6 New Zebra Danios, 3 dead, one not swimming well

[Lexiih36]

Alright thank you. So the second to last fish is now starting to tilt and is generally lethargic. Is circling around in one area slowly with odd touching the surface. Fish 6 is still moving like normal and and is more willing to go to other parts of the fish. I don't hold much hope for waking up to living fish, but thanks for the help

 

[Byron]

Diagnosing fish disease is very difficult. Erratic swimming and gasping can be caused by several things. Members have asked some specific questions to identify/discard some of these, trying to get to the issue.

One thing I would suggest is that you contact/visit the store where you got these danios, and see if they have had losses. If they have, it would most likely determine it was the fish themselves.

There are other related aspects we should investigate. How did you bring them home and add them to the tank. And the pH issue needs discussing.

 

[Lexiih36]

So it's been about 2 hours. One fish is still swimming in a circle at the top of the tank and will tilt. The other one is much more energetic.

I bought them home in a bag and sat it in the tank for 15 minutes. The pH is still 7.4.

 

[FishNturt808]

So it's been about 2 hours. One fish is still swimming in a circle at the top of the tank and will tilt. The other one is much more energetic.

I bought them home in a bag and sat it in the tank for 15 minutes. The pH is still 7.4.

Is your fish shop close to your house? As in, would you be on the same tap water supply? Could be bringing them home to a sudden water parameter change could have picked off the weaker, less adaptable fish. It’s a tough lesson to learn, but always a good idea to drip acclimate new fish with your tank water so they have a better chance of adapting to the new water.

 

[outofwater]

Sick fish from the store.

Diagnosing fish disease is very difficult. Erratic swimming and gasping can be caused by several things. Members have asked some specific questions to identify/discard some of these, trying to get to the issue.

One thing I would suggest is that you contact/visit the store where you got these danios, and see if they have had losses. If they have, it would most likely determine it was the fish themselves.

There are other related aspects we should investigate. How did you bring them home and add them to the tank. And the pH issue needs discussing.

Barring some dramatic differences between the store and your parameters (which otherwise seem solid); the fish seem to be the issue. I had a similar experience a month or so ago, when in one day I lost 5 out of 12 neon tetras in the first 2 days of adding them to my fully cycled tank, and one of the 2 otos I also had brought home, a few days later.

With some of the neons at least I had visible signs (some weird decay in their fins which accelerated dramatically as they approached death) while rhe others simply just died after appearing lethargic for a couple of hours.
Tough luck sometimes, and frustrating when you can't really pinpoint the issue.

 

[Lexiih36]

Is your fish shop close to your house? As in, would you be on the same tap water supply? Could be bringing them home to a sudden water parameter change could have picked off the weaker, less adaptable fish. It’s a tough lesson to learn, but always a good idea to drip acclimate new fish with your tank water so they have a better chance of adapting to the new water.

 

[Lexiih36]

Pet store Is a 15 minute drive. I did not mix the tank water with the old bag so honestly it was probably shock from the change in water parameters. And probably all the baking soda.

Fish 1&2 (because that's what they are at this point) survived the night. While the bigger one that I was worried about doesn't seem to have stopped swimming in circles, it did survive the night. Which brings me to my next question.

When should I go about bringing the fish back up to 6. I don't want to stress them out even further by having only 2, but I'd also not like to delete more fish from this world

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Don't add any more fish until you've sorted out your issues and keep these 2 alive for a couple of weeks...you'd feel terrible if the new fish you added went the same way

 

[GaryE]

You have to consider the following. Unless you have wild caughts, and you don't with zebra danios, those fish were probably raised on a corporate farm in Asia, where quick growth and moving the fish to market were everything. Before you see this as bashing Asia, they didn't do this until the large pet chains in the US forced them to drive their prices down, or else. A race to the bottom was forced onto them.
They are bagged as crowded as can be to minimize shipping costs, and after possible delays, arrive at a US airport. They sit around, and go to a wholesaler. The dead are removed, and the survivors are repacked and shipped to a store. The whole process can take days.
I dealt with farms that would not say "fish". They only said "units".
The stores get what they get, and sell them. Bacterial diseases are a problem. As with food farming, overuse of antibiotics speeds growth, but it also leads to fragile fish when the antibiotics are gone and they meet pathogens on their own terms for the first time.
Some local stores get around the system and get very good fish, but the chains purchase centrally, and want to pay as little as possible.

I'll be a bit of a jerk here and say it. We then pull out our not very useful test kits and blame our own tanks for the death of the fish. We must have done something wrong, right?

For sure, we can easily kill fish in an uncycled tank. But I wish that fishkeeping forums would hit a middle ground, and look backwards. It was once considered basic to study photos and learn how to identify illnesses in fish. As a kid, I was taken to stores and shown how to spot diseases. I was taught if one fish looked off, I was not to buy any from the tank, or if it was a store with a central system, from the shop. Now, I would be told to pull out a test kit and read colour coding.

Sooo, rant done, I would wait 3-4 weeks and watch the fish for signs of disease. Then I'd try again. While waiting, I'd look for a good disease site and arm myself. It is easy to do, and pretty basic.

 

[Lexiih36]

Thank you all so much for your advice. I'll give it some time. Especially since these guys seem to have no interest in eating yet. I dropped in some frozen bloodworms and while they did get excited, they didn't actually eat any. Also gonna have to figure out how to get the bloodworms out of the tank now lol.

Thanks again

 

[GaryE]

Also gonna have to figure out how to get the bloodworms out of the tank now lol.

The most important technological advance of the 20th century was the dollar store turkey baster!

 

[Lexiih36]

The most important technological advance of the 20th century was the dollar store turkey baster!

Haha duh lol

 

[Lexiih36]

Oh, I also put in some lifeguard for preventative measures. I'm hoping since most of the chemicals are gone that I can start.

They also appear to be playing... It fighting. But probably playing. Progress? Do dying fish play?

 

[outofwater]

They also appear to be playing... It fighting. But probably playing. Progress? Do dying fish play?

They most definitely don't. Like any animal, if they're feeling down or worse, severely ill, they won't seem playful, rather dull, sluggish and just trying to hide/rest. Good luck, sometimes lessons come in tough packages. What @GaryE said a few line above in his "rant" is the truth. Poor commercial fish farming practices, the current logistical nightmare and even local weather conditions wreak havoc on the fish that do make it to the tanks at your local chain store.

 

[flipperfeet]

The rapidity of death, while all of your water parameters are good, raises the likelihood of exposure to a toxin. Deadly pathogens rarely come on this quick.

Were there any other animals in the tank prior to adding the fish, like snails or shrimp that are still doing fine?

As mentioned previously, immediate water changes, if you are using carbon in your filter swap in a new load. If you are not, add it to help pull out any toxins that might be in the tank until you have resolved the problem.

Return to the store to confirm they have not had a similar die-off and eliminate that as a possible source of the problem.

How are the last two doing?