Fish death

[kabukidreamer]

First off, I want to thank you both for your help.

I agree, it's too coincidental that they both died. I can't see ANYTHING that was wrong with either of them, though, as far as any kind of ick, velvet, fungus, anything like that...I've done some online research about problems fish can have, and I've never come across one with no visible symptoms..though I'm certainly not saying there can't be one. I really have no idea what the guppy could have had, that had leave NO symptoms I could see...the barb just had that thing under his skin that looked like a broken blood vessel.

The barb, like I said, may have been old. At least well past maturity. I have no idea what a barb's life expectancy is, though I think I'll look that up next.

The guppy seemed stressed the entire time (but not in the store). To be honest, I think it was a mistake putting her with all barbs. I don't know if she didn't adjust to the water, exactly, or if she was just upset in her new surroundings. I was watching for aggression and didn't see any, though..

They may have both died of unrelated causes, but I really doubt it. I don't know what kind of disease the guppy could have brought with no signs. So I'm assuming water, as that's the only other problem I can think of.

 

[ArkyLady]

That seems like quite a bit of fish to be in a 5 gallon tank to me.

My guess would be that the tank isn't fully cycled and adding the guppy caused an ammonia or nitrIte spike that was too much for the fish to handle. The levels were likely already elevated before the guppy was added with that fish load in there.

As said above though, we can't tell for sure without water tests

 

[Semarin]

That seems like quite a bit of fish to be in a 5 gallon tank to me.

My guess would be that the tank isn't fully cycled and adding the guppy caused an ammonia or nitrIte spike that was too much for the fish to handle. The levels were likely already elevated before the guppy was added with that fish load in there.

As said above though, we can't tell for sure without water tests

I agree. Seems like you overstocked the semi-cycled tank.

 

[kabukidreamer]

Just did a water test. My water's a bit soft, which I knew, but the rest is fine. Unless the ammonia/nitrites spiked and came down already?

Specifically, everything was 0 that should be (chlorine, nitrites, etc), pH was 7.4.

To be honest, I'm at a loss. The other fish are doing fine. They don't show ANY of the "6 stress signs". It may remain an unsolved mystery.

Speaking of soft water, is that a problem? I understand the ammonia and nitrates and all, but I'm not sure if I really need to worry about the water. What problems does soft water create?

 

[oztun]

If the KH is low PH can change very rapidly. It is possible the PH of the aquarium was different from the water you added. The sudden change could kill fish. Not saying this is for sure what happened but I'd keep checking the water in the tank and check the water you are adding before adding any more. Maybe do smaller water changes more often until you figure out what's going on.

I haven't ever had to change my KH so I'm not sure exactly how it's done. I'm sure someone can help (if thats the problem).

 

[kabukidreamer]

..I'm sorry, I don't understand what "KH" is..? Is this the dumbest question ever?

I had said before that the temperature went up a couple degrees. My pH is on the higher side, though still safe, but in research today I've found that as the temperature goes up, the pH and ammonia can spike with it. Since my pH is on the verge of being too high, I'd have to agree that there might have been a pH spike.

I know some things, like chlorine in water, can actually cause physical damage to the fish and burn the skin, etc. Are there any physical signs of pH "poisoning"?

 

[oztun]

To me the only dumb question is the one you don't ask.

KH stands for Carbonate Hardness and is yet another thing to test for. You may have heard people refer to this as Buffering capacity. Also called Alkalinity and not to be confused with Alkaline. And before someone ask let me say this is different from GH which affects nutrients.

Basically it is a buffer against your PH changing rapidly. A KH of less than 4.5dH can mean an unstable PH.

I'm not sure how a huge PH swing would affect fish as I have never witnessed one. My guess would be the only physical sign would be a fish slowing down and dying rather quickly.

I don't think a PH of 7.4 is "too high". Maybe if you were breeding fish that need a low PH to spawn, however most agree a PH of 7.4 is way better than trying to obtain a lower PH. Also the slight tempature drop you experienced is nothing to worry about. I've had temp change by 7 degrees or more during water changes (in the past) with no noticable effects on my fish.

 

[ArkyLady]

If you can get a test kit/strips to test for GH and KH and let us know what they are we can help more.

At my old house, I had a very low KH, next to nothing. KH helps buffer your water so that your PH doesn't swing up and down too easily, so having a low KH isn't ideal. That said, I had a low KH for years and never had any issues from it, so it's not necessarily a death wish for your fish either.

If you do test and indeed you have a low KH reading, using crushed coral can help boost that up without raising your PH too much. At least it worked well in my experience and I've read of others using it with good success. In my 55 gallon tank, I used about half a cup full of crushed coral in a nylon tied off and stuck it in my filter. With that, I got a KH that actually was high enough to show up on the tests and never saw any noticeable changes to my PH.

The water where I live now has a good KH reading, but I have a tank with onyx sand which is also supposed to help your KH and I'd have to say that it does. The tank with onyx sand in it has a higher KH reading than I do out of the tap and since there is no longer any crushed coral in that tank I have to attribute the higher readings to the onyx sand. That might also be an option you could try.