Tiger Barbs Dying

[Gazzae]

I don't understand what's happened!, I've had my tank set up and cycled it for 2 months before adding fish, I had 10 tiger barbs and 5 red eye tetra in my tank, I have been checking my water parameters every 2 days to keep an eye on things my ammonia is always at 0 the nitrite at 0 and nitrate at about 10, my ph is always 8.2 it's high around here, all was well I did my routine water change of about 40% , using de chlorinated water of the same temp, all of a sudden the tigers started becoming shy, then 2 of them where gasping around the top of the tank and just died, I have a big air curtain in the tank so I don't think there's an oxygen issue? My temp is around 27 c all the time, I have just done another big water change just incase , all my red eye tetra are happy as larry, but the barbs just seemed to have crashed, they had been feeding fine I really don't know what's happened?? My tank is 23 gal

Thanks

 

[Gazzae]

Any one please help.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

What dechlorinator are you using and did you overdose above standard levels (Prime for example can be overdosed upto 5x)?

How big was this second big wter change after you saw the barbs stressing?

Any sign of the tetras being nippy with the barbs?

How are you testing the water, liquid test kits or test strips? Strips are often horribly inaccurate.

27C sounds awfully high for Tiger Barbs, I thought they were more of a sub-tropical species happy at 21C.

I'm at a bit of loss, considering you have already done some sort of second water change. With info provided right now, I'd say drop the water level so that the filter return is creating water rippling. If you have Prime and have not already overdosed, I would try overdosing upto 5x to temporarily soak up ammonia and nitrite (and see if this improves things). But considering the Red Eye Tetra are ok, this really does sound odd.

 

[Gazzae]

Thanks for the reply, first off my test kit is an api master test kit, my last water change was about 80% I did this one in desperation, the tetras are fine with them they all got on fine. I have been using interpet tap safe and never had any issues at this moment in time there dropping like flies, when I checked the temp for tigers it said 21-28c

 

[Gazzae]

Looks like all the tigers are done for

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Really sorry to read this sad news...

Have you tested ammonia; nitrate; pH since all this Tiger Barbs crisis started?

If for example your local water board added extra chemicals to the water, I don't understand why the Red Eye Tetra are all doing fine.

I do know that Neale Monks suggests Red Eye Tetra to be a good candidate South American tetra for fishkeepers in hard alkaline water, along with X-Ray Tetras; False Penguin Tetras and Lemon Tetras...

Its a real stab in the dark, but have you been adding chemicals to your water to try and lower the pH?

 

[Gazzae]

Yeah tested ammonia just now still at zero, I haven't added any thing else to my tank, they just seem to fall out the water and die a painful crazy death??

 

[Gazzae]

They have all gone now

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

In your situation, I would struggle to sleep tonight, I'm rather stressed about my 5x2x2 right now (I felt the need to remove all the bogwood and do a big water change today, so I can clearly see all the fish for the next few days... Worreid about possible fin nipping or fin rot but cannot make out grey/white edges).

If it was me in your shoes, I would basically do another ~95% water change before the day is over, just to feel I had done all I could to help the Red Eye Tetra still be around in the morning.

Maybe the new water had slightly different water chemistry to the tank; perhaps there was a contaminant that the barbs were more sensitive to; maybe the barbs had all been unwell for a while; perhaps they were old. "Myserious" deaths are the pits, fish die and we learn nothing in regard to what we could have done differently to prevent it from being fatal.

 

[Gazzae]

Thanks for your help buddy, I did do another water change and switched out the lights for the tetra they seem ok, if not a little stressed from me sticking the net in there tank all day picking out the perished barbs I'm a bit stumped what to do from here I really want to replace the tigers I really enjoyed there feisty personalities but how soon is too soon?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Only you can judge how soon is safe to replace fish, but I have placed my 5x2x2 into quarantine mode for a month now, after losing a Redline Torpedo Barb without known cause in early June. As a precaution, I advised two fellow fishkeepers who are planning to rehome two of the fish from this tank, as I would hate to give them ill fish that then pass on illnesses to other tanks. I'm glad I did this and held back on getting some new fish this weekend, as one of my concerns in the 5x2x2 today was the Synodontis decora who is going to be rehomed, who looks to have some dorsal fin damage and I want to be sure of its cause (nipping or fin rot) before deciding on any medication or simply increased water changes for the next couple of weeks.

 

[Gazzae]

Sounds like a good plan, I think I'll step up my water chenges for the next couple of weeks and see how the tetra get on, I just don't know what happened today it all seemed to just "come on" out of nowhere, the tigers where fairly small so I'm guessing they weren't very old, they where so active and happy this morning, I'll proberbly leave re stocking until next month to be sure it's all water under the bridge, hope you get your lot sorted and it's nothing to serious

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Any news on how the Red Eye Tetra are doing?

 

[denzil1nil]

Sorry to hear your plight but be patient and things will most likely settle down.

When i first set up everything was fine in my 2ft tank but then I had to change tanks because of a leak.

I changed over to a slightly larger 30x16x16 tank and things slowly went very wrong , Basically I had massive problems with fin rot at one stage that wiped out about 90% of my original stock from the old 2ft and several batches of new stock when i thought it was the right time. (I couldnt really understand the finrot as i changed tank using all the original media and decor from the 2ft setup).

Eventually i changed several things in my maintenance routine, I bought new buckets for my water changes and stored them seperate as my old ones i used to slide into each other when storing them away when they were empty. I did this as when I thought about it when the buckets were full of clean water I put them under the dining table so when I emptied the clean water into my tank and then slid the buckets into each other to store away they could of been carrying cleaning chemicals from the floor into the buckets contaminating them.

This is just one of the small things I changed which could of been a factor in my problems.

It could also have been plenty of other things so i just kept improving as many factors as possible even tho i thought i had a good routine it wasnt until something went wrong i saw room for improvement.

other things i changed were

better quality dechlorinator (prime).

tried using myxazin (not sure???) for finrot this didnt seem to do much but turn the tank green imo.

treat my filter and sponges as the 'heartbeat' of the tank keep them running well and dont be tempted to replace sponges unless an expert tells you its nescessary. your filter media are from my limited knowledge where the biological magic happens.(previousley i believe i was changing my filter medium too often also when i upgraded tank i added an extra larger internal filter)

varied diet make sure your not overfeeding i feed high protien foods the day before a water change.

when storing water for changes i keep that aeriated and stir it every now and then to avoid supersaturation of the water, again not sure if this works but if i can try and avoid something ill give it a go.

upped my water changes from 1 x 50% change a week to 2 or 3 x 50% water changes (im now doing 1 x 60-70% water change now the tank has settled, i could probabley do less now both my filters are fully mature but its my choice to do large reguler water changes)

changed my stock as some of my fish were incompatible for various reasons as much as i didnt want to admit it my fish just wernt suitable together.

I have my internals firing the water over the surface for aeriation and water flow. I run a fluval 4 in one corner with the nozzle facing down and toward the back of the tank glass and a fluval 2 in the opposite corner flowing down and into the side glass. i Prefer this as i get a good medium/fast flow along the back and a medium/slow flow along the front this also gives deep water flow and aeriation all over the tank (I dont use any air pumps).

I probably did other things along the way and at one point i was ready for draining the tank and sticking it on ebay but now im glad i stuck at it as my tank eventually settled down and ive been going well for the last 6(ish) months.

Ive got a healthy stock of fish and my live plants are staying green, Im nowhere near some of the set ups you see on here but i do have a nice healthy low tech tank that doesnt cost me a bomb.

Hope you reach your light at the end of the tunnel and you eventually get your tank running well and healthy.

 

[This Old Spouse]

This is a bizarre story about your tigers. I also have tiger barbs and red-eye tetras in a 29g and only had one young tiger die shortly after I brought him home, but I think it was the travel, not my tank.

Keep in mind that when you see a range of temperatures for a species of fish that you should keep toward the middle of that range, not the very top or bottom. My tank is about 77º (25ºC) and I've had no problems. I'd also drop a piece of bogwood in the tank to slowly and gently drop the pH level.

Also, tiger barbs will eat until they explode. I call mine the "herd of piranhas" because of the way they attack food. I was overfeeding them initially, thinking they were really hungry, but after seeing their behavior after eating like that I decided to just feed them 3 tiny meals a day, with the last meal being more of a treat.

I do hope for better luck for you the next round.