EnjiBenji
New Member
Hi all, have recently rescaped my 15 gallon tank. The filter is fully cycled and it has been for almost a year. Recently though I decided on a change of scape and fish. So I did a little research and started planting my tank. Once I had done this I knew that I definitely wanted a school of Harlequin Rasboras. So I went down to my Maidenhead Aquatics (nr Teignmouth, Devon) and purchased from them 12 Harlequin Rasboras.
For the fist day all seemed to be going well.
However, at the start of the second day one of the fish had separated from the school and seemed to have his mouth open at all time, and even looked as if he had swim bladder trouble as he was doing spins and somersaults around the tank. An hour later he was dead. During the next three days the rest of the school suffered the same fate and they all but one died off. After the first few deaths I checked my water and the results were Ammonia: 0ppm - Nitrite: 0ppm - Nitrate: 20ppm - pH: 7.
After I did these tests I phoned up Maidenhead and told them about this and told them my water stats and the guy proceeded to tell me that the pH was far too high and then tried to sell me several products to lower the pH, at which point I hung up.
I was in my alternative LFS a few days after and was talking to the manager there who I'm quite friendly with and he said that Harlequin Rasboras should be perfectly fine in a pH of 7, he admitted it wasn't in their recommended range but said they should adapt perfectly well, and together we came to the conclusion that Maidenhead simply had a 'dodgy' batch in. So I decided to try these guy's Harlequins and bought 4 just to be safe. For about two days these Harlequins were smashing, they were really colourful and looked extremely happy and were even schooling with the last remaining Maidenhead Harlequin. I also did a water change before adding these guys to try and keep the water conditions good. At this point I also added some Melafix to see if this might help prevent the new ones suffering the same fate.
But once again, one was separated from the school, had his mouth always open, swam erratically about the tank for a while and then died. Two of the new ones have suffered this fate. I have removed and briefly studied the body of the last death and it's mouth is still open and he seems to be slightly bowed in shape.
After buying 16 Harlequins they have all but 3 died off in the last two weeks. Obviously, this is a problem and I was wondering if any of you had any experience of this happening to you or whether you had heard anything about it. Any advice on treatments or precautions would be appreciated on how to tackle this problem. I do not want to purchase any more fish before I know that this problem has been eradicated from my tank.
Thanks
For the fist day all seemed to be going well.
However, at the start of the second day one of the fish had separated from the school and seemed to have his mouth open at all time, and even looked as if he had swim bladder trouble as he was doing spins and somersaults around the tank. An hour later he was dead. During the next three days the rest of the school suffered the same fate and they all but one died off. After the first few deaths I checked my water and the results were Ammonia: 0ppm - Nitrite: 0ppm - Nitrate: 20ppm - pH: 7.
After I did these tests I phoned up Maidenhead and told them about this and told them my water stats and the guy proceeded to tell me that the pH was far too high and then tried to sell me several products to lower the pH, at which point I hung up.
I was in my alternative LFS a few days after and was talking to the manager there who I'm quite friendly with and he said that Harlequin Rasboras should be perfectly fine in a pH of 7, he admitted it wasn't in their recommended range but said they should adapt perfectly well, and together we came to the conclusion that Maidenhead simply had a 'dodgy' batch in. So I decided to try these guy's Harlequins and bought 4 just to be safe. For about two days these Harlequins were smashing, they were really colourful and looked extremely happy and were even schooling with the last remaining Maidenhead Harlequin. I also did a water change before adding these guys to try and keep the water conditions good. At this point I also added some Melafix to see if this might help prevent the new ones suffering the same fate.
But once again, one was separated from the school, had his mouth always open, swam erratically about the tank for a while and then died. Two of the new ones have suffered this fate. I have removed and briefly studied the body of the last death and it's mouth is still open and he seems to be slightly bowed in shape.
After buying 16 Harlequins they have all but 3 died off in the last two weeks. Obviously, this is a problem and I was wondering if any of you had any experience of this happening to you or whether you had heard anything about it. Any advice on treatments or precautions would be appreciated on how to tackle this problem. I do not want to purchase any more fish before I know that this problem has been eradicated from my tank.
Thanks
