Possible sick Tiger Barbs

easystreet

easystreet

Phish for life
May 2, 2007
32
0
0
44
Colorado
my name is mike, i am new to fish and everything that comes along with them hehe i have a 29gal tank with 2 paradise fish and 6 tiger barbs in it. I got it from a guy on cragslist with just the 2 paradise fish.. they each have their own side and dont bother each other much, i added the barbs about a week after i got it and now a couple of the barbs seem to be struggling.. one hangs out in the top of the tank by himself he still eats.. but the other one swims up and then it is like he falls down backwards very strange.. anyway just wanted to introduce myself and see if anyone has had similar expierence or if i should try to do something for them quickly. I just tested the water and i did a 25% water change 2 days ago, ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, and nitrate is about 10.
Nice to meet you all hope somone can help!
Mike
 
I should have added a question asking how you set up the tank after you got the tank from Craiglist. How did you clean the filter and filter media? It appears to me something is wrong with your water parameters the way your fish are behaving strangely. Liquid test kits are far better from test strips which may give misleading results.
 
the filter is a penguin bio-wheel 150.. we transferred all the water that the fish were in except 5 gallons or so.. i left the filter in the bio-wheel for a week and then put in a new one.. the ammonia test is a liquid test
 
i grabbed an API liquid nitrite test kit this morning and it read 0ppm so i really think the water is ok. I talked with a guy at the fish shop and he said it could possibly be overfeeding and got me some frozen daphnia to see if it would help digestion. a couple of them look a little fat but i did not really think about it as being bad.. if anyone has other suggestions let me know.
 
Are there any other symptoms? How do their scales and eyes look? Is anything protruding from their anus? If there are no other outward signs of illness, then don't feed them for two or three days. Then feed them blanched, peeled peas for a day or two. Do at least a 25% water change every day during this process, test your parameters twice a day, and do extra water changes accordingly. If it's constipation, that'll take care of it. If it's their swim bladders, that's pretty much the best you can do to try to help it. If they have any other symptoms, it is most likely a bacterial or parasitic infection, and you need to determine exactly what it is before you decide to if/how to treat with heat/salt or medication.
 
is constipation common with Tiger Barbs? i lost a few of them a while back to constipation... its not hard to see why... THEY EAT ALOT!
 
yui do not see any other outward signs of illness.. they look normal to me no eye pop or anything scales look normal.. i need to continue to feed the other 2 fish so i should probably get some kind of divider right??

Edit: no nothing is coming visibly out of the anus
 
Unless your paradise are already weak, ill, injured or underweight, they will be just fine going several days with no food. Plus then they will produce far less waste, thus keeping the water more pristine for your ailing barbs.
 
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