Mystery Death To New Fish

[aminsha]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum so hello.

I am running a fluval 190 litre tank and it is stocked with a wide range of community fish including 4 glass cats, 6 pearl gourami's, variety of neon and black tetra, 3 gold barbs, 2 algae eaters, red tailed black shark amongst a few others. Some plants in the tank as well.

We have recently purchased 2 Otocinclus and one Red Flash Barb Denis form a local retailer. After 24 hours all three were found dead in the tank. Conducted a tank test to find ammonia reading 0, ph 6.8 and No2 was at 0 with NO3 at 50mg/l which all seemed fine and the fish shop exchanged them for new fish as they said the tank water was fine after conducting their own test.

Got home tonight put the bag with the new fish in in the tank sealed and turned off the light for about 20 minutes to let the water temperature adjust and then slowly released the replaced fish into the tank. After about an hour turned on the light to find the Red Flash Barb at the bottom of the tank on its back. All other fish in the tank seem fine and have no problems with, fish have not been fed since introduction of new fish.

Can somebody explain why we have lost 2 Red Flash Barb Denis in less than 36 hours in our tank and the shop has had no problems with them or any ideas on why this has happened along with loosing the Otocinclus? Oh journey time is only 20 minutes from the shop to home and fish went straight into the tank in the bag on arrival home.

Cheers

 

[Fishy friend2]

Was your tank cycled

 

[onidrase]

oto's tend to be fragile and should be kept in groups of 6 or more. they could have died from stress of being separated from a group and introduced to a new tank.

You might want to do a decent water change, to get the nitrate down to about 20 ppm as well.

I'm not sure, otherwise.

 

[onidrase]

I am running a fluval 190 litre tank and it is stocked with a wide range of community fish including 4 glass cats, 6 pearl gourami's, variety of neon and black tetra, 3 gold barbs, 2 algae eaters, red tailed black shark amongst a few others.

If I'm reading this correctly, your stock is as following

4 glass catfish
6 pearl gourami
neon and black tetras
3 gold barbs
2 algae eaters
red tailed black shark
A few others?

Glass catfish are finicky, being wild and very easily stressed, and are prone to dying mysteriously or not eating if kept in small groups, I'd aim to double the number of them

Don't know much about pearl gouramis, but I can't honestly say I've seen a tank with more than 3 gouramis present

how many neons and black tetras do you have?

Barbs are schooling fish, try to bring their number up to 6

What kind of algae eaters are they? There are tons of different types, oto's, pleco's, sucking loaches, can I get some evaluation? Some algae eaters can be aggressive and territorial, and may suck the slime coat off other fish as they mature

Red Tailed Black Sharks can be territorial, I actually might go as far as to say that it might be pestering your new fishes to death. Keep an eye on it when you introduce new fish.

What are the "few others"? It's important to know stocking as well, as some fish just aren't compatible with each other.

Ultimately, on a side note, I'd try and up the number on your current schooling fish rather than introducing new species

oto's and red flash barbs should be kept in groups of 6 or more as well, I wouldn't say the lack of numbers you tried introducing was the pure cause, but it could have definitely effected them in some way. honestly, I can't say if your tank has enough room for a full school of either species, regardless.

 

[aminsha]

Was your tank cycled

Yes

 

[aminsha]

I am running a fluval 190 litre tank and it is stocked with a wide range of community fish including 4 glass cats, 6 pearl gourami's, variety of neon and black tetra, 3 gold barbs, 2 algae eaters, red tailed black shark amongst a few others.

If I'm reading this correctly, your stock is as following

4 glass catfish
6 pearl gourami
neon and black tetras
3 gold barbs
2 algae eaters
red tailed black shark
A few others?

Glass catfish are finicky, being wild and very easily stressed, and are prone to dying mysteriously or not eating if kept in small groups, I'd aim to double the number of them

Don't know much about pearl gouramis, but I can't honestly say I've seen a tank with more than 3 gouramis present

how many neons and black tetras do you have?

Barbs are schooling fish, try to bring their number up to 6

What kind of algae eaters are they? There are tons of different types, oto's, pleco's, sucking loaches, can I get some evaluation? Some algae eaters can be aggressive and territorial, and may suck the slime coat off other fish as they mature

Red Tailed Black Sharks can be territorial, I actually might go as far as to say that it might be pestering your new fishes to death. Keep an eye on it when you introduce new fish.

What are the "few others"? It's important to know stocking as well, as some fish just aren't compatible with each other.

Ultimately, on a side note, I'd try and up the number on your current schooling fish rather than introducing new species

oto's and red flash barbs should be kept in groups of 6 or more as well, I wouldn't say the lack of numbers you tried introducing was the pure cause, but it could have definitely effected them in some way. honestly, I can't say if your tank has enough room for a full school of either species, regardless.

Yes this stock is all well established, some of it is over 3 years old so the tank is well set up. We got a lot of fish when a local Fish shop closed down which was great and now find some of the same species we got when that shop closed down. Everything in the tank is doing fine except for these new fish in the last two days...

 

[Col1957]

HI, you could try acclimatize your new fish by slowly adding a small amount of your tank water every 10 / 15 mins to the bag with your new fish over a Period of an hour while fish bag is in the tank, that way the fish will slowly become acclimatized to your water and will give them less stress.Or better still use the drip method, length of airline with a regulator valve at one end and syphon water from your tank then set it to 1 drip per second. Put the new fish and water into a clean tub then hang the other end of the air tube in the tub then let it drip your tank water in for about 1 hour

 

[snazy]

Got home tonight put the bag with the new fish in in the tank sealed and turned off the light for about 20 minutes to let the water temperature adjust and then slowly released the replaced fish into the tank.

You probably do need to acclimate them better than that. Did you start pouring water from the tank into the bag every 5-10 minutes until the all the water in the bag is replaced with the one from the tank, or did you just put them in after the 20 min in the bag?
I normally test at least the Ph of the water in the bag.