Help My fish are dying

[Ray1981]

Hey guys I need some help. I am fairly new to the aquarium hobby. This is my first tank where I new about the nitrogen cycle. I have a 29 gallon tank with only an aqua-tech 20/40 HOB filter that came with the tank kit. I know I need to replace it but it has been doing a good job for me. The fish that I'm having problems with are the harlequin rasboras. I had 3 zebra danios 3 harlequin rasboras 2 otto cats and 5 shrimps then I got 4 more harlequin rasboras. Of the last rasboras that I got 3 of them died within a 4 day period. All the other fish are fine so I don't know what is going on. I tested my tank water and it is perfect. I have 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 15 to 20 nitrates and ph 7.4. I do partial water changes once every 2 weeks. Any help and advice would be appreciated. I don't know I might just have gotten a bad batch of fish.

 

[CrustaceaCurtis]

I've never kept that species, but my guess is a bad batch. I had a similar thing happen with a batch of cherry barbs, where a bunch died overnight. I'd get some new rasboras (assuming you still want to try that species). Just out of curiosity, what kind of shrimp do you have? I've never tried it, but mixing shrimp and fish can be tricky.

 

[Ray1981]

I have ghost shrimp. They get along great with each other. Neither mess with one another. Yeah and I do think that I got a bad batch.

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[Star_Rider]

could be the source...box stores..often get large batches of fish..most have not been in the store long and are only temp acclimated before being dumped into the stock tanks...

given your tank parameters..the water is prob fine

 

[BettaFishMommy]

always quarantine new fish in a separate tank for at least a month! you never know what diseases you are bringing home from the fish store, especially the big box type stores. this quarantine can save all of your existing fish from disease/parasites, and make treatment a lot easier - less meds needed for a 10 gallon quarantine tank than for your main tank that is no doubt larger.

 

[Ray1981]

yeah you are right. I should get a quarantine tank. I don't have one right now but I think I should get one for future fish that I get.

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[kiddevo]

On a side note. How do most poeple keep the BB fed in an empty quarantine tank?

 

[Manafel]

Most people don't. I personally have the filter sponges for my hob filters(that I'm not using) in the biomax compartment in my canister filter, so if I need, I can just open up my canister, grab the sponges, put them in my hob filter, and grab some substrate from an established tank and put it in there.
IMO, you should plan ahead, as in if your planning on buying more fish, set the QT up in advance about a week or so(if you already have established media) and make sure its cycled before getting mire fish in. Otherwise, I would suppose you could just add pure ammonia, or just drop food in to let it decompose.

 

[BettaFishMommy]

i would move the media and gravel over to your quarantine tank no earlier than the morning of the day you plan to get fish. this ensures you don't have any bacteria die-off in your qt tank while it waits for new fish. you could do the ammonia dosing to keep the bacteria alive in the qt tank indefinitely, but then you would need to do a large water change right before you put fish in, to ensure there isn't ammonia in the water.

 

[H2Ogal]

I feel for you. I lost every harlie I got from a chain store and their replacements. I've had better luck with those from an LFS that treats all incoming stock with ParaGuard — but I still lost one of my new ones two days ago.

I've come to believe that harlies are very prone to ich and the resulting bacterial infections. They show almost no symptoms of ich; individual fish may have few white spots on the ventral/pelvic fins, but that's it. But the only thing that's stopped die-offs for me is treating for ich in the main tank. Treating for bacterial infections, doing more WC, etc. didn't help.

Now, I euthanize obviously sick fish quickly and immediately start treating for ich if any fish show spots on their ventral fins. (It's quite eye-catching, really, because the fins should be clear, and the white tends to sparkle.) I'm using ParaGuard in the main tank with no harm to shrimps, snails or plants, and it seems to be doing the trick.