Within the past month I have setup a 30gallon freshwater aquarium. I added a school of Neon Tetras (7+ fish) and a school of Glolite Tetras (about 7 fish). Yesterday, after doing some reading, I decided to get some Zebra Danios, after hearing how hardy they are. So I get about 7-8 of them, and put them in the tank (after letting them float in the plastic bag to acclimate). I get up this morning to find two dead, and one in the process of dying (it's having like seizures and such). There is no nitrite,nitrate or ammonia present, and the pH is about 7.1- 7.2. Any ideas of why these supposedly great community fish are dropping dead?
2007-05-15 14:32:34 · 6 answers · asked by mad2492 2 in Pets ➔ Fish
Within the past month I have setup a 30gallon freshwater aquarium. I added a school of Neon Tetras (7+ fish) and a school of Glolite Tetras (about 7 fish). Yesterday, after doing some reading, I decided to get some Zebra Danios, after hearing how hardy they are. So I get about 7-8 of them, and put them in the tank (after letting them float in the plastic bag to acclimate). I get up this morning to find two dead, and one in the process of dying (it's having like seizures and such). There is no nitrite,nitrate or ammonia present, and the pH is about 7.1- 7.2. No fins were missin either. Any ideas of why these supposedly great community fish are dropping dead?
2007-05-15 14:49:47 · update #1
It certainly sounds like new tank syndrome, its a bit late now to do much other than partial water changes every couple of days or every day would be best and placing a couple of bags of zeolite in there to try alleviate the problem. Or failing that take some fish back too the LFS and some water have them test the water.
2007-05-15 15:15:45 · answer #1 · answered by andyjh_uk 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You've added a lot of fish to a new tank. My first guess would be that there was an ammonia spike after adding the danios. New tank water chemistry is really unstable for the first few months, and ammonia is really prone to spiking within hours after adding many new fish. The symptoms of the dying fish are probably from ammonia poisoning. If you are sure that this didn't happen, my second guess would be pH shock. They may have been kept at a different pH, and when adding them to your tank, they may have been shocked enough to kill them.
I know the pet stores tell people to float the new bag of fish in your tank for 15-30 minutes before releasing them, saying that the water temperature needs to adust. Most don't tell you to acclimate them to the water chemistry. Next time you buy fish, float them, open up the bag, and add a 1/2 cup of your tank water to the bag every 10-15 minutes. Let them float for an hour or more. You'll lose less fish this way.
2007-05-15 14:51:10 · answer #2 · answered by michael 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
What sounds like your problem after reading your first sentence is it seems like you first didn't let your tank completely cycle. I had a tank that took almost 8 weeks to finish cycling and I had no fish in my tank, I was doing the fishless cycling.
And the reason I see for you haven't finished cycling is you have 0 Nitrates. You should never had 0 Nitrates. That is a clear indicator that you haven't finished cycling and now have overloaded your tank.
Anything >20 ppm for nitrates is ideal! You should try and wait for your tank to cycle, take your fish back and only keep a couple hardy ones, and when I say couple I mean no more than 2 little fish.
Wait until you have Nitrates and then start slowly adding other fish.....
2007-05-15 14:39:58 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Get 3 more beneficial zebras cus they do astounding in unusual style communities. Plus 5 is a strong style you may also pass 6 in case you favor. A 9 gallon tank ? What, you would possibly want to no longer splurge the more beneficial funds and get a 10 gallon ? LOL. I were given a 10 gallon medical institution/Quarantine tank that I keep some random fish basically so it seems nice and its no longer empty. I were given 5 pearl danios a million guppy (overlook the position he got here from) and four faux julli cory catfish. Its a sturdy tank and a sturdy blend of properly and bottom dwellers. do not overlook to no longer over feed and keep up consisting of your weekly 25 % water variations. sturdy success
2016-10-18 08:12:55 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My first guess would have been ammonia poisoning and I would still suggest you double check your readings just to be sure. I don't know how long you were able to observe them after adding them to the tank, but it's possible that it was pH shock as well if the dealers tank was significantly higher or lower than your pH. I would not suspect any disease really as that is quite sudden to go from apparently healthy to dead. That suggests some water condition shock in most cases.
MM
2007-05-15 14:38:17 · answer #5 · answered by magicman116 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
even though you acclimatized them...it is probably attributable to transfer shock. Most of the chemistry looks good. The abscence of nitrates indicates that your set up has not matured yet. you did not mention water temp but I would imagine it is fine and you are below the recommended population size for a 30 gal tank
2007-05-15 14:42:12 · answer #6 · answered by wbaker777 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋