New Tank... Young Fish

[Bamnation29]

So I recently started a 10 gallon tank. I had a pleco, 3 male guppies, 2 baby tiger barbs and then added an albino and regular tiger barb ( both babies). I'm down to 1 guppy, 1 tiger barb and the place. They showed signs of ick but I treated by raising the temp and using so meds. What's the deal?

 

[Juggler75]

Did you cycle the filter? If not then they may have been poisoned. Check the beginners section in the new tank section for more info.

 

[Fishy friend2]

If it wasn't cycled, they may have died from ammonia poisoning. Or if the Pleco was a decent size, then he might have produced to much ammonia for the filter to handle

 

[Gilli]

As already advised if the tank was not fully cycled theres your problem. What are your water stats? Even if it was fully cycled because you added a pleco he may have overloaded the bio load as they are excessive (and I mean excessive) poop producers which may have caused an ammonia spike. Dont add any more fish until you get rid of the ick problem and you know that your water stats are spot on.

Your tiger barb will probably tear the guppies tails to shreds as they are very nippy. Also you will be needing at least x 6 of them, and even then they will probably go for the guppies.

 

[the_lock_man]

Just to flesh out what the other two people have said - cycling is the process of growing bacteria in the filter which process the ammonia produced by your fish (which is highly toxic), via nitrite (also highly toxic), into nitrate (not highly toxic). This process takes a number of weeks.

What did you do to get those bacteria established?