Tiger Barbs Are Not Doing Well... What Could It Be?

LineDropper

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Ok, I'm in week 4 with a 30 gal tank.

I've kept up a good amount of water changes. Ph is 7.4. Ammonia is 1.0. Nitrites barely registering... I'll call it .10.

I put 6 tiger barbs in after the 1st week.

2 have died for no apparent reason. The fish are eating well. They are active as I assume tiger barbs should be. I see no signs of any kind of external disease or stress.

Someone already mentioned checking my water hardness which I don't have a test kit for yet.

The only thing I can think of is maybe something is in my tap water??? Or, these are PetSmart fish and I was there today and noticed *A LOT* of dead fish including a tiger barb.

Any ideas? Thanks.
 
You haven't cycled your tanks. A proper tank will have NO ammonia or nitrite. Not a trace. They're dying of ammonia/nitrite. You need to take this back to the shop and do a proper cycle.

Fishless Cycling
 
also try and find a better pet store than petsmart near you.
 
I didn't know about this forum until after I got some tanks going... When you buy a Top Fin starter set, the included instructions say to add 1/3 of your fish after a few days then another 1/3 in like a week, then another 1/3 the next week. This is not cool.

After I read about fishless cycling on this site -- I went to a local tropical fish store and asked if they carried ammonia. They asked "why would we carry that?". I told them I wanted to do a fishless cycle and they just said (and this was more than one person) "no... you just need some starter bacteria". Oh well. You live and learn.

I have yet another newbie like question. Around 7pm tonight, my daughter and I were checking out one of my tanks and we noticed a tiger bard struggling.... just about to die. I didn't want to take the fish out in front of my daughter so I waited like 4 hours. Now I can't find the fish. Is it possible for 4 barbs to totally eat a fellow barb in 4 hours???
 
Yeah those "top fin" instructions are junk. My mom did the same thing and I had to rescue her tank... 2x water changes a day to keep the ammonia/nitrite levels below .25 ppm . This is why we recommend fishless cycling ...it's a lot less work, and much less dangerous for the fish. Unfortunately just because someone works at a pet store doesn't mean they are fish experts or know everything. Some of them really do care, and some of them could really care less about anything but that wimpy paycheck they get. Most chain stores just aren't interested in paying enough money to keep knowledgeable people on staff.
 

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