Dead gold barb

[Alien Anna]

Hi Everyone,
yesterday my gold barb was floating near the bottom of the tank at an odd angle (listing to one side) and had a touch of dropsy and pop-eye. Today, he was a snail's breakfast


For weeks he's been acting odd, but since I knew nothing about his species, I didn't at first realise. He would dart about, swimming in strange circles and act really hyperactive. He would fin-clamp a lot and chase my cherry barbs.

Since he was a bottom feeder, I'm not surprised he caught something - until recently, my gravel was toxic and I lost several fish through so-called "dead spots". I had to do a total tank strip-down after losing several fish in the filter (I suspect they swam in there trying to escape the poor water conditions).

I've also noticed a pencilfish is missing. I presume she also got eaten by my snails, or is inside the filter (couldn't find her, however).

Why are my fish dying and when is it going to stop? I'm finding it very depressing, and I'm off on holiday so I'm dreading coming back to dead fish.

 

[Tatya]

Anna, could you list your water quality readings and everything you've done to the tank with timings? Maybe we'll spot something.

So sorry your having a tough time of it.

T

 

[Great Lakes]

Type and style of filtration too please...

 

[Tatya]

In fact tank size and inhabitants would be useful too

 

[Davy Reynolds]

I think you water quality is fine going by other posts. How is the hardnees coming along. This maybe your problem still. Darting is one sign of wrong pH

 

[Tatya]

Isn't it also a sign of stress? A couple of mine have been darting about since the move and thats what I put it down to. The pH has been constant throughout so it was nae that.

 

[Alien Anna]

Anna, could you list your water quality readings and everything you've done to the tank with timings? Maybe we'll spot something.

Hi Tatya,
After doing a total tank strip-down a while back, I had a major problem with high pH and water hardness (the stuff comes out of the tap pH 9.0, KH >24). I decided to get it down by using peat filtration. I did go too fast initially, and had a scary night of pH shock a couple of weeks ago, but everything appeared to be OK. I have zero ammonia, zero nitrite and nitrate approx. 25 in a heavily planted tank. Last week I had an unexplained nitrite spike which I now think was something to do with the loss of the pencilfish.

I've not fiddled around with the water for over a week now, prior to going away, but before that my pH and KH have been gradually dropping (due to adding peat-filtered water) from pH 8.6, KH 20, GH >21, to today's readings: pH 7.0, KH 6, GH 14.

My fish started showing signs of stress about 2 months ago, when my water quality was bad (nitrate >250ppm, pH 8.0, KH >20). I had hoped he'd be OK once the situation improved, but it seems if anything, he got worse.

 

[Alien Anna]

Type and style of filtration too please...

Juwel internal filter column with Juwel media.

 

[Alien Anna]

I think you water quality is fine going by other posts. How is the hardnees coming along. This maybe your problem still. Darting is one sign of wrong pH

Hi, it's been a real struggle to get my pH and KH down - it's like the water is made of elastic and just keeps bouncing back up. At the moment it's down at 7.0, but I expect it'll creep back up to 7.5 again soon (it usually does, although it's taking a little longer each time). My KH is holding steady at 6-10.

 

[Alien Anna]

In fact tank size and inhabitants would be useful too

110 litre (25 US gallons) tank containing 4 young pearl gouramis, 6 cherry barbs, 6 rummy-nosed tetras, 4 black neon tetras, 2 pencilfish, 2 apple snails and 1 bristle-nosed plec (v. small).

 

[Tatya]

Has you pH changed by more than 0.1 in a single day? (0.2 when you get closer to 7.0).

Just noticed you've already mentioned that.

Do you get good movement of the water surface with your juwel filter? I'm always concerned about the oxygen content of my water with mine.

I wouldn't have thought that would cause the darting though.

 

[Alien Anna]

Hi Tatya,

Do you get good movement of the water surface with your juwel filter? I'm always concerned about the oxygen content of my water with mine.

I feel the same - I've just ordered another air-pump so I can put an air-stone in, for the same reason. However, I do think the surface agitation is quite good and there is no sign of oxygen deficiency in the other fish. We did have a heat-wave last week, however, and the gold barb was one of the fish most affected (along with the pencilfish, come to think of it).

Maybe it's a delayed reaction to last week's oxygen deprivation?

 

[Great Lakes]

Anna, it really sounds like you have it going well now, at least from the looks of your readings. You may have a few more fish than I would put in a tank that size, but we just can't help ourselves, can we?

 

[Davy Reynolds]

Anna do you do anything to the water before you add it to the tank. ie. due to the fact your tank water is a lot softer than the tap water. So you could be bouncing your pH all over the place at water changes.

The air thing is also a good point. Adding an airstone is one way. But I never trust them to add much air to the tank. It would have to be a large airstone in your tank to make enough water movement to add the air. I'd recomend a powerhead to move the surface more