Yesterday was a disaster

[i3k]

So I had this electronic gift certificate from petco.com in my email for about a year now. Decided to purchase some fish from them for one of my 30gal tanks since it was kind of empty. All I had in there was 1 green tiger barb and 5 tetra serpaes. The tiger barb is around 2" and the tetras are all 1". Had them for about 3 years now and never had a problem. So everything was good and the tank was ready for new mates. I decided to purchase 7 mickey mouse platys and 6 more tiger barbs along with 1 pleco. I ordered 6 barbs because petco suggested to keep the barbs in a school of 5 or more and in odd numbers? Is this correct?

So I placed my order and within 2 days it was shipped. Arrived the morning after it was shipped via UPS. I got the box and started to open it up right away. When I opened the box I examined all the bags to see if they were alright. Right away I noticed some of the tiger barbs were not active and not responding much. So I had to dump them into the aquarium asap. I opened the bag and poured some of the aquarium water into the bag for 5 minutes just to get them up to the aquarium temperature. Then I put all the barbs in the tank. One of them darted up and jumped out of the tank and landed right next to me. I put him back in and thought maybe my water is bad. Checked the water for ammonia, nitrite and pH levels. All results were good. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and pH was around 7.5. The barb that jumped out wasn't doing good at all. He was swimming sideways and chilling against the front of the aquarium. I did notice my temperature was a bit high @ 80 degrees. So I turned the heater down and decided to fill my "emergency bucket" which is just a 10 gal plastic trash bucket I've been using for emergencies. I took that barb out with my hand and placed him in the bucket.(yep i used my hand because he was pretty much not swimming and wasn't even trying to get away) He lasted about an hour and died. I then noticed another tiger barb wasn't doing so well. He was also on the bottom barely swimming. About 20 min later he was laying on his side. I took him out and placed him in the bucket. He lasted another 15 min and died 30 min later I check on the fish and I see yet another tiger barb laying on it's side...wtf are you kidding me...same deal...took him out the aquarium and he died in the bucket 30 min later. At this point I'm pissed at petco for sending me these fish. They were either sick or they didn't package them right. As I said when I opened the box some of the barbs were looking bad.

After the 3 barbs died I kept checking up on the rest of the fish and they seemed to be doing good.

But the day was not over. To make it all worse around 7PM our electricity cut out because of the high winds. Half of the block was in the dark. Now, usually these interruptions last about a minute or two and then the power kicks back in. But this time it just wasn't switching back in. About two hours passed and still no power. I checked on the new fish with a flashlight and noticed all the platys were sitting on the bottom not moving and hardly breathing. I mean they were just anchored to the gravel and not moving at all. Is that how platys sleep? or is it because my filter wasn't working? The electricity didn't kick back in until 2am. By that time I was just tired and was glad that the filters were working again and hoping I didn't find any more dead fish in the morning.

Woke up around 9am and right away checked on the fish. To my surprise the rest of the fish seem to be doing fine. All the platys are swimming and look very colorful. I fed them some tubifex worms and they were all eating.

I now need to get a few more tiger barbs from my local fish store. I guess I won't be buying fish from petco anymore.

 

[Cableguy9872]

So I had to dump them into the aquarium asap. I opened the bag and poured some of the aquarium water into the bag for 5 minutes just to get them up to the aquarium temperature.

I am new to this forum and the hobby of fish keeping but my thoughts would be that the fish were stressed out a lot from being shipped. How was their color? when stressed they lose their color i believe.
My other thought is you added them to fast into your tank, i spend about a good half hour putting them into my tank. I first let the bag just float for 10 min to let the temp adjust, then add about a cup of my fish tank water, wait 5 min add another, wait 5 min and add another cup. This is to let the PH adjust in the bag, for if the PH of the bag was a lot different that was in your water could have stressed the fish out more.

That is my thought on this, Again I could totally be wrong but figured I would try and help ya out!

 

[AdamHorton]

I'll never buy a fish unless I get to look at it first and pick it out, that way I can know it's healthy when I get it. I've never been comfortable ordering fish and having them shipped.

As far as acclimation goes, I put the fish and the aquarium water into a bucket and set a piece of tubing up to drip slowly into the bucket for about 30-60 minutes until there's about 4 times as much water as there was originally. Then I net the fish and put it into the tank.

 

[i3k]

Yea I also do the acclimation thing with the new fish by letting the bag float in the tank for 30 min and put some of the tank water into the bag every 15 min until it's full. However, they looked really bad in the bag the minute I got them out of the box. Some of the barbs looked pale and barely showed any reaction. So I had to pretty much dump them into the tank asap. I just think petco didn't package them right. The bag was only 1/3 filled with water. Also, as soon as I opened the bag with the barbs it stank pretty bad. Other bag with platys and the pleco bag didn't stink. I think 6 tiger barbs was too many for the size bag they used

I just hope the rest of the fish make it.

 

[Phrozian]

It probably would be a good idea if you have a separate quarantine tank for new fishes as they arrive. I'm unsure how trustworthy non-aquarium stores are, but considering the condition your new barbs were in, they could have just as easily been afflicted with a disease or some form of illness, and not just from the stress of the shipping.
I would keep a close eye on the rest of your fishes, just hoping that the new fishes didn't introduce new parasites etc to your tank *fingers crossed*

Best of luck!!

 

[jim692]

Sorry to hear of your issues.
I started a quarentine tank for new stock to prevent problems with new addditions from effecting my existing tank. You may want to consider it for future additions.

You have added quite a bit of stock to your tank all at once, so check your tank daily for evidence of a mini cycle.
If you get a mini cycle, change water as necessary to keep your readings low until your filter can catch up.

Good Luck

 

[Asbestos]

Platys at least mine don't sleep touching the bottom but they just swim in place in a corner but near the surface. So yeah my platys act a little strange when i first add them but they should be fine. sorry to hear about your loss

 

[i3k]

The rest of the fish seems to be doing fine. The platys are now swimming around and yea, they do like to swim near the surface more than in the mid area.

I do have an unused 10gal aquarium that I will use as a quarantine tank from now on.

Thanks for all the replies.