Dying Tiger Barbs

[BigFish01]

Ok so i found one of the small new ones stuck to the filter today. Still alive. I netted him and hung he net so he is quarrantined away from the filters and wont get harassed by the other tigers. He dont seem interested in food and his belly looks like its skinnier than the rest. Seems to be swimming around just fine now in the net. No redness or anything unusual about coloring. Did a 50% water change yesterday is all i have done and sucked out some sand also. Water stats are the same.... Will keep an eye on him through the day. I was going to go pick up a few more today since im nearing two weeks.. Guess not!!! This is getting tiring...

 

[BigFish01]

Well here is an update on the tb's. All are doing well including the one I found stuck to the filter. He is still QT'd untill I'm confident he can hold his own against his bigger brothers and sisters. He did eat some food for me tonight so that is a pretty good sign.

And I took a trip to the LFS today and they had 4 larger TB's for 5$ each. So I grabbed them while I was there. And my honey fell in love with some polka dotted loaches while we were there and talked me into getting two of them. I know they need more than just the two but thats all they had and I didnt want to come home with too many fish.. lol I drip acclimated them for two hours until the ph matched exactly and let them free in the qt tank with my other tigers. They are doing good so far. The loaches are schooling with the tigers its cute!! Anyways I snapped a few pics (about a hundred with 10 good ones.. lol) So I figured I would show you what I have going on. I also picked up some cambomba and water wisteria to go in the main display tank.

Here is the tank before I did anything to it today

and after. Messy for now but the plants should grow rather quickly.

Low lights and dosing daily with excel and i have root spikes also

And for the tigers and loaches.

Well as always I am open to any comments, Tips or Criticism! LOL I'm pretty happy with the tank so far. Hope the new plants do good. Thanks for looking

P.S,
Please excuse the mess. The tank is in the half finished basement so it dont look too good around it. Next spring/fall project to finish it..

 

[eaglesaquarium]

They look great! I love the look of tiger barbs. They might be my absolute FAVORITE fish... One day, I'll get some! I swear it!

 

[BigFish01]

TBH I am very glad I got them. The clown loach has been my favorite fish. but I think the tigers are right next to them on my list! I have decided against the silver dollars. Will have a large shoal of TB's and Green TB's and more of the Polka dotted loach. they are very unique looking fish also. Was wondering if anyone knew how long ghost shrimp would last with clown loaches ? probably not long... lol would be good feeders if I filled up my qt tank with them!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yeah, I wouldn't think the shrimp would be very happy. The loaches would love you though!

 

[greenmumma141]

The tigers look great!!!! Their colors are nice and bold and iridescent! Congrats on the clown loaches too!! Ive been a loach admirer for some time now and Im hoping to get a group of polka dot loaches in the new tank ... Your tank is lookin great, and I'm glad your tigers are doing well, they just get more fun the longer you have them!

 

[BigFish01]

Does anyone have an idea if pictus cats would do well with my group?

 

[greenmumma141]

I have one pictus (yes i know, i know!!) and he gets along great with my tigers and my cories. He can be territorial about his cave, but not violent or aggressive, he isn't even aggressive about food, he just takes his wafer and swims off with it. I'm not too sure about a pictus with loaches though, I know loaches can be very timid and scared easily, I would post in the loach section and ask there if anyone has kept them together (or something similar) I would suggest to let your loaches settle for a bit longer before adding one if you decide too. I really like my pictus though, he's really cool and I can't get over how funny his whiskers are

 

[BigFish01]

Well i let my little one out of the net since he was eating and acting normal. His lower fins were still transparent and i have been watching him. Now his fins have restored the deep red as everyone elses has and he is schooling with them good. Hope he will do ok!!! Happy new yers to all of you. Will update in a coupke days!

 

[BigFish01]

Ok so I did my daily water testing tonight and my ammonia test came back at .25ppm... So I thought about it for a minute on how I can do a large water change and keep the temp up at the same time.

Idea.. Drained the qt tank down most of the way and siphoned water from my big tank to replace it. 0 Ammonia, light nitrates, Perfect! did a 75% change and will re test in about 20 minutes.

Would be easy to temp match if my tankless water heater was not so temperamental.. lol It wont hold a steady warm only hotter than I want or straight cold. Think that has to do with my pressure switch.. anyways not a subject to solve on this forum...Ha

So Hopefully that will work out good. as long as the water from the qt tank does not go into the main display tank I should be good. Thinking about taking one of my three filters off the main display tank and hooking it up on my 20gal. Or just keep an eye on it.. We Will see..

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The 20 gallon is where the tigers are currently, and that's where the spike is? BTW, brilliant solution, if that's the case.


I wouldn't move a filter from the main tank over. Just steal some of the media and put that in the filter on your QT. ;-) I always keep some ceramics in my filter, just so that I can quickly move some "bacteria" to where I need them, whenever I need them!

 

[BigFish01]

Yeah the tigers are in the 20 gal which is butted up to the side of my main tank and sits about 8" lower than the main tank. Figured 15 gallons of cold water in my 130 only makes the temp drop two deg. So ya. Way to think on my feet... Will see if i can manage to squeeze some in there. Good idea eagles! Thanks

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yeah, a two degree drop is barely anything... Just a cold front coming through or a bit of rain for river dwellers. For a marine tank though...

Which is just one of the many reasons I will never keep a marine tank. The displays are amazing, but I think a properly kept freshwater set-up rivals that and requires about half the maintenance, even if you are dosing ferts, etc.

 

[BigFish01]

Ok another tb has passed. I noticed him last night swimming under the rock arch and staying there so i kept an eye on him. This morning it was like he would swim fine then get dizy and roll backwards like a backflip but it looked like when the people on space ships do it. Does that make sense? Like a slow motion backflip. Then would swim off. So i netted him and hung it so he was qt'd and came back down a little bit ago and he was floating belly up in a pose like you would have a trophy bass mounted. Mouth and gills open and body curved. Colors completely normal. Any thoughts? The rest are acting normal.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10ppm

And i grabbed my flashlight and looked in his mouth there was nothing caught and gills were not red looking. If that helps

 

[BigFish01]

So since i was on las i have lost four more tigers. Very depressing. Just got my money back instead of getting more. Will see how it goes.