Just came home to a dead fish

[dbzguy]

ok so here's the deal , just walked in the door and found one of my smaller tiger barbs belly up.Fish seemed fine this morning during the feeding, but I did get him from Petco,Got the other ones from the LFS,anyways my other tiger barb definately has popeye, so Im going to start the medication. Tank has been cycling for a month and just took a water test:

Nitrates - 30 PPM
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia - 0
GH - 150 PPM
KH - 90 PPM
PH is around 7.8

would like to know if its ok to start with the medication or should I wait for a little bit longer, any advice and thoughts on this is greatly appriciated.

thankyou

[TONO]

pop eye is usually cuased by stress and shock of sudden water condition changes, and bad water quality. but can also be caused by bacterial infections,and some fungal infections. I would do some water changes first before medicating. Do any of the fish look like they have an excess slime coating, red streaks, do that shake, or rub againts objects? My guess is there just expierencing high ammonia and nitrites, just do a small water change.

[theop]

Tiger barbs prefer slightly acidic water (about 6.5) and slightly soft water. You have hard water with a high pH. That could be part of the problem.

In general, I think pH 7.8 is a bit high for a fresh water tank. I usually shoot for 6.8 - 7.4, but it depends on what you are keeping.

[gsk177]

DO NOT, what ever you do, buy into the adivce being given to shoot for a perfect pH. A stable pH is much better on your fish than a perfect pH.
7.8 is NOT too high of a pH for most freshwater species. If you can get a 7.8pH or lower from your tap water, then I wouldn't worry at all with it unless I was keeping Discus or unless I was breeding.
Too many people try too many DANGEROUS things in order to obtain a perfect pH for their fish. The rapid and large swings in pH are much more dangerous in the short and long term than simply maintaing a stable pH.

The biggest problem relating to pH is when you bring home a fish from the LFS that has been raised and eventually sold from a tank with a pH that is WAY off from your tanks pH.

I would highly doubt that pH is a factor in ANY of your current problems.

If your tank has been fishy cycling for only a month, I would NOT suggest medicating. If the fish that you say has popeye has been in the tank since the cyling process began, it is highly suspect that the popeye is a result of the fishy cycling process.
I would suggest continuing on as though your tank is STILL cycling and continue with water changes and frequent, daily or every other day, water testing. It is quite likely that the fish you currently house will never recover from the effects of the cycling and medicating a still cycling tank could throw your cycling back to day one.
If you are paranoid about your tank somehow becoming contaminated with fungus or parasites, I would suggest starting over from square one and doing a fishless cycle.

Before I went and assumed the blame of the popeye or your other general fish health problems on Petco or the LFS, I could highly suggest considering the possibility that YOUR fishy cycling has exposed these fish to health problems that are just NOW starting to surface.

Hold off on the medication. Do your water changes daily and keep testing your water.

While the possibility does exist that your cycling process was NOT the culprit, the fact that you have sick fish coupled with the fact that you are only one month into a fishy cycle does bring into question past or present water conditions as being the main culprit.

[dbzguy]

thanks for the response GSK, I was under the same impression as well that a stable PH is better than trying to lower or raise it. Ive been doing roughly 17% water changes every other day. Now my main question would be, now that my Nitrites have gone to 0, how much longer would you say the fishy cycle is going to take.

BTW, my tiger barbs eye looks better strangely enough


thankyou

[ArkyLady]

If you have zero ammonia and zero nitrItes for a few days in a row, it's a safe bet that your cycle is completed. I would continue with 20-30% water changes every other day for a week or so. If you see ammonia or nitrItes, do 50% changes until they are below .50ppm.

With good water conditions, the fish with pop-eye may be able to recover on his own without medications. If he doesn't seem to be getting better after a week or so, you may need to medicate. Best option would be to setup a hospital tank and medicate him there (10 gal plain tank, heater, small sponge filter - cost about $25). If you setup a hospital tank, you can add a couple handfuls of gravel from your established tank and squeeze out one of your filters onto the already wet sponge filter. That should get you enough bacteria started for just one fish. Be sure to monitor it for ammonia and nitrIte though if you do this.

If you must, you can medicate the whole tank, but I hate having to do that unless it's absolutely necessary :)

I also agree that your pH is fine like it is. 7.8 is very acceptable and as long as it's stable, you shouldn't have any issues with it at all.