Sick tank please help

[04cobratorchred]

I had two 10-gallon tanks set up with some fancy guppies and platies in there well I just got a new 40 gallon tank and set it up. I let the water and fake plants sit for about a week and then I added the guppies and platies, they were doing great so after another week I went to my LFS and bought 3 silver dollars, 3 tiger barbs, 3 zebras, and 2 neon swordtails. Well they were in there for about two days and today when I came home from school there were three dead guppies it doesn’t look like ich or anything. There tails were like shredded but I didn’t see any rot spots on them. I got all the dead and sick looking fish out and then cranked the heater up to about 79 and put some nox-ich stop in there. I was thinking it was the tiger barbs doing it to them but the more I think about it could three tiger barbs kill off about 4 guppies in a day? Any help on what this could be would be great. also if I should do anything different please let me know.

[phanmc]

tiger barbs are notorious fin nippers so there's a good chance they did it. I wouldn't be surprised if te tiger barbs attacked the platies and swordtails next.

There's also a good chance the fishes were sick and then picked on. That's alot of fishes being added at once, do you know your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels? If you don't, I suggest getting a test kit or have your water tested at the LFS.

[khombre]

hello there,

based on experience, i think that tiger barbs and guppies are not a good mix.. im not saying that it is the general rule though

i have seen tanks containing both and those tiger barbs can be pretty mean.. guppies get nipped a lot particularly in the tail because they cant swim away that fast from the barbs..

what im saying is that it is also possible that u dont have sick fish.. just mad tiger barbs.. try keeping an eye on them to see if they are being aggressive towards their tankmates

[wataugachicken]

read the thread about cycling. it's on the freshwater newbie page, 4th thread from the top.