark based on what's been posted so far. As aggressive as the barbs are with each other, I doubt an occasional chase from the rainbow is going to kill 7 barbs in a month.

Suggest keep providing info and maybe a clue will develop as to what is really killing them off.

Based on this thread:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...long-till-i-can-remove-old-gravel-327297.html

I would think this is more likely the issue. That was a lot of bioload at once for a new set up. Looking at your post history, there have been a lot of fish moving in an out of that tank in the last 2 months. Doesn't sound like you have a quarantine tank so i'd be looking in the direction of parasite, disease etc as the culprit


I see that reasoning. Good proposition...but... Either way once the rainbow shark grows enough his barbs are likely to become snacks.


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS
 
I see that reasoning. Good proposition...but... Either way once the rainbow shark grows enough his barbs are likely to become snacks.


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS

My shark is about 7 inches now and I've yet to see it take a bite out of anything, even platy fry. Maybe mine is a veggie hippie. :)
 
My shark is about 7 inches now and I've yet to see it take a bite out of anything, even platy fry. Maybe mine is a veggie hippie. :)


I guess it depends on the fish. I had one with tetras and it never bothered the fish. He eventually got stuck in a piece of decor and I didn't find him till it was too late. Either way, I have heard horror stories about these sharks and red tails. I'd keep an eye out.


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS
 
Thanks for those helping.. for those saying temps too high, I raised the temp in the tank to 81 because of the blood parrot. I understand they need alittle bit higher temp. and from researching i found that tiger barbs are ok up to 82 or so. Until i got the parrot i kept the temps around 76 degrees. I also purchased that melafix tonight and will try that for a week...
I have a hard time believing that my 2 inch shark is killing off my barbs.. there fins are not hurt at all... I did notice tonight on a couple of my bigger barbs that a couple had a weird shaped mouth, almost like there lips were bigger. im not sure if this is a mouth fungas but if so im hoping the melafix will cure it. but its odd, its not effecting any other fish.
Last question, i have lost some of my young albino cory cats, by lost, i mean lost..they are completly gone, i lost 3 in the past two weeks.. this is a HUGE mystory.. only thing remotly big in the tank is the severum which is around 2.5 inches long(he is young) anyways i have 3 albino corys left and 5 juli corys..all small... will all 8 school together or should i get more albinos? will 3 be ok in this tank with the julis? i dont want to stress them if school too small but i do notice them with the julis alot..thanks again.... im learning and getting there...
 
Thanks for those helping.. for those saying temps too high, I raised the temp in the tank to 81 because of the blood parrot. I understand they need alittle bit higher temp. and from researching i found that tiger barbs are ok up to 82 or so. Until i got the parrot i kept the temps around 76 degrees. I also purchased that melafix tonight and will try that for a week...
I have a hard time believing that my 2 inch shark is killing off my barbs.. there fins are not hurt at all... I did notice tonight on a couple of my bigger barbs that a couple had a weird shaped mouth, almost like there lips were bigger. im not sure if this is a mouth fungas but if so im hoping the melafix will cure it. but its odd, its not effecting any other fish.
Last question, i have lost some of my young albino cory cats, by lost, i mean lost..they are completly gone, i lost 3 in the past two weeks.. this is a HUGE mystory.. only thing remotly big in the tank is the severum which is around 2.5 inches long(he is young) anyways i have 3 albino corys left and 5 juli corys..all small... will all 8 school together or should i get more albinos? will 3 be ok in this tank with the julis? i dont want to stress them if school too small but i do notice them with the julis alot..thanks again.... im learning and getting there...


Cory cats will mix species and school together though it's better if they have their own species to school with aswell.


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS
 
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