Rasboras Dying

[carmonium]

Harlequin Rasboras dying within 12 hours of symptom onset.
New tank, trying to cycle. I'm on about day five after adding my first fish.

Tank size: 10 gallons
pH: 8.0
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0
kH:
gH:
tank temp: 78

Fish Symptoms: The first fish that died was darting quickly in the bag that I brought him home in and continued darting in the tank until he died that first night . That was his only symptom as far as I could tell. After he died I bought three more small Harlequins (thinking that the first was due to stress since he'd been darting beginning in the bag on the way from the LFS) for the now empty tank. The second fish that died was gasping at the surface, swimming into the sides of the tank and losing color. Seemed to have a hard time swimming straight. I don't have an aerator but the powerfilter seems to create a fair amount of movement and the LFS said it would suffice for aeration. The other fish did not seem to have a hard time breathing either. Last night, I came home and the third fish was doing sommersaults and could not swim straight, also seemed to be breathing quickly. He died soon after that. Now I am left with on fish. He is sitting at the bottom of the tank. I can't see any symptoms so far except that he's not swimming around but staying stationary. He seems to be breathing quickly and twitchy but I'm not sure because I have nobody else to compare him to and I'm new at this. There were no visible symptoms on the body with any of the fish. Only one fish seemed to lose color.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 10 percent/day

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Using RO water w/ RO Right. Also added some dechlorinated tap water. Using Top Fin Dechloranator that works on Chlorine, Chloramine and Heavy Metals (none of the other things like aloe, etc.). Added the dechlorinated tap water to the R/O water to bring the temp up before adding to tank.

Tank inhabitants: Just the rasboras

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): I have Eco complete substrate and 4 live plants.. don't know their names.

Exposure to chemicals: When I originally started the tanks I was planning on cycling fishless. I used an ammonia that had surfactant in it. Once I found out how bad this was, I tossed almost everything including the tanks, substrate, plants, etc... The only things that I kept were the filter and heater. I took everything out of the filter and tossed it and cleaned the box with powerhose outside then plain hot water inside. I cleaned the heater in a likewise fashion. So I suppose they could have exposure to surfactant, but I don't think its likely since I got rid of almost everything exposed. After that disaster I decided to go the traditional route of cycling with fish.. now this disaster.

I have been testing the waters daily and I have not yet seen a rise in ammonia or nitrites.

Please help my little fishies. I don't want to ask the LFS since they seem clueless about almost everything related to their business and seeing these little guys suffer is breaking my heart.

Thanks,

Carmen

 

[DarkEntity]

How did you cycle the tank?

If you havent done it at all thats probably what killed the fish. (Read the sticky). Nitrates should never be zero which would suggest that it isnt cycled. Dont buy any fish until you have a fully cycled tank.

 

[carmonium]

How did you cycle the tank?

If you havent done it at all thats probably what killed the fish. (Read the sticky). Nitrates should never be zero which would suggest that it isnt cycled. Dont buy any fish until you have a fully cycled tank.

I'm confused. Its a new tank and I am trying to cycle the tank now. I'm five days into it and have not seen a spike in ammonia/nitrites yet. I haven't tested for nitrates because the tank hasn't even begun to cycle. I probably should have done a fishless cycle but as stated in my original post I was nervous after the ammonia disaster.

 

[DarkEntity]

What are you using to cycle the tank?

You need to add Ammonia to start it going. It wont do it with nothing added.

 

[carmonium]

What are you using to cycle the tank?

You need to add Ammonia to start it going. It wont do it with nothing added.

I'm using the fish to cycle. From what I have read, adding a small number (2-3 per 10 gallons) of hearty fish is one way to cycle the tank. The ammonia from their urination is what starts the cycle. In this type of cycle, you do not have to add anything else to the tank. Here is one of the things I read: www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php

 

[-germ-]

While it will eventually cycle with fish-in this is a risky practice that can poison your fish through ammonia or nitrite, resulting in death, health issues and a weakness in the future.
While it may slow your cycle down considerably, you should perform at least 50% water changes daily to reduce the risk of harm to your fish. While this may seem like alot of work, depending on your perspective, with each fish being a life that is under your responsibility, these water changes are obligatory.
I'd also reccomend purchasing some SeaChem Prime A.S.A.P which should reduce the risks to your fish.
Although realistically, the most responsible thing to do would be to return the fish and perform a fishless cycle using bottled ammonia.

 

[carmonium]

While it will eventually cycle with fish-in this is a risky practice that can poison your fish through ammonia or nitrite, resulting in death, health issues and a weakness in the future.
While it may slow your cycle down considerably, you should perform at least 50% water changes daily to reduce the risk of harm to your fish. While this may seem like alot of work, depending on your perspective, with each fish being a life that is under your responsibility, these water changes are obligatory.
I'd also reccomend purchasing some SeaChem Prime A.S.A.P which should reduce the risks to your fish.
Although realistically, the most responsible thing to do would be to return the fish and perform a fishless cycle using bottled ammonia.

I understand all of that and planned on doing larger water changes daily once the ammonia and nitrite levels started to climb. However, ammonia and nitrites have yet to register when doing tests. So, I find it impossible that the others died of ammonia or nitrite poisoining. Therefore, there must be something else wrong with the fish. At this point, I feel that it would be irresponsible to return the remaining fish because if he is infected with something, he could spread it to their tanks. I also agree that the fishless cycle is the kinder route to take, but at this point I have a fish that I don't feel I can return and do not wish to kill. I don't believe that the cycling is the problem since the water does not yet have toxic levels of ammonia/nitrite.

 

[-germ-]

What water tester are you using?

 

[carmonium]

What water tester are you using?

API: Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
Freshwater Master Test Kit
$30 at LFS