Sick Cherry Barb?

[TommyGunAngels]

I recently finished cycling my planted tank and last night I bought my first installment of fish, six cherry barbs.

A few facts about the tank:
30g L Planted with Fluval substrate
2 sponge filters
Cycled for 6 weeks
Currently no ammonia, nitrite, or nitrates.
Just to be safe, I added the appropriate amount of Prime to the water.
Did a 25% water change this afternoon, half distilled water half from the tap
During water change, added Stress Coat+, which also declorinated the tap water.
PH is testing at 7.2

5 of them look to be doing quite well; they are quite active and eating without difficulty. I have noticed one of them is moving moving much slower than the others. He pretty much only stays in one place, and does not seem interested in food (I put some flakes next to him and he ignored them). Currently he is staying near the water surface; he is still swimming under his own power but still does not move much. I also just noticed his nose is paler than the rest of the his body and the noses of the other fish.

Is this a sign of some illness?

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Yes the fish is sick.
Can you post a picture of him asap?

 

[Jessie J.]

Yes, a pic or video would help to diagnose what's wrong with your fish and what you can do to help him.

 

[TommyGunAngels]

Sorry for the delay I was sick yesterday.

The fish died, and 2 more have followed him this morning, though I did not see them displaying the same symptoms.

The surviving three seem to be doing fube, sace the dominant acting male is bullying one of the other survivors.

The experience is dissappointing to say the least. I know it may have been an illness in which case I don't know if there was anything I could do.

Is it possible that there is something else with the water chemistry? I live in a place with very hard water, but I have tried to keep the tank 50% tap water (treated with Prime) and 50% distilled water as was reccommended my LFS.

 

[iSaluki]

Very sorry about your lose of fish! I can't see anything wrong with your water really - I'd say it was just an illness of some sort , but I'm not really a proficient yet so wait and see what someone else says.

 

[Colin_T]

It's most likely a disease and not water quality.

If you can post some pics of the other fish in the tank we might be able to see something on them.

The quickest way to deal with most diseases is with big (75%) water changes and gravel cleaning the substrate each day for a week. However, that might cost a bit if you are using distilled water mixed with mains water.

Have you tested the general hardness (GH) of your tap water?
If yes, how hard is it (in numbers)?
If no, then check it. Take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to do a GH test and write the results down at the time. Find out if the test results are in ppm or dGH because they have different results.

If your GH is under 250ppm you don't need to add distilled water. But it also depends on what other fish you keep. If you keep livebearers (mollies, swordtails, guppies, platies) they like hard water with a GH 250+ppm. Most tetras like soft water with a GH below 200ppm. Barbs fall in between and are normally fine in soft to medium hard water (GH between 50-300ppm).

 

[TommyGunAngels]

I got a few pictures of the remaining fish; they are very skittish because theirnumtheir are too low. UbfUnfortunat the firumis saying that are too large if files to post. I'll look to see what that can do so I can post them.

As far as water hardness, my local area is famous for having extremely hard tap water; according to the city government it ranges from about 300-350ppm. Specifically the LFS suggested using distilled water since I told that at some point I'd like to have some South American tetras in the tank.

 

[Colin_T]

If you set the camera's resolution to 2MB or as low as possible, the images will be smaller and more likely to fit on here. Otherwise put them on an image hosting website and put the link here. We can use the link to view the images at the other website.

If the fish are nervous and skittish there is something wrong with the water.

I would get the GH tested so you know exactly what it is and then you can add distilled to make it whatever you like.

 

[TommyGunAngels]

If you set the camera's resolution to 2MB or as low as possible, the images will be smaller and more likely to fit on here. Otherwise put them on an image hosting website and put the link here. We can use the link to view the images at the other website.

If the fish are nervous and skittish there is something wrong with the water.

I would get the GH tested so you know exactly what it is and then you can add distilled to make it whatever you like.

Ok, I'll pick up a test after work.

My phone's camera isn't the best by far, so here are the images I was able to take .

https://imgur.com/a/t31OSVd

As far as the water parameters, I retested the ammonia and nitrites this morbmor and both came back 0ppm. The water temperature has consistently stayed at 77 F. The pH actually went up to 7.4, but from what I've read that's still within acceptable parameters for the barbs.

Could heavy metals be a factor? I dose the tap I put into the tank with Prime which I think detoxifies those, but I can't recall for sure.

The only other things I put in the water are Aquarium Co-Op's Easy Green/Carbon/Iron at the recommended levels.

 

[Colin_T]

a pH of 7.4 is fine for barbs and nothing to worry about.

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You don't need to buy a GH test kit. Just take a glass of tap water into the local pet shop and get them to test it. The GH is normally quite stable and you only need to test it once every 6 months or if something goes wrong. If you want to buy a kit that is fine but personally I would just get the shop to test it a couple of times a year.

If you do buy test ktis, check the expiry date on them and only get them from somewhere they are kept cool. If the shop has them in the fish room and it is hot then don't get them from there. Likewise if the kits are in front of a window or near a fridge or freezer or heater, buy them from somewhere else.

When you get the kits home, put them in a plastic container and keep them in a cool dark spot. I kept mine on the bottom shelf of the fridge.

Make sure children and animals can't get the kits because they have some pretty toxic stuff in them.

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The fish in the pictures don't appear to have any unusual colours so it could be chemicals causing the issue. Stop adding plant foods for a few weeks and see if it helps. Do a big water change as well and maybe add some Activated carbon or Highly Activated carbon to the filter. Rinse the carbon under the tap before use to remove any fine black dust.