Natmanjoh
New Member
Hello all. I need help. I used to have a fish tank over 10 years ago and am perplexed about what is going on with my tank. I may have not been in the hobby for a while but I thought we set our tank up for success, not a failure. My wife and I wanted to get a fish tank for our two boys, so we opted to get a 36 Gallon tank we saw at PetSmart. Our goal was to use this tank to 'get' back into the hobby before investing in a much bigger tank for the family room. We planned for the 36 Gallon tank to be mainly a Tiger Barb tank after seeing that our boys liked them the most at the store.
We brought the tank home, washed it out. Did not use cleaners or anything. Washed out all the items that would go into the tank as well, including the substrate. Set the tank up and filled it up with water. We used Tetra EasyBalance to make the tap water safe. We added some fish food to jump-start the cycling process and let the tank sit for a few weeks. Water tested great on all tests, so we went out to get some fish for it. We bought 3 Tiger barbs and 1 golden algae eater from PetSmart and introduced them to the tank by letting them sit in their bags for 10-20 min. Put about a cup of the tank water in their bags and let them sit another 10-15 min. Then used our net to put them in the tank while pouring a bit from each of the bags into the tank.
Barbs were super active the first day and night. We feed them lightly with plans to gradually increase their food as time went on so the tank would properly cycle. After two fo the original 3 died, we went to Petco and bought 4 more barbs for the tank (Petsmart was sold out at this point). It is now day 8/9, and we have 4 barbs left, with 1 most likely on its last legs. I am unsure what is going on. We have done so many water tests, including a water change, and still are unsure what is going on. According to all of our tests, everything water quality wise should be fine. Here are the most recent results from our tests after the most recent barb death:
Hard to tell in the pics, but alkalinity is 'moderate' with PH at 7.2. Ammonia is 0-0.5.
Here are some pics of the deceased:
The only symptoms that we could see that were 'common' was that they seemed to 'float' and/or drift up and down and 'lay' on the fake plants in the tank. One of the fish that I witnessed dying was swimming just fine, then turned upside down and freaked out, darting back and forth, then ended up on its side at the top of the water and swimming sideways in circles until it died. Others have died sinking to the bottom of the tank. The barbs seem to be hanging out behind the filter/heater, and some of them hang out swimming with their mouths at the top of the water and gills moving quickly.
I thought it might be an oxygen thing, so I removed some water to give more space between the waterline and the filter to introduce more bubbles into the tank. Some of the barbs have fast-moving mouths/gills, while others are not having this issue. One of the barbs just swims suspended in one place and only occasionally moves. Two of the smaller barbs got stuck to the filter intake. One of those two died shortly after getting it off the filter.
We had gotten a golden algae fish as well that also died. It had a green stomach upon death.
Here is a picture of the barb that stays suspended in one spot:
Here is a picture of the barb that died on its side floating and the other barb hanging out by the filter.
If anyone has some advice, please let me know. My wife is getting ready to throw in the towel on aquariums in general. Personally, I do not like seeing this many fish die on my watch. I just do not know what we are doing wrong. Maybe it was a 'bad batch' from the big box stores? Oh, we also used Melafix from Tetra today thinking it may be a bacterial infection or something. Anyway, I hope someone has some advice for us. I am tired of having fish funerals with my boys when this was supposed to be an exciting experience.
We brought the tank home, washed it out. Did not use cleaners or anything. Washed out all the items that would go into the tank as well, including the substrate. Set the tank up and filled it up with water. We used Tetra EasyBalance to make the tap water safe. We added some fish food to jump-start the cycling process and let the tank sit for a few weeks. Water tested great on all tests, so we went out to get some fish for it. We bought 3 Tiger barbs and 1 golden algae eater from PetSmart and introduced them to the tank by letting them sit in their bags for 10-20 min. Put about a cup of the tank water in their bags and let them sit another 10-15 min. Then used our net to put them in the tank while pouring a bit from each of the bags into the tank.
Barbs were super active the first day and night. We feed them lightly with plans to gradually increase their food as time went on so the tank would properly cycle. After two fo the original 3 died, we went to Petco and bought 4 more barbs for the tank (Petsmart was sold out at this point). It is now day 8/9, and we have 4 barbs left, with 1 most likely on its last legs. I am unsure what is going on. We have done so many water tests, including a water change, and still are unsure what is going on. According to all of our tests, everything water quality wise should be fine. Here are the most recent results from our tests after the most recent barb death:
Hard to tell in the pics, but alkalinity is 'moderate' with PH at 7.2. Ammonia is 0-0.5.
Here are some pics of the deceased:
The only symptoms that we could see that were 'common' was that they seemed to 'float' and/or drift up and down and 'lay' on the fake plants in the tank. One of the fish that I witnessed dying was swimming just fine, then turned upside down and freaked out, darting back and forth, then ended up on its side at the top of the water and swimming sideways in circles until it died. Others have died sinking to the bottom of the tank. The barbs seem to be hanging out behind the filter/heater, and some of them hang out swimming with their mouths at the top of the water and gills moving quickly.
I thought it might be an oxygen thing, so I removed some water to give more space between the waterline and the filter to introduce more bubbles into the tank. Some of the barbs have fast-moving mouths/gills, while others are not having this issue. One of the barbs just swims suspended in one place and only occasionally moves. Two of the smaller barbs got stuck to the filter intake. One of those two died shortly after getting it off the filter.
We had gotten a golden algae fish as well that also died. It had a green stomach upon death.
Here is a picture of the barb that stays suspended in one spot:
Here is a picture of the barb that died on its side floating and the other barb hanging out by the filter.
If anyone has some advice, please let me know. My wife is getting ready to throw in the towel on aquariums in general. Personally, I do not like seeing this many fish die on my watch. I just do not know what we are doing wrong. Maybe it was a 'bad batch' from the big box stores? Oh, we also used Melafix from Tetra today thinking it may be a bacterial infection or something. Anyway, I hope someone has some advice for us. I am tired of having fish funerals with my boys when this was supposed to be an exciting experience.