Fish Dying

derekg0

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Hey guys/gals,
I'm new here, and I'm hoping my problem has subsided, but just curious as what might've been causing this. Let me describe my tank first, i've got a 55 gal tank, it's freshwater, with a gravel substrate and fake plants for decoration/hiding spots.

my fish:
2 bala sharks
7 tiger barbs
3 zebra danios
3 rosey barbs

So everything was going well, and I found a couple more fish that I wanted, I picked up 6 green tiger barbs and my girlfriend wanted a couple mollies, so we bring these fish home, and float them for 20 minutes or so, and then I let them out and they all seem happy, swimming around with their own species. 2 days, everything is good.

A couple days later, i notice that one of the green tiger barbs is missing when i get home from work, and i end up finding it's corpse, which is not much more then a little meat left on a skeleton at this point. So i pull it out, and just hope that it wasn't diseased and spreading that disease to whoever ate it(I don't know if thats how it would work, but it seems logical to me).

Then the next day, i see one of my regular tiger barbs getting picked on, they have always tended to just kinda hover in the water with their head at a downward angle, but if any other fish went near them they'd zip around out of they way, and this guy was just getting picked at bite by bite... so I continued to watch hoping he'd snap out of it, but no luck, he began swimming around sideways and I had to take him out before they finished him off...

over the next few days, this continued with one more regular tiger barb, and 2 more green tiger barbs, and one of the bala sharks died too. There wasn't any discoloration or marks on the fish, no change in the water, all the readings were still good.

But it's been like 4-5 days since I've had another death, so i'm hoping it's over now, didn't know if anyone might have any ideas, or at least something I can look for if anymore happen to die. :/

Thanks for the help,
Derek
 
What are your test result in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph, as headstanding can mean a number of things, from toxins, and swim bladder disorder.
 
I'll check them when i get home so I can post accurate numbers, but when they started dying they were 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate, and < 8 nitrite, I do about 10-20 gallons water change a week.
 
Explains it then you have a nitrite reading, how long has the tank been set up, i would perform a water change to get that reading down.
 
tank's been up for abou 5-6 months, might've been nitrate, i get the two mixed up all the time... only 1 letter difference, it kills me... but anyways, i'll do the battery of tests tonight, and write back in here tomorrow.
 
What is the make of the test kit might be able to tell that way.
 
it's Red Sea's multi test. nitrite is 0, there isn't a nitrate test included, I don't know why I thoght there was. But last night when I tested the ammonia was < .25ppm, don't know why thats showing up, so I did a 15 gal water change last night. All the tiger barbs that i've ever seen, at a couple pet stores have chilled out with their heads at a downward angle, I can take a picture sometime maybe, they aren't completely on their heads, but maybe they are all sick? idunno. any ideas, or suggestions?

oh, and i didn't get a chance to do the ph test, I'll do that tonight.

thanks again,
Derek

link to the test i'm using:red sea multi test
 
Just carry on with the water changes till the ammonia reading is back to 0, good luck.
 
Hi,
I'm relatively new to this forum, but know my Tigers quite well! I find that they often spend their 'chill' time hanging and pointing down. This would seem to be natural (God knows I've spent enough time looking up their behaviour on the internet as well as observing them!)
With males, the vertical down (and I mean straight down) posture can be a 'display' for the females, basically indicating that they're in randy mode! Of course this can sometimes lead to a war breaking out amongst them. I have seen males fighting quite visciously with each other, not just the normal chasing and 'nipping', but more like a face to face fight akin to 'kissing' Gouramies. After some time these fights end and, I suppose, a new pecking order is established, but the combatants can be pretty tired and seem to adopt their 'chill-out' pose whilst they recover (or perhaps it's a submissive posture...?) I have wondered if these encounters could go too far and end with fatalities. I can imagine that some Tigers become so exhausted by these bouts that they die (although I have never experienced this myself...)
Also, they can be greedy little buggers. They'll gobble as much food as you can feed them, they then float around doing a good impression of a beach-ball (you can almost hear them burping and saying "OMG I'm soooo stuffed...) :sick: Bear in mind that they can get quite aggresive over food and can either swallow too much air whilst racing for the food, or dominant fish can effectively starve the others, if fed over a small area of the tank.
Tiger Barbs do require relatively high O2 levels (so I'm told, and I'm enclined to agree.) Do you have an airstone/pump or at least a powerhead disturbing the water surface? Your water chemistry seems OK, but remember that Tigers prefer softer, slightly acidic water with a decent curret and are highly susceptible to high nitrIte levels.
I hope this may have been some help to you. If there is anything I can do to help then please ask.
Regards,
DB.
P.S. Remeber that Greens have basically the same behaviour as Tigers!
 
Hey Doc,
Thanks for that info, I have seen much of the same behaviour, the fighting mouth to mouth is interesting to watch, and I have noticed that their feeding behavior can leave some of the smaller guys hungry, I've tried to spread out the feeding area so everyone can get some. I do have bubbles coming from my "shipwreck" and my filter adds a pretty strong current on one side of my tank, to the point where when fish swim through the current they have to swim upward to avoid being pushed down. Pretty funny to watch actually, they go from swimming across to a 45 degree up angle and back after they get through it.

I think the tiger barbs are actually my favorite, and once everything in my tank calms down and everyone is healthy I think I'll be picking up another 5-10 of these guys because they are so fun to watch. Their interactions with one another are very interesting, and the vertical behaviour is very cool too, i've seen that as well.

Thanks for the post!

Derek
 
Hi Derek,
Nice to meet another Tiger fan. I manged to 'persuade' my wife that she needed her own tank (note the biOrb in my sig :*) ) just so that I can have more of the little devils in my tank. I absolutely love these guys, OK they're not the fanciest fish in the world, they're not a massive challenge to keep and are much maligned by many aquarists but they have bags of personality and are not in the least bit boring to watch.
Good luck with yours, and keep us updated as to how you're getting on!

All the best,
DB
 
Hey guys,

I the past couple of days two of my tigers died. They seemed very thin and we're being constantly being harassed by their much larger and healther counter parts. Barbs really are crazy fish. I just hope thats the last of the fatalities
 
Hi Dodge,

Yeah they can be real sods sometimes -_- Were the ones that died new additions to the group, or were they just 'runts'? Having kept Tigers in the past as well as now, I find that if you're adding newbies they seem to do better if added in threes or fours as it can help divide the agression of an existing 'pack'

Oh BTW, I know it can very difficult to sex Barbs (especially youngsters) but bear in mind if you add a couple of females to a predominantly male group they will get seriously harassed by sex starved fish :hey:

Anyhoo, good luck!

DB
 
Hi Dodge,

Yeah they can be real sods sometimes -_- Were the ones that died new additions to the group, or were they just 'runts'? Having kept Tigers in the past as well as now, I find that if you're adding newbies they seem to do better if added in threes or fours as it can help divide the agression of an existing 'pack'

DB

Hey,

I brought them all at the same time, the others just grew alot quicker. Suvival of the fitest i suppose.
 

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