Spontaneous Tiger Barb death

[Aquaholic1]

The tank that my now 3 (out of 4) tiger barbs are kept has been running for just under 4 weeks and everything has been fine. i test my water every 2-3 days and there has been nothing to worry about doing my regular 1-2 water changes a week. But one of my tiger barbs died today and my other 3 look great. i never suspected one was ill and they all loved feeding time. the only thing i noticed was 2 of my barbs swim nose down when i turn the lights out but ive read that this is normal behaviour. so im speechless on what has happened to my beloved barb. Hope you can help as i dont want my others to die.
ph 7.4
ammo 0
nitrate 10
nitrite 0 (readings after dead barb was removed)

 

[bruinsbro1997]

Okay, first off, sorry to hear about the death of the tiger barb!
But you'll need to answer some questions for us before we can figure out what happend:
1. How did you cycle your tank for those for weeks? With pure ammo?
2. How much water do you change during your water changes?
3. How big is the tank?
4. Did you test with strips or a liquid test kit?

If you could answer those questions, then we can try to find the root of the problem.

 

[Aquaholic1]

Thanks and its a 30 (US) gallon tank and i use a api liquid test kit i used nutrafin cycle for the 3 days and left it running an extra week untill i put the barbs in so theyve only been in the tank for 2-3weeks and i take about 20% out each water change.
Hope this helps

 

[bruinsbro1997]

I think the mistake you made was using nutrafin cycle. Products that "instantly" cycle your tank do not work most of the time due to too many factors in play. Your tank may have gone through a mini-cycle when you added the barbs so that could have killed him

 

[Aquaholic1]

thats because im so impatient. ive just bought a 65 gallon (US) tank which gets delivered on tuesday so i will be sure not to use that and do a full fishless cycle i dont want anymore losses. What do you think i should do with my other barbs?

 

[bruinsbro1997]

I think they should be fine now that the mini-cycle is over, but keep up on your PWC and then fill out the school of barbs to eight or nine, barbs get pretty nippy and they could start nipping each other pretty soon.

 

[Aquaholic1]

oh cool thats a relief. I know its a bit off topic but seems how you have been great help up to now im going to ask you how should i go about cycling my new tank and adding my barbs into it as im going to get rid of my 30 gal?

 

[bruinsbro1997]

Thank you.

No you shouldn't add the barbs into it as you're cycling, that could disrupt it and get you into another business of fish-in cycling, which you really don't want unless you can do PWC once or twice a day.

 

[Aquaholic1]

i dont mind the pwc but should i really leave the new tank untill all the parameters have ran the course in the nitrogen cyle and then add fish of is a fish in cycle a good way to go about things?

 

[bruinsbro1997]

Personally a fishless cycle is much more better than a fish-in cycle IMO. Fish-in cycle can seriously harm your fish when you're not careful, which is why I have been prepping for my fish-in cycle with a honey gourami this past month and am still prepping for two more weeks. Be careful, and although the method isn't preferred you can still try it.