Most new fish died

[LAR_PA]

Can someone offer advice?

I have 2 ten gallon tanks, both cycled.

In top tank there was 1 female platy, 1 male guppy, 3 oto catfish, and 2 dwarf african frogs

bottom tank had a lone remaining 2 month old guppy baby

To the top tank, yesterday afternoon, we added 1 juvenile female platy and 1 male platy and 2 female guppies. They're all now dead, dying over the course of the past 3 hours. All the original fish are fine. Water tested: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10-20 nitrate and 8.0 pH.

To the bottom we added 1 pretty young platy and 3 free baby guppies (a bit bigger than our existing one). One of the guppies died, around the same time as the other fish, after about 24 hours in the tank.

I'm almost afraid to go get the replacements. What do you think is wrong?

 

[lyquidphyre]

Where did you get the new fish from? Was it from a different place than you are used to going?

Did you acclimate them properly?

 

[LAR_PA]

I got them from the same lfs that I've gotten all my fish. I acclimated them a little differently than I have in the past - I floated the bags for awhile and then I opened them into my water-change bucket and added some tank water over the course of an hour and then netted the fish and put them in the tanks.

 

[lyquidphyre]

Maybe you just got bad fish, it does happen from time to time

Do you know if these fish were new shipments? Once I got some new fish who they just recieved, and most of them died that night... there was just way too much stress on em..

 

[Jchillin]

This appears to be a limited situation. The cause has to be something that these fish had in common:

1. Did they come from the same tank at the LFS?
2. Your fish bucket is no doubt clean, anything in between transfer?

How are the remaining new fish doing at this point?

 

[Hooie]

Even if they didn't all come from the same tank, they probably all came from the same filter.

Sorry to hear about your fish. It could be problems at the LFS or just bad fish.

 

[LAR_PA]

Thanks for the replies. I lost virtually every single one of them , except for the smallest baby that they didn't charge us for (probably 2.5-3 months old). Not a single fish that had already been in the tank died.

We got 4 replacements yesterday. I did a much longer acclimation this time (using drip from tank) and then put them in and left them alone, in the dark. So far everyone looks good, keeping my fingers crossed. And original male guppy has been swimming around with the new friends instead of hiding behind the filter with original platy.

 

[Guest]

What about pH shock. What is the pH of the water the fish are coming home in?

 

[Steven A]

I have to say it has actually happened to me before and the fish store just gave me the fish again and they didnt die. It could of been the shock i.e. how long did you float them for and what condition were they in at the store i.e. p.h.

 

[LAR_PA]

I have to say I did think about the pH. I actually tested both bags this time and found the pH to be about 7.2-7.4. The tank that these guys were to go in is usually very alkaline - upwards of 7.8 but it tested at about 7.6.

I did take almost 2 hours to float/drip acclimate them this time as opposed to the 45 minutes or so that I did with the previous batch.

Anyway, it has been 24 hours now and they are looking good and eating well. Still keeping my fingers crossed....


[edited to fix my mistaken pH values from 8s to 7s! oops!]

 

[bunebop]

From my experience, I've discovered that whenever I add new fish my old fish kill them all... Unfortunatly it took 3 batches of fish to realize what was happening. Ya might wanna just stick with what you have. All my fish were supposedly peaceful and wouldn't bother eachother, but it doesn't always work out that way