Fish die after a few hours - Need Help

I believe the problem may be your acclimation procedure. Floating the bag in the tank and then just releasing the new fish is NOT acclimating the fish to anything except your temperature. It is possible your fish are shocked from all the various differences in water chemistry between your water and the LFS water. You need to slowly acclimate them to all these changes in chemistry.

Personally, I have never ever had a fish die within a few hours of getting it, and this is how I acclimate: Float bag in tank for at least 15 minutes, as you've done in the past. Then, add about 1/4 cup of water from your tank into the floating bag. Wait 5 minutes, add another 1/4 cup water from your tank into the bag. When the bag is full (or too full to float) slowly pour out about half the water into a bucket, and put bag back in the tank to float. Again, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup water every 5 minutes or so until the bag is full. When the bag is again full, net the fish out and release into your tank. Never let the LFS water out into your tank. The whole process could take an hour or so.

I know many others do similar acclimation procedures, and have also had great luck keeping even sensitive species alive. I'd really recommend you take the time to acclimate this way, and I think you may stop losing fish so quickly.
 
I never had a problem before by putting the fish after floating the bag.

Next time I will definitely try to add water from the tank to a bucket.

How long can a fish survive in a bucket?
 
Stress coat by API. The bottles says that it removes both.

I have always used this product too.

It is just weird to me that any fish that I add die in hours, but nothing I do has really changed for years.

Prior to this recent issue, I never had any issues adding new fish.
 
Could some decorations be leaching toxins, rock work ? :)
 
I wonder if the low pH is a clue? Can you get a KH and GH test and test your tank water and tap water. Also do pH on the tap water, and post the results. One possibility is that the water your fish are coming from is harder than yours (which is probably soft given that pH) and the fish may be dying from osmotic shock. I woudn't even try mollies in water like that anyway - they like it very hard.
 
lucy42083 said:
I believe the problem may be your acclimation procedure. Floating the bag in the tank and then just releasing the new fish is NOT acclimating the fish to anything except your temperature. It is possible your fish are shocked from all the various differences in water chemistry between your water and the LFS water. You need to slowly acclimate them to all these changes in chemistry.

Personally, I have never ever had a fish die within a few hours of getting it, and this is how I acclimate: Float bag in tank for at least 15 minutes, as you've done in the past. Then, add about 1/4 cup of water from your tank into the floating bag. Wait 5 minutes, add another 1/4 cup water from your tank into the bag. When the bag is full (or too full to float) slowly pour out about half the water into a bucket, and put bag back in the tank to float. Again, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup water every 5 minutes or so until the bag is full. When the bag is again full, net the fish out and release into your tank. Never let the LFS water out into your tank. The whole process could take an hour or so.

I know many others do similar acclimation procedures, and have also had great luck keeping even sensitive species alive. I'd really recommend you take the time to acclimate this way, and I think you may stop losing fish so quickly.
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It seems to me that you miss understood what lucy said about acclimating your new fish.


captainhook said:
I never had a problem before by putting the fish after floating the bag.

Next time I will definitely try to add water from the tank to a bucket.

How long can a fish survive in a bucket?
Click to expand...

You dont actually put the fish in the bucket, she said when the bag is full to dump half the water in the bucket. This way you have more room to add more water to the bag. The bag with the fish is to remain in the water untill you have fully acclimated the fish then you net the fish to remove them from the bag and add them to the tank. This way no water from your lfs goes into your tank.

I just wanted to make sure you understood what she was saying :)
 
captainhook said:
The water at the store that I am buying the fish at is the same as the water that I have at home.
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Nevertheless, do the tests I suggest. The water at the shop may be the same tap water as yours, but the tap water and lfs water may have different characteristics to what's in your tank.
 
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