I Seem To Be Losing Fish Left And Right. :(

[toomie]

I lost a betta on Friday to what I believe to be a bacerial infection. I had him for about 3 months. Yesterday I lost another male betta who had only been in his new tank (cycled) for a week. He was very little and sickly looking when I got him, so I didn`t expect him to last, but that was 2 months ago, and he had been doing well up until right before I transferred him to his new tank. Was acting a bit weird a day or 2 before the move, but a few days after the move seemed to snap out of it. I never saw him eat, though in the new tank, then 2 days ago he started really looking ill, and yesterday he was dead.

Over the weekend I bought another male from W-Mart. He was lying at the bottom of the cup, swimming around every so often. I got him home, and while I was acclimating him to the new bowl, he started swimming and thrashing around wildly in his cup. I don`t know if I PH shocked him possibly? I dumped out some of his old water and poured in new right before this happened. He has been on the bottom of his new home ever since. He wriggles his back end very quickly, but can`t seem to get the back end to swim, he kind of scoots around on the bottom of the tank. I tried giving him a pea in case he was constipated, but he wouldn`t eat it. I haven`t offered him any pellets yet. I don`t know what else to do for him. He seems fine except for the fact that he can`t make his back end swim. Every so often he gets up enough power to swim to the top, but he does it very fast and bangs around the bowl in the process.

I let him see another betta for a minute or so, and he flared at her and swam around almost normally, but after a short time he couldn`t keep his back end up and sank to the bottom again. I`m really thinking it`s SBD, but if he won`t eat a pea, what else can I do?

 

[WILDER]

What your tank ph to the lfs ph.
How long do you climatise for.
Always check bag water in ph and temp. So you know how long to climatise the fish for.
Have you been doing water changes before you add the new fish.

Can you reply in more detail the symtoms the fish were showing before they died.

Some info on ph shock.

pH Shock

As its name suggests this condition occurs when a fish is introduced to quickly into a new environment which has a very different pH from the one it came from, when the pH is adjusted to quickly and the fish have little or no time to adjust themselves, or when the pH is to far outside the fishes normal range.

It is very important that any change in water chemistry is made slowly and fish should never be exposed to changes of pH greater than 0.5 of one unit on the pH scale in either direction.

Avoidance is by far the best solution because in most cases the symptoms don't appear until the second or third day by which time the damage has been done and the fish will probably die.

A fish suffering from this condition will show all the typical signs of shock -

Lying on the bottom and paying little or no attention to its surroundings and ignoring potential threats.
It may even lay on its side or go upside down completely.
There could be other signs to, related to Acidosis and Alkalosis
Excessive mucus production.
Rapid breathing.
Swollen abdomen. (Alkalosis only).
If the condition is allowed to go on for one or two days then the chances of a successful remedy are greatly reduced because a lot of damage will have taken place. If the symptoms are spotted early enough there are a couple of things that will help.

Begin to return the pH to the original pH in steps of 0.4 of one unit on the pH scale and allow 3 hrs in between the adjustments. Make these adjustments until the pH is returned to a safe and satisfactory level.
Treat the tank with a broad spectrum anti-Bacteria/Fungus compound to prevent secondary infections of the Skin and Gills.
Prevention is easy. A successful treatment isn't!
PH SHOCK LINK
http/groups.msn.com/FishHealth/phshock.msnw