Dying tiger barbs

[Blueskytechnolo]

I was cycling a 29 gallon aquarium with 10 small tiger barbs and 5 Danios. Yesterday evening I checked the water with an api master kit. My amonia, nitrate, nitrite were all 0. The ph had dropped from 7 (using api ph 7.0)to 6 within a couple of days. I added 1 scoop of it to a glass of water that I got from the aquarium. I also added a little less than half a cap of prime. I woke up this morning and found 2 of my barbs dead. I removed them and checked the water again. Still 0 across all 3 and the ph was at 7. Over the period of an hour or so, barbs continued to die. I moved everything back to my cycled tank. Throughout the day I have lost 7 barbs. I lost 6 in the new tank and one in the cycled tank this evening. The Danios seem to be fine and swimming normally. The remaining 3 barbs look bad. I don't think they will make it until the morning. I am fairly new at this. Can someone shed a little light on this issue for me?

 

[Blueskytechnolo]

I did a pwc 2 days earlier. The water is at 76 degrees. I have a whisper 10-30 charcoal filter. I feed them tetra tropical flakes and bloodworms 2 times a week. I recently added some java moss and 2 anubias.

 

[Brian53]

Cycling your tank with fish in it is always a bad idea, puts them through a lot of unnecessary stress. This may account for your loss. You also mention that you feed bloodworms twice a week, I recently lost some Tiger Barbs due to poor quality bloodworms that had had either been off when frozen or defrosted and refrozen. Haven't use frozen fishfood since. Keeping a diary is useful and can help pinpoint when things go wrong. I hope your remaining Barbs make it.

 

[Blueskytechnolo]

They are still kicking. I use the freeze dried blood worms. I cleaned out the 29 gallon tank and set it back up. I'm going to run the full cycle before stocking it again. I just added ammonia to it a few minutes ago.