Lost 3 Zebra Danios in 3 Days

[sixstringphil]

I bought 3 Long-Fin Zebra Danios from Petco on Tuesday. As of today (Thurs) all three have died. The first was dead as soon as he got in my tank. The second either died on its own or fell prey to a crawfish. Either way, when I came in that morning the crawfish was having a meal. (He's been removed) This morning, the third one died rather quickly. He was fine earlier today, but suddenly started floating upside down and sinking to the bottom. I noticed that his left eye was bloodshot. Petco, of course, blames this on my 7.9 pH varying from their 7. What do you guys think? My 4 neon tetras and 2 oto cats seem to be doing great!

I tested the water this morning:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrates - 0
Nitrites - 0 (but getting darker)
pH - 7.9

 

[rocky213]

how long has ur tank been up? is it planted tank? it looks like it just going through the cycle

 

[vmprlrd]

its petco saying they dont want to refund you. pH of water doesnt really matter that much. if it did all my fish would be dead by now( my city water pH is close to 9). i think you just bought sick fish and the stress of moving into a new tank killed them.

 

[sixstringphil]

how long has ur tank been up? is it planted tank? it looks like it just going through the cycle

It's been up for a while, but I'm not sure about the cycle. Very small bioload, so it's been hard to tell. Part of the reason I bought the danios.

I'm not really worried about a refund, but I'd like to know if I did anything wrong. (Besides, you have to return the bodies...too late) I think they may have been sick. They were the in the 5/$5 sale, so they're probably going through alot of them right now. Many people on the board have stated that their pH is as high as mine. The Petco guy recommended slowly adding pH down, but I'd rather not. I wish I had a dedicated fish store in town! Closest one is an hour away.

 

[tanker]

Did you acclimate?? How?? How long??

 

[sixstringphil]

I let the bag sit in the tank for about 20 mins, then added some tank water to the bag...
Then 10 minutes... then into the tank.

 

[meow200617]

The pH is too high, I found this site, it may help
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/cyprinids2/p/zebradanio.htm
If the tepm and pH ect are too different this pH difference is possibly the cause, but I would have thought that they would have had visible symptoms before they died, to give time to correct the situation. odd.
Sorry for your loss

 

[tanker]

I let the bag sit in the tank for about 20 mins, then added some tank water to the bag...
Then 10 minutes... then into the tank.

Maybe you should have added water every 10-15 mins for about an hour before freeing into tank.

High PH is not a problem if acclimated into it. It would be a problem if their PH is very low and then you put into your higher PH tank.

 

[bluekrissyspike]

probably inbred. that happens with chain stores and/or new strains of fish. i thought danios were hard to kill but if tetra's are in there and they are surviving i'd say it's not your fault. try do a longer acclimatization next time, it may help.

 

[Virtuoso2K12]

add a fourth zebra and maybe you'll lose it on the fourth day,jk. The last one died from maybe injury before the crawfish was removed-remember now kids community fish aren't safe if you aren't safe,jk.