Bizarre tiger barb deaths...

dwayne

dwayne

AC Members
Jul 12, 2001
548
0
0
52
Boston, MA
I have no idea what may have killed my 4 tiger barbs (tank specs are in my signature, I already took the 4 barbs out of there...).

Here's the scoop. Sunday I did a vacuum the substrate water change (every 3 water changes I make sure to get down to the bottom and in the corners and under the driftwood, etc...) I have about an inch of small river stones/pebbles as my substrate. I've been doing water changes like this for a long time (not deep vacuuming every water change) and the barbs and cories are almost 2 yrs old (the rainbow shark and pleco are almost 6 years old!)

OK so I finish up the water change, go take a shower and get dressed, get my son dressed to go out and put on another pot of coffee for hubby. As we're getting our sneakers on - about an hour after I finished with the water change - my son runs over to the tank and says mommy the fishies are not swimming... 3 of them were belly up totally not moving, and the 4th one was midlevel, also not moving... I scooped them all out, and sort of wiggled them around in the net to see if they moved at all and nada, zip, nothing. So I threw them outside in the bucket.

My husband was across the room on the computer and he said he heard a couple of pops, but didn't think anything of it. He thought maybe they fried on the heater, or got injured by jumping into the filter, but there were no signs of stress, injuries or anything odd about them. What could have happened? Nothing different was done during the water change.

Bizarre mass suicide? Failed escape attempt (they were jumpers, and would often jump up and hit the glass that covers the light, or come very close to getting out at feeding time...)

Thanks in advance for any insight.

FWIW, water parameters last nite were the same as they always were: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 20-40 nitrates, ph 6.5ish and stable temp of 78-80.
 
Last edited:
Maybe they hit the glass too hard? That's very strange. I would say maybe something poisonous got into the tank, but tiger barbs are dang hardy fish, and I figure the cories would show stress before the tigers. Watch for signs of stress in your other fish, and just as importantly, watch for changes in your swords' new growth - if any harmful chemicals are present your plants will reflect that.

Sorry for your loss :(
 
NowherMan6 said:
Maybe they hit the glass too hard? That's very strange. I would say maybe something poisonous got into the tank, but tiger barbs are dang hardy fish, and I figure the cories would show stress before the tigers. Watch for signs of stress in your other fish, and just as importantly, watch for changes in your swords' new growth - if any harmful chemicals are present your plants will reflect that.

Sorry for your loss :(
Click to expand...

Thanks nowhereman.... Hmmm, harmful chemicals.... I neglected to mention in my initial post that I washed the plate that covers the light bulb with a paper towel spritzed (spritzed - not doused!) with Windex (wipe the glass with windex p.towel and then wipe it dry w/ dry p.towel)... I've been doing this forever. I don't spray the windex in the vicinity of the tank, and the light is off the tank when I do it (not turned off, but literally on my dining room table, lol).... but you're right nobody else has shown any signs of stress, I haven't lost a fish in ages. Thanks again!... does anyone else have any insight? :help:
 
Last edited:
Yep Smurf, the heater is all good...
 
since you've been doing water changes for a long time with no problems, this probably isnt the problem but i figured i'd ask...did you treat the water with dechlorinator? and the water was the same temp as the water in the tank? maybe something was in the water...but i would think the cories would have been affected too.
one time i did a water change to my goldfish tank using tap water. not even an hour after the change, both of my goldfish started to swim upside down. i thought maybe i had forgot to treat the water or maybe the temp was off so i quickly went to do another water change and as i ran the tap water, i noticed it smelled funny....like a really strong chlorine smell.
i went to the store and bought some bottled water and did the water change using that and the goldfish returned to normal. maybe something was in the tap that day...i'll never know. i still use tap water to do water changes but i watch the fish for a little while afterwards, if they start to act weird i change the water again.
and this is far fetched but perhaps they were electrocuted? your husband said he heard a pop, maybe the heater power surged and sent a quick current through the water...being that the barbs are top/middle swimmers they got the first shock...the cories were spared? kinda like a lightning bolt that only hits one person in a stadium full of people....
 
Interesting Ramerizi. Electrocution is a possibility, though I would think that the 2 danios would also get buzzed... and yep, I put in dechlorinator and the water was relatively the same temp as the tank. I smelled (and tasted, lol) the tap water thinking something was amiss, but nope it was ok.

I was going to go to the lfs to get some replacement tiger barbs but now maybe I'll hold off and monitor the remaining inhabitants and water parameters for this week and possibly through next week... which reminds me I have to go pick up some more tests, I'm all out! ;)

It's just SO bizarre!!
 
it is bizarre. i've rarely ever heard of multiple fish dying off at once and then some fish in the same tank living like nothing happened.

it happened to my dad once. but it was a new tank and he didnt know much about keeping a tank. he forgot to treat the water and added it straight from the tap to the tank. almost all of his fish died within hours. some of the hardiest ones were fine, like the pleco that was 2 years old

and then my mom had a betta and had the bright idea to clean the tank..with clorox bleach and 409. she put the betta in another container, broke the tank down and scrubbed everything and filled the tank with clean water and plopped the betta in....it died soon after.
 
Eek! That's quite a cleaning, lol! I'm going to do another vacuum tonite, just to be safe - can't hurt matters. I wont' do a deep vacuum, but surface. I do have some stray java moss floating around and sticking to the intake tubes that's kind of annoying me so I can take care of that while I'm at it.

Parameters are all still w/in normal range. No new deaths. My pleco (Jimmy) was acting very wierd last nite, so I wonder? He was actually out sitting on the driftwood when I turned on the light he didn't scurry away like he usually does. He did not go right for his wafer when i threw it in there. But when I woke up this am he was fine, hid as soon as I put on the light, and his wafer was gone and he was leaving um, streamers for me ;)

Ah well. What can you do, right?

:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom