Our big tiger barb keep turning vertical facing down suspended in the water. He keeps getting worse. What is it and what can I do. We have a 55 gallon tank with two tins, two big tiger barbs, five little tiger barbs, a rainbow shark, a clown loach, other loach, and a pleco. I did a 20% water change today. The sick barb has been showing these signs for two days, progressively getting worse. We have one large biowheel filter. Please help. thanks!!
Downward facing barb twitching!
- Thread starter jon_edie82
- Start date
don't have testers. The other fish look fine. The other large tiger barb is swimming up and down more than it usually does.
Before the water change today, when was the last time you changed the water, how much, how long has the tank been up, and how long have the fish been in it?
I actually had cleaned the entire tank two weeks ago as it had been neglected and was filthy. The two big barbs have been in it for about a week and a half. I changed all the water. Took the older fish out into q tank and cleaned everything. The tank is not mine. It is my inlaws. I wanted to wait for the tank to cycle before getting any new fish. They didn't. There were only two large tins, a pleco, and a loach in it previously. They bought the two large tiger barbs a few days after I cleaned it. Then a few days ago they bought six little tiger barbs, a clown loach, and the rainbow shark. Do you think it is high levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate? I thought it might be which is why I did the water change. The water was at 72' before the change. Now it is near 75'.
I think it is very likely that when you cleaned the tank you got rid of the bacteria that takes care of the ammonia and your fish are suffering from being exposed to ammonia. Especially after such a large increase in bioload. In that case only large water changes will help - and you really need to get a water testing kit - not the strips. What do you do to treat the water?
I treated new water with aquaplus from nutifin and also had some Cycle I put in today and when I first cleaned the tank. Is there something better. I am new to this, have done a lot of research and would love to start my own soon. Until then I am trying to save any of my inlaws fish that I can. Thanks for the help.
Yeah if you changed out all the water then you are recycling that tank and you need to get API drops for ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate is really important you know what the levels are be prepared to do wc's daily especially if you get high ammonia and nitrite readings even a level of .25 can affect the fish. 72 and 75 are those water temp readings? If so try to set the heater to more like 78-80 degrees and test that water you might have high ammonia and nitrite readings reason why the fish are twitching. During the cycle period water change water change water change and testing with the drops is a must do not get test strips they are not accurate! Also you say this is not your tank? If you have a tank that is cycled you might want to take some gravel from your healthy tank and add it to this tank to kick off the cycle a bit. Yes you have to treat the new water you put in the tank with dechlorinator before adding it aquaplus is good I use it. I never used Cycle 1 just did good old fashioned water changes and my 36g tank was cycled in six weeks. Good luck 
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