Need Advice Quickly

[confusion]

My struggles with keeping new swordtails alive has been well documented here. Normally the die pretty quick.

I had recently bought a black male and female swordtail and they are mostly doing well for over a week. The male had started to harrass the female over the past 2 days, so I decided to go get him some other companions yesterday. I bought 2 female marigold swordtails. I made sure the tank at the lfs was in good condition, no dead fish (at least while I was there), they were all mostly active, no clamped fins, spots, etc. So, I picked 2 of the better looking ones.

I brought them home, all the while they were anxiously trying to get out of the bag. I acclimated them for about 1 hour, adding a 1/4 cup of tank water to their bag every 15 minutes. I very carefully netted them out and into the tank.

Then, they proceeded to run to the bottom of the tank and hide, like all of the others I've had that ulimately died. The two that have not died did not do this. They were active and inquisitive right out of the bag.

Later yesterday evening, I did a feeding. Neither new fish had any interest at all in the food. All they did was hide behind some plants.

This morning, I turned the lights on and left them for a few minutes. When I came back to feed them, one of the new swordies was swimming around and the other was hiding under a rock/cave thing I have in the tank. I fed them, all the other fish ate as usual. The new swordie that was out took a few bites, but appears to have spit everything she ate back out. The other never come out of the hiding spot and did not eat.

The swordies have no physical signs of problems. They are brightly colored, no blemished, fins are standing at attention, they don't seem to be breathing hard or gulping, but they simply hide. It might seem like I'm overreacting since they're so new, but everytime a new fish has done this for me, it has died within 3 days.

I suspect that if I don't figure out what the heck is wrong with them, they will ultimately die within 2 or 3 days, like the others I have gotten. My wife has given my small tank the name of "little tank of horrors".

The tank is a 10G moderately planted tank. It has a bio-wheel 150 and a pretty good airstone in it. The temp is about 82F-84F (I can't get much lower, because of the temp of that particular room).

The ph is around 6.5 last time I check a few weeks ago. The tank is cycled. The ammonia is 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates are in the range of 10 to 40, depending on when I check (plants, water changes, etc)

The tank mates are as follows:

2 black mollies
1 adult male dwarf gourami
1 adolescent female dwarf gourami
2 black swordtails (1 male, 1 female)
2 marigold swordtails (both female) <- these are the fish in question
2 small otos

My intention is to move most of these fish over to my 55G community tank after I clear up the ich in it and I see that these newer fish have no diseases.

I'd really like to not lose these fish. If you have any ideas of what might be wrong, please let me know.

Thanks

 

[Miss Wiggle]

that's a toughie..... my first thought was they didn't like the water conditions and struggled because fo it, but your stats seem fine. when did you take those readings? maybe ask the lfs where you got them what ph they're being kept in, if it's significantly higher/lower than yours that could be what's doing them in.

have you been getting all the ones that died from the same shop? could be they're just not very healthy fish and don't like the move. maybe try another lfs next time.

are there any signs of illness in the tank in your existing fish? any odd behaviour etc?

 

[confusion]

One of the black swordies was periodically flashing and shaking its head. I believe it was due to some form of parasite. I treated the tank for it using the jungle anti-parasite tank buddy deal and he's much better this morning. The new fish were in the same tank, but their hiding behavior started well before I started the treatment, and it continues now. Now that the weekend is almost here and I'll be home, I'm going to try to do some frequent water changes and see if that helps any. I had done that with the others that eventually died, so I'm not too hopeful. I believe there is some underlying cause like ph shock.

All of these fish hae come from petsmart. I've stopped buying them from a store by me because of bad conditions and rampant sickness - their fish have nearly a 100% mortality rate for different reasons - fungus, ich, dropsy, popeye, etc. I gave up on them.

So, I started going one by work which is a good distance away. Their tanks are much better maintained and appear to have healthier fish. I'm sure the supplier is the same, though, so there may be something wrong with their upstream supplier, I suppose.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

that's all I can think of really, if there's a massive difference in your water conditions and the lfs's it could definately shock them. I doubt if it's a disease in your tank as your existing fish would be poorly too, and there's not many things that would affect them so quickly that they just came out of the bag and started acting strange. Quite often different local lfs's will have the same suplier so you could just be getting the same problems. You said the shop you got them from is a little way away. doubt if it's this but how long are they 'in transit' for between the lfs and home.... and how are you transporting them?

 

[confusion]

it's about a 40 minute drive from that store to my house. I keep the temp in my car at about 74, so the temp is probably not the cause. I did not think to check the ph of the water in the bag before I started mixing my tank water in. I will do that from now on to determine if there is a big difference.

Even so, I would have thought that the slow acclimation process would have helped to reduce the impact of any ph difference.

What ailments would cause these symptoms? The ones that I'm aware of are:

poor water quality - I don't think this is the case - I did a 50% water change shortly before introducing the new fish. The other fish are not distressed and seem pretty happy.

parasites - I don't see some of the common symptoms like heavy breathing, inflamed gills, etc, and I treated the tank for parasites anyhow.

ph shock?

temp shock?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i've heard with ph it actually takes them days to acclimitase to new conditions, so an hr's acclimitisation won't make bugger all diffeent. If you ring the lfs and they're half decent they'll be able to tell you what ph they keep they're water at so you can make arrangements in advance.

If it's a 40 min drive make sure there's loads of air in the bag, tell the lfs you have that far to go they should do it fine, also ask them for a polybox to take them home in, just stabilises the temparature a bit more, also keeps them in the dark which calms them down, and less chance of them beign thrown around or anything on the journey.

 

[BigIan]

most of the fish i have introduced to my tank will instantly run and hide, and then slowly come out and explore there new surroundings, its normal for them not to eat for a few days after they arriver to, some of my fish have gone in the tank and been all happy and play full straight awayt some havent its the way it go`s, but i would say don`t putr any more fish in the tanks as you have plenty in there as it is, if these swordies die, leave the tank and its in habitants for a while, (a month or so) and see how they do them move them on to your bigger tank, before getting any more