bout to give up on my fish
- Thread starter allecb
- Start date
Just for future reference, I just got rid of ich using one tablespoon of salt to five gallons. When I was reading through, that's what I thought the problem might be as well - glad I kept reading! I'm glad you found the problem before they all went - sorry for the losses you did sustain 
yeah ok an update.
heres a list of original fish that have died/survived.
all tiger barbs, dead.
rainbow shark, was very ill, but survived
two rams, were always never showing stress, survived.
had 2 platys, one died long ago. the other recently just died.
all my neons showed stress, but bounced back..1 died.
got 10 new baby tiger barbs from a LFS.
i think im down to 5 now. they are doing the same thing the others were. not swimming around, losing color, losing control sometimes..one tiger barb is showing like no stress, and its an albino one. really weird.
i dont know why the barbs are dropping like flies..maybe its just a bad batch? or do you think its something in the water? i dont get why all the old schoolers in the tank are fine but the new schoolers arent.
heres a list of original fish that have died/survived.
all tiger barbs, dead.
rainbow shark, was very ill, but survived
two rams, were always never showing stress, survived.
had 2 platys, one died long ago. the other recently just died.
all my neons showed stress, but bounced back..1 died.
got 10 new baby tiger barbs from a LFS.
i think im down to 5 now. they are doing the same thing the others were. not swimming around, losing color, losing control sometimes..one tiger barb is showing like no stress, and its an albino one. really weird.
i dont know why the barbs are dropping like flies..maybe its just a bad batch? or do you think its something in the water? i dont get why all the old schoolers in the tank are fine but the new schoolers arent.
Well there is the possibility of bad stock. Are the other fish from the same store? Do you quarintine them before adding them to your tank? Are you finished the ich treatment? If you do a couple of water changes to get rid of the salt after you have completed treatment and start to lower the temperature that should resort things back to normal if that could be a problem.
there's a lot that could be going wrong here.
1 young tiger barbs could be housed with painted tiger barbs before you get them. are the greens green or like a really dark blue green almost black. anyhow they could be sick from being housed with other sick fish.
2 seems to me 10 tigers is a lot at a time for a 55.
3 what's your ph? if it's real low your tank might have to progress slooowly.
4 tiger barbs will establish a "pecking order" they are real hardy once established but coming from a pet store are likely to be stressed and establishing a pecking order might just be too stressful. not sure if the rainbow and rams lingering around is helping too much either. ime i find it's best to have them equal to better size/abilities to tank mates (who are already established) when adding them with smaller fish. when having them with bigger fish it's best to add the barbs first and let them establish. you may just need to get older barbs.
5 copper in your water. i believe it's possible your barbs might be your most susceptible to copper poisoning but i would think the neons or rams would go first. then again coming from the fish store means at least 2 moves for them by the time they hit any of your tanks. it is really best at this point to give your water company a call unless your on a well. in which case it would be up to you to find out how much an analysis would cost... probably up there.
6 and i'm sorry for the stupid questions... are you quarantining? it doesn't sound like it... seems going by your posts if you did it wasn't quite 3 weeks which isn't necessarily enough time but is the recommended rock bottom minimum around many fish communities. i hear zoos and such quarantine closer to 6 weeks if nothing shows up. excuse the pun but i don't know how much water that holds.
just some things to think of or touch on. i don't believe they've been covered. if i think of anything else and notice this thread again i'll post. if not... well, good luck.
ps. if you continue to have die offs i might post a thread in the disease section just in case.
1 young tiger barbs could be housed with painted tiger barbs before you get them. are the greens green or like a really dark blue green almost black. anyhow they could be sick from being housed with other sick fish.
2 seems to me 10 tigers is a lot at a time for a 55.
3 what's your ph? if it's real low your tank might have to progress slooowly.
4 tiger barbs will establish a "pecking order" they are real hardy once established but coming from a pet store are likely to be stressed and establishing a pecking order might just be too stressful. not sure if the rainbow and rams lingering around is helping too much either. ime i find it's best to have them equal to better size/abilities to tank mates (who are already established) when adding them with smaller fish. when having them with bigger fish it's best to add the barbs first and let them establish. you may just need to get older barbs.
5 copper in your water. i believe it's possible your barbs might be your most susceptible to copper poisoning but i would think the neons or rams would go first. then again coming from the fish store means at least 2 moves for them by the time they hit any of your tanks. it is really best at this point to give your water company a call unless your on a well. in which case it would be up to you to find out how much an analysis would cost... probably up there.
6 and i'm sorry for the stupid questions... are you quarantining? it doesn't sound like it... seems going by your posts if you did it wasn't quite 3 weeks which isn't necessarily enough time but is the recommended rock bottom minimum around many fish communities. i hear zoos and such quarantine closer to 6 weeks if nothing shows up. excuse the pun but i don't know how much water that holds.
just some things to think of or touch on. i don't believe they've been covered. if i think of anything else and notice this thread again i'll post. if not... well, good luck.
ps. if you continue to have die offs i might post a thread in the disease section just in case.
Copper is a good possibility, dundadundun... Are there any decorations or rocks in the tank that could be leaching something out?
everytyhing in my tank has been in there for either a year or a couple of months.
the newest things i added are wood i found from around the area (i treated it like i should) and i got some aqarium plants off of ebay..they're a little bit different cause the bottom base is like made out of a ceramic/cement type texture rock base thing, instead of a plastic strip. dont know if that has any meaning though.
but my fish were behaving fine for atleast a month or two with all of these things in my tank..
the newest things i added are wood i found from around the area (i treated it like i should) and i got some aqarium plants off of ebay..they're a little bit different cause the bottom base is like made out of a ceramic/cement type texture rock base thing, instead of a plastic strip. dont know if that has any meaning though.
but my fish were behaving fine for atleast a month or two with all of these things in my tank..
Have you started using hot tap water to temperature match for water changes? Hot tap often has higher copper concentrations, if you have copper pipes anywhere in the system.
