Dying Tiger Barbs...

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MJMiller

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Mar 22, 2003
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I've lost 2 tigers in the last couple of days and it looks like another might be on the way. I'm not sure what is going on because it looks like all the other fish are acting normal...

I did a pretty big water change on thursday (maybe 40%?) because of the mess that I made with the filter the last time around. I trimmed up some plants... but pretty much stuck with my routine. I did forget to plug the heater in for a few hours and the water temp dropped a degree or 2. It's usually around 24-25 and it got to 23. All that is to say that they may have been stressed a bit more than usual.

I added 3 rosy barbs to the mix on Friday, and Saturday morning the first tiger was dead (the leader of the pack so to speak - he was pretty huge).

Today another died... It was acted kind of slow and just drifting around in the tank; occasionally getting caught in the filter intake. I was going to take him out, and I came back 20 min later to do so and he was already dead. I have a third that is looking a little "tired" until I tried to catch him, so maybe he's ok?

Anyway, besides how they are acting, I've seen no other signs of problems... Any ideas?
 
what are your water levels?

ammonia
nitrate
nitrite
ph

these things to consider-

a sharp 2 degree change in water temperature could definitely jolt the system of an aquarium fish

depending on the how "dirty", the rejected waste material from your filter could have contributed to higher ammonia levels in the tank

a single 40% water change is kind of big, if the ph and / or temperature was different than that of your tank. you would want to add the new water back in at a very slow rate

ive learned to use airline tubing to siphon new water back into my tanks, for a big ph/temp difference, i'd use the 'micro airline' which is smaller
 
Anothering to condsider is did you put the water from the Fish store into your tank along with your new barbs? If you did, only the Lord knows what was in there with it. As to the 2 degree change in water temp, its not that big of a deal, so I don't agree with R on this one. In the natural environment all fish go through much bigger temp fluctuations every day, and they don't die off. Tiger barbs are pretty tough fish so the temp change should have been taken rather well with them. Check your ammonia,nitrite levels though, if there is any readings from either then that could be the cause. I'd sooner expect something was brought in with the new barbs though.
 
I ran out of the test strips that I have been using, so I'll have to check on the levels tomorrow. pH in the tank is neutral as is the tap water. I've never seen anything fluctuate in my tank except to see the nitrite levels creeping up if I wait an extra week or so between changes. I'd hate to say that the fish are used to the way I do water changes (I usually dump it right back in), but I haven't had problems in the past.

I'm not so sure about the temp causing a problem - I just wanted to point out that that in conjunction with the big water change may have stressed them a bit more than usual. Would that kill them slowly like what I'm seeing? If tigers are are as tough as indicated, why are they dropping before my black neons, etc.?

I didn't add any water from the LFS; I netted the barbs out of the bag. The rosys are looking pretty lively. Can one fish have something that doesn't kill it, but will another?

No more deaths yet, I'll see what tomorrow brings...
 
Stress and the new big kid on the block

The leader of the pack was probably stressed a lot by having these new big fish show up, especially busy fish. Then, any odd parasite or bacteria that they came in with, that they already had immunity to but was new to your fish, took advantage of the pack leaders weakend immune system.
 
Well, 2 days with no deaths now... so I think things are probably OK. I guess I'll have to buy the big water change stress + new fish parasite theory. (the rosy barbs are about half the size of my tigers by the way...)

Previously, In my efforts to have a tank that was more hospitable to new fish, I had tried to change the water just before (or thereabouts) buying them. Maybe that isn't such a good idea for the rest of my fish. Any thoughts? Should I time new fish (not planning on any but...) to be in the middle of water changes?

thanks.
 
I typically do 20-25% every other week... The 40% was a special occasion as I was trying to siphon a bunch of crap out of the filter that had been building up for a while.
 
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