lost my first fish in the new tank :(

booooo! I lost my first fish in the new tank today - two actually. They were a beautiful little pair of pelvicachromis taeniatus that I added to the tank on Friday. As recently as last night, they appeared to be doing great. Excellent colour, eating well (not picky like my other fishies), behaving normally. No visible signs of disease, and no noticeable aggression in the tank.

This afternoon when I checked on the tank, I didn't see them right away (I always do a "head count" when I look in at the tank), then suddenly the female rolled into view, in her death throes Even then, her colour was still good. She was obviously beyond help, and died within 5 minutes of my spotting her. After much searching, I found the male. It was the loaches that tipped me off to his location. He'd somehow wedged himself deep in a groove of the driftwood, and died there It took me 10 minutes to get him out without breaking him into pieces (wanted to inspect him for trauma or disease).

The male looked fine, aside from a minor split in his caudal fin. The female looked like she had a small bite wound behind her head. Neither fish looked like they'd been bullied to death.

However, water params are perfect. ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 2.5, pH stable at 7.2. All of my other fish are fine, except my female GBR - she has a wound on her side, has had it for about a week, it's healing slowly. She's eating well and behaving normally - I've salted the tank to help with that, but it was salted before I added the new fish.

So, the only thing I can think of is that one of their tankmates did them in. I'm particularly inclined to think that because the male was in the driftwood the way he was.

thoughts?

I'm so bummed to have lost this pair. They were so pretty, the nicest in the lfs tank, really nice specimens. Not a common find, especially as their parents were wild caught. I'll get some more off the next batch of fry, but still

They're all pretty small still. My biggest fish at this point is probably my largest Angel (body the size of a silver dollar) or my pleco (about 2 1/2 inches long). My smallest fish are my glowlight tetras. And my "a. steel blue" are my apistogramma. I bought them as "assorted dwarf cichlids". They were tentatively identified on the MFK board as borellii, but on the apisto forum, they were said to be Steel Blues, aka Blue-head, Blaukopf, or New Blue. Looking at pics of those, that's definitely what they are, as all the pics I've seen of borellii were not quite right.

Tank pics? sure

it's still a work in progress, but coming along


from the left


from the right


And here are a couple pics of the fish that I lost today

gaaaah! I'm losing fish It's either flukes, or it's the new decor I added to the tank on Friday - some naturally polished river rock. I lost my male GBR yesterday, my female is looking rough, and one of my a. steel blue is on his way out

Before my male GBR died, he turned VERY dark and dull, and my female is quite dark today, which makes me think flukes. However, the speed it's moving through my fish makes me question that.

Water params (measurable ones - pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates) are still perfect and steady, but my fish are dropping like flies

I started treatment with metronidozole last night. I'm pulling out the river rock this morning.

I am inclined to think this is flukes though, because when I stopped at the lfs to pick up meds, half the fish in the tank mine came from were dead I know it's my own stupid fault for not quarantining (the heater in my QT tank is out and I figured since I'd watched these fish in the lfs tank for over a month they'd be fine - wrong!), but geez. And they're still for sale!!!

Please cross your fingers that this doesn't wipe out my whole tank. I'm soooo disappointed and upset right now. And I feel awful for my poor fish!

Lupin,

I guessed flukes based on:

Fish become VERY brightly colored, then a few hours later, turn dark in the head and gills area. They may or may not clamp their fins. They start darting, flashing and scratching themselves on things, then they get gaspy and lethargic. Then they start spasming, then die.

That's pretty consistent with a parasite like gill flukes. The only thing that's odd is the speed of the infection.

I didn't buy the taeniatus when they were visibly sick. I'd watched them in the store for more than a month, and they'd been doing great. They moved them from the tank they'd been in, into the tank I bought my apistos out of a couple weeks prior, just a couple of days before I bought my pair of taeniatus. They also added a pair of tiny keyhole cichlids, which is probably what brought the disease in. At the time that I bought the fish, they and their tankmates appeared healthy. The keyholes had ich, but there's a UV filter on all their tanks, so I just made sure that the fish I picked had no ich or other signs of disease.

It was when I went BACK to the store to buy meds, AFTER my taeniatus had died, that I saw theirs were dying too. I would never knowingly buy sick fish - that's just dumb. I DID complain to management when I saw that the fish were still for sale despite being obviously sick. This store is generally very good, I've been dealing with them for over 10 years, this is the first problem I've ever had with their fish.

There's no significant aggression in my tank. I spend at least an hour a day, spread out over different times, watching my fish. Everybody can be a little huffy over defending their territory, or being the first to the food, but there's no targeting of a specific fish, no fish being visibly stressed by aggression. It's not like one fish is chasing another all over the tank.

I do think it's flukes. I lost my one apisto yesterday morning, and a glowlight later in the day while I was doing a big water change. The tank is dosed with the API med for parasites, as well as Melafix. Water params are steady. My female GBR is hanging in there. My male platy, who was in rough shape yesterday, is doing significantly better today, and my loaches, who were looking stressed yesterday, are looking better.

I didn't sterilize the rock - this isn't rock I hand picked at the river. I bought the rock, prepackaged, as "naturally polished river rock". I did rinse it before I put it in - it seemed inert. I haven't thrown it away, just removed it. I really don't think it's the rock, but due to the timing, it has to be considered suspect.

The reason I didn't buy a new heater was I didn't know mine was broken until I put it in the tank to bring it up to temp, and it didn't work. I hadn't budgeted for a new heater, was flat broke until Monday, so I had to make do. I will, of course, be replacing my heater before I buy any more fish. I'm pro-quarantine all the way, when adding new fish to existing stock. My QT tank is my five gallon, which is kept cycled by housing my betta. When I'm adding new fish, I can pull my betta out of QT and put him in the big tank, then move him back when QT is over, to keep the 5 gallon cycled. If I see any bullying of my betta in the big tank, I'll pop him in a breeder container at the top of the tank, which should be just fine, shouldn't it?