What Went Wrong?

kevinthecow · Nov 26, 2008

Well, yeah. I made a mistake. I froze up at the pet store deciding which fish to buy.

It was either

- two black skirt tetras. (One gold, one blue.) (10$, freaken ripoff. 5 ea.)
- Some kind of tetra, i didn't want to get neons/blacks since I'm going to take care of my friends when hes on vacation. (Neons = 2$ ea. I'd get 8 for 10$. Blacks are 3$ ea. Same with Glow lights)

- one adf, one skirt tetra.

I wanted to get this koi swordtail, but it turned out to be a platy. ): It said female, so whoops.

Ah, yes I froze up deciding which fish to buy, so I told my little sister to decide.

First she wanted a severum, then 4 frogs, then 4 shrimps and finally 3 rummynose tetras.

10$ for 3. Huge ripoff, but yeah I bought them. (No near LFS/LPS that sell good. except for one that shut down.)

So, I put them into my main tank. (stupid mistake, no other quarantine though.) It wasn't overpopulated, but in a year it would be.

Every fish was at least only 2", so I didn't mind. (I was giving back the bala anyways.) This was all yesterday.

Now, today, I wake up seeing two Rummy's dead. One was still swimming around trying to catch up with the rest of the fish.

My water parameters are fine, my temp is like, 73 or something Fh. I think that's a lie though. (Where are you even suppose to put that sticket thing anyways? Sometimes when I feel the tank's sides its around 80 fh but is read as 72 fh.

All my fishes are written in my profile.

So, all I'm asking is : Why did they die? I was afraid of putting them into the 10g tank with my crayfish.

(One was found dead on the gravel, the other was stuck in a filter so I thought the current was too strong.)

rocknurworld2006 · Nov 26, 2008

wat are ur parmaeters exactly?

fish should be strong enought to swim against the current of a filter

kevinthecow · Nov 26, 2008

Rest of my fish are very happy, like taht kind of happy you never see them do.

(Loaches are hella active when i come near. They run up, and so does my frogs.

)

rocknurworld2006 · Nov 26, 2008

so wat are ur paramters?

WILDER · Nov 27, 2008

Size of tank in gallons or litries.
How many fish and which type.
water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

What was the ph of the store to your tank.
How long did you climatise the new fish for.
rummy noses are very funny with ph changes and water quality.

Its also wise to check ph of the water in the bag.

pH Shock

As its name suggests this condition occurs when a fish is introduced to quickly into a new environment which has a very different pH from the one it came from, when the pH is adjusted to quickly and the fish have little or no time to adjust themselves, or when the pH is to far outside the fishes normal range.

It is very important that any change in water chemistry is made slowly and fish should never be exposed to changes of pH greater than 0.5 of one unit on the pH scale in either direction.

Avoidance is by far the best solution because in most cases the symptoms don't appear until the second or third day by which time the damage has been done and the fish will probably die.

A fish suffering from this condition will show all the typical signs of shock -

Lying on the bottom and paying little or no attention to its surroundings and ignoring potential threats.
It may even lay on its side or go upside down completely.
There could be other signs to, related to Acidosis and Alkalosis
Excessive mucus production.
Rapid breathing.
Swollen abdomen. (Alkalosis only).
If the condition is allowed to go on for one or two days then the chances of a successful remedy are greatly reduced because a lot of damage will have taken place. If the symptoms are spotted early enough there are a couple of things that will help.

Begin to return the pH to the original pH in steps of 0.4 of one unit on the pH scale and allow 3 hrs in between the adjustments. Make these adjustments until the pH is returned to a safe and satisfactory level.
Treat the tank with a broad spectrum anti-Bacteria/Fungus compound to prevent secondary infections of the Skin and Gills.
Prevention is easy. A successful treatment isn't!

saz326 · Nov 27, 2008

Im sorry about the loss. Just hope none of your other fishies get affected.

Question

kevinthecow said:
- two black skirt tetras. (One gold, one blue.)

(One was found dead on the gravel, the other was stuck in a filter so I thought the current was too strong.)

I have never seen gold or blue black skirt tetras. Only thing I can think is these are dyed white skirt tetras. Black skirts should have a BLACK skirt..... there is a white skirt variety.

Sometimes white skirt tetras are dipped in dyes that colour their skirts. I mention this only because I know that shops local to me that sell these dyed fish dont tend to have very good housekeeping. So all the fish are a bit sick. Its always best to buy the healthies you can. maybe wise to avoid this store in the future.