I have no idea... again.

[JamesShall]

I had purchased 5 green barbs a couple weeks ago and they all died from a bacteria outbreak in my tank. They took 2 catfish and a 1-1/2" tiger barb before I could actually see the cotton-like bacteria growing on the larger fish. I treated the tank and all the other fish survived. The green barbs were SMALL so I guess they had no tolerance for the bacteria. they showed no signs of bacterial growth.

The only thing I could see wrong with those green barbs was that they would be constantly twitching of their tail and they didn't swim around the tank. It was like somebody scared them REALLY bad and they couldn't stop shaking. The next day they would be dead.

Yesterday, I picked up 2 small green barbs, 1 small tiger barb, and 2 red barbs (freaky looking red see-through ones) and 2 algae eating catish. Everything is cool! All the barbs are hanging out, the catfish are loving the driftwood, and nothing is fighting in the tank. EXCEPT one green barb. It's hanging out at the top doing the twitch. He was FINE in the lfs. I watched them off and on (about 3 minutes every hour as I would pass by) yesterday and the one green barb alienated itself from the other fish. Last night it bagan the twitch. It's sill eating and seems like it should be healthy. I pulled it up to the glass with a net and examinied it as well as I could. It looks to be disease free.

Any ideas? Why is this fish looking freaked out?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Not really sure, but when was the last time that you did a water change and what are the parameters of your water? Also, do you have a heater in your tank?

 

[An t-iasg]

Hi...I'm not really sure either. Devilishturtles has some good questions to get started -- what are your water parameters, including pH? How did you acclimate them? Maybe it is a temperature or a pH shock if the lfs water and your water are very different. Maybe your heater is causing temp fluctuations? All the fish would be stressed in that case, but maybe this one is very susceptable. Do you have a QT tank to put this one fish in? If it is doing what your other fish did before they died of a bacterial infection, then I would put him in QT and treat him now. I hope you don't have to treat your whole tank again!

 

[JamesShall]

Nope - I don't have a QT tank. I "do", but it's not even close to being set up. I got it for free and it needs a LOT of cleaning. It's bigger than what I want for a QT tank (about 18 gallons) so I am thinking to clean it and trade it with my sister. She has a small 5~10 tank and wants a larger tank.

I have the water temp at about 78F.

I have been doing 20 gallon partial water changes (72 gallon tank) once a week for the last few weeks. I did one right before I put the new fish in the tank.

My ammonia and nitrites are both 0 ppm. I am using the liquid test kits. The ammonia test kit does have the 2 different chemicals that have to be added to the water.

I checked the tweaker fish last night and I still didn't see anything growing on him or any reason to believe it shouldn't be happy. All the other fish are doing great. I took a clear container and captured the tweaker fish so I could really get a good look at him outside the tank. He seemed to calm down for a while so I floated the container for about an hour and the fish looked normal for once. I released him back into the tank and about 10 minutes later the twitching started up again.

This morning the fish is still alive and twitching. All the other barbs are starting to get along and they are grouping together and stuff.

 

[Menagerie]

It's bigger than what I want for a QT tank (about 18 gallons) so I am thinking to clean it and trade it with my sister. She has a small 5~10 tank and wants a larger tank.

Definitely switch for a smaller QT tank.

As for your fish, I don't know, but these may help:
Freshwater Diagnostic Charts--
http://www.aquatronicsonline.com/hobbyist/hobbyist3.htm
http://www.clubjungle.com/fish_chart.pdf

 

[JamesShall]

Well, I guess the problem solved itself. I'm not getting anymore small fish until I get a QT setup. Both green barbs died. I don't know why the obviously healthly looking one died, but it's gone. I looked at them REALLY close when I fished them out and found nothing wrong. Geez... I'm a green barb killer! 7 in less than a month!

 

[Devilishturtles]

Not sure, but it could be the fish and not you. Green barbs don't come naturally green, they are injected with dye to give them that green "sheen" if you will. I would assume very traumatic and detrimental to their health. I will pass along this link that Allivymar gave me, very interesting and may give you a little bit of insight on your green barbs:


http://fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7123

 

[Kwenbee]

Ya know...I don't have barbs, but I have the same problem with guppies. Every single guppy we've ever bought dies.

They seem fine, then they start swimming at the surface. Water parameters are FINE...no nitrites, no ammonia, minimal nitrates. Then, I go into the room and the poor guys are belly up. I never saw the twitching you describe, but they seem TOTALLY fine and all of a sudden....gone to the big fishtank in the sky.

I just gave up on guppies. Everyone else is doing extremely well in all three tanks. Sometimes I think it's just some types of fish and some tanks don't get along for some reason.

 

[ferret]

This is incorrect.. Green Tiger Barbs are NOT dyed. If they are, you don't have the real thing. They're an hobby-breed color morph, for the most part. They've been bred over time to be more fully green, but do exist in the wild as a variant of the normal tiger barbs with green highlights.

If they're dying like this, a, the lfs has a disease going about their tank or bad stock, or b, they really are dyed, and you need to find some real ones at Petsmart or somewhere else.

Tiger Barbs in general, all 3 color morphs (normal, green and albino) are considered very hardy and good beginner fish.

 

[JamesShall]

Good info on the morphs - thanks! I do believe that the green ones I got were the real deal as I did get them from Petco.

I do have what Petco calls a "red barb". I have no idea if those are real or not. Any idea? They aren't slim like a cherry barb, but they rather look like a tiger barb that is all tanslucent red in color. I believe these were a selective bred fish as well.

Anyway, I think I ran across an idea for what happened. I had it set up at 82 degrees and that was apparently ok. None of the other fish seemed to mind, BUT since the green barbs were itty bitty, maybe they didn't have much tolerance to the heat??? The recomended temp is 75~79 for barbs. Would 4 degrees too hot kill them?

 

[Menagerie]

IMHO, that doesn't seem likely. If you are worried about your temp, double-check it with another thermometer--better safe than sorry!