Why Does This Always Happen To Me?

[thisguyek]

For the length of my fish keeping career... I have never really enjoyed the benefits of a happy, successful tank. It seems that everything would be going good for a few months then deaths. things would stabilize, i would build a new stock, and things would be fine again for another few months. same thing. I've gone through countless cycles of this frustrating process.

I do regular weekly water changes, I test the water weekly (unless i've just added fish), I make sure the tank is clean including the gravel.

So what is going on with my tank? what am i doing wrong?

latest example is I've had a group of guppies and platies for around 4 months or so, give or take. everyone was doing great, no problems what so ever. About two weeks ago I added a group of 9 tiger barbs. From what I observed, the barbs kept the chasing and nipping to themselves, with the exception of maybe a few curious nibbles to the tank mates. My barbs are all still alive, looking great. bright colors and quite active. But in these two weeks i've lost 7 of my original stock. They will be fine one day, get rather 'quiet' and hide the next day, then the day after dead.

looking for answers... but i have a feeling ill be looking for quite some time

 

[Proxo]

I'm not a big fan of tiger barbs myself, i had a group of them in with my
green terrors when younger and they did nothing but pester them lol.

Maybe the fish you're trying to keep just aint for you? i've seen a few people on here have similair problems and ended up switching stock completely and everything has worked out fine - maybe something to think about if you've always had such bad luck with the fish you've been trying.

55gal is a nice sized tank with plenty of options, somebody should/might pop by with a better answer.

 

[Harlequins]

Tiger barbs are aggressive,hence the name...

Whats your weekly stats for ammonia/nitrite & nitrate like?

 

[primagen]

guppies are not compatible with tiger barbs, as the barbs like to nip their long fins. about the general problem you've been having, how often do you do filter maintenance? how do you wash the filter. you could be doing it improperly, killing off the good bacteria and putting the tank into a mini cycle.

 

[micko]

Tiger barbs and guppies would not be a good mix IMO.
Adding 9 fish straight into a tank which has had a smaller number of fish in could also cause a mini cycle.

 

[thisguyek]

weekly stats have been 0, 0, around 20. steadily. Ph has held at 8.2 consistently. I usually test every other day when adding new fish. There has never been an alarming reading. None of my numbers have ever indicated a mini cycle that i'm aware of.

filter maintenance is (type of filter that hangs on back, (2) 40-60 gallon filters): change carbon filter once a month, every so often like 2-3 months ill rinse out the bio filter. other than that i dont do anything with it?

I know tiger barbs have a terrible rep, but i have heard from just as many people who say that, that if numbers are kept large enough, there will be little to no problems.


I've been pushed towards cichlids by a few people... but not quite sure. have always been fond of tropical communities. what do those of you out there think?

 

[KISSfn]

My Tiger Barbs have never bothered any of their tankmates. They only chase each other.

 

[coldcazzie]

when you say rinse, do you mean rinse under the tap or rinse in old tank water?

When you sat your original stock, do you mean your guppies and platties or your tiger barbs? Guppies don't live very long if I recall rightly, so it may be that they reached the end of their lives... if its the tiger barbs, if could be that they had something before you got them... I'm assuming you didn't quarantine them?

 

[thisguyek]

I've got a siphon that hooks to the faucet. once it gets going i shut the tap off and just let it run. I'll just rinse it under whatever is coming out... so i rinse it in fish water.


original stock as in the guppies and platies.

 

[Tizer]

Generally speaking Tiger barbs should only really be kept with other agressive species. Just because they are not chasing other fish doesnt mean your other fish are not being stressed out by them. For example, i tried my Tiger Barbs very briefly in my main tank for a week, this resulted in all 5 of my Bleeding Heart Tetras breaking out in white spot and going belly up within a few days. I also noticed this with the Black neons and a couple of normal Neons. In the end i decided to put them back into the 90 litre and the neons recovered. In my option they should not be sold to just any member of the general public without the supplier knowing information about buyers other fish. I found out the hard way that tetras are a bad tank mate and your guppies and platies are just as shy a species as the BHTs.

 

[Athena]

My thoughts on this are that if your water stats have always been spot on with no ammonia/nitrite spikes, and if you are regular with your water changes etc, then the problems must lie in the stock choices and tank environment.

To begin with, if you want fish with longevity, I wouldn't recommend guppies. They don't seem to last very long these days.

Also, as others have already pointed out, they are not compatible with your tiger barbs. Fish can suffer a lot of stress due to being housed with the wrong type of tankmates - and that stress will decrease their lifespan (either they will suffer disease or they may just die suddenly with no outward signs of illness).

The odd bit of fin nipping may not appear to be a major issue, but to the fish who's had a chunk taken out of it's tail, it can be enough to cause it an early demise (due to the shock/stress)! Some fish are hardier than others and can withstand a bit of bullying or give as good as they get, but unfortunately guppies are not in that class.

Also, when adding new fish, this should be done at just a few at a time to avoid causing any ammonia spikes (9 extra fish suddenly producing waste could put a strain on your filter bacteria until they have multiplied to cope with the extra load). Good thing you were doing extra water tests at that time to keep an eye on things but if it were me I'd have eased the barbs into the community gently. Imagine your peaceful little guppies suddenly coming face to face with a small army of tiger barbs..."Eek! Quick guys, swim, swim, swim!!" lol (and you know that a guppy with all that flowing finnage can't outswim a tiger barb)

There are always valid reasons why someone has recurrent problems in their aquarium and it's great that you've sought help and advice from others on here. It's now up to you to decide which way you want to go with this...

There's nothing stopping you from having a happy, healthy aquarium, providing you make the right choices. It might just mean making a few adjustments in order to reach that goal.

Good luck - Athena

 

[thisguyek]

thanks athena! so many great points to take in (all of which make sense when thought about)

few questions then... What would be the advise on tank mates then? faster swimmers (like danios) or something like a semi aggressive cichlid? (I know nothing about them... but ive had people suggest them to me in the past) I think my problem has been just that... I like so many different species of fish, I cant really decide on which direction to go in.. so I guess i give it a go with everybody and hope for the best... which isnt fair to them.

I'm quite fond of platies, guppies, and neons... (i know neons are weak, generally and i know now that guppies dont live long) but how many of either one of these could i fit in a 10 gal? Should i follow the 1" per gallon rule seeing as how its a small space and is easier polluted?


I'm just looking for people to start throwing ideas up! maybe i should start another stocking idea thread? lol

thanks for the help all!

 

[This Old Spouse]

weekly stats have been 0, 0, around 20. steadily. Ph has held at 8.2 consistently. I usually test every other day when adding new fish. There has never been an alarming reading. None of my numbers have ever indicated a mini cycle that i'm aware of.

filter maintenance is (type of filter that hangs on back, (2) 40-60 gallon filters): change carbon filter once a month, every so often like 2-3 months ill rinse out the bio filter. other than that i dont do anything with it?

I know tiger barbs have a terrible rep, but i have heard from just as many people who say that, that if numbers are kept large enough, there will be little to no problems.


I've been pushed towards cichlids by a few people... but not quite sure. have always been fond of tropical communities. what do those of you out there think?

The main problem I see here is that you're changing out your carbon filters once a month. Firstly, you shouldn't be using a carbon filter unless you're trying to clean up after using medications. You've got two HOB filters, so if you need to change out the floss filter (which shouldn't need replacing until it's literally falling apart) you should alternate doing so between the filters so you don't have all new media for both filters. Secondly, what do you mean by "bio filter"? And thirdly, adding that many fish at once can create a mini-cycle in less than a 24-hour period so you might not catch it.

 

[Louiseness]

I'm quite fond of platies, guppies, and neons... (i know neons are weak, generally and i know now that guppies dont live long) but how many of either one of these could i fit in a 10 gal? Should i follow the 1" per gallon rule seeing as how its a small space and is easier polluted?

EDITED - ugh, sorry, I apparently don't read people's sigs properly! Thought you had all those barbs ina 10gal

 

[thisguyek]

The main problem I see here is that you're changing out your carbon filters once a month. Firstly, you shouldn't be using a carbon filter unless you're trying to clean up after using medications. You've got two HOB filters, so if you need to change out the floss filter (which shouldn't need replacing until it's literally falling apart) you should alternate doing so between the filters so you don't have all new media for both filters. Secondly, what do you mean by "bio filter"? And thirdly, adding that many fish at once can create a mini-cycle in less than a 24-hour period so you might not catch it.

1st: Im not sure if all HOB filters are done the same way... but mine contains a dense fiber filter, which contains carbon. basically a pouch of carbon that catches the large debris. it also contains a 'bio filter'. should i just cut the carbon out and leave the fiber? doesnt the carbon help out with toxins?

2nd: 'bio filter' <-> 'floss filter' ...maybe..? where most of the beneficial bacteria is 'supposed' to be. what do you mean by floss filter? lol

3rd: should the number of fish added at one time always be around 5 or so? or can you add more as your stock increases, so long as it doesnt 'tip the scales'? I know most people say you can add 50% of your stock at once. looking at it, 9 probably was a bit much. but they (the barbs) are fine from what i see. the others are not So should i be testing for ammonia every couple hours or so?

If the tank goes into a mini cycle, how long does it take to bounce back? you said less than 24 hrs... is that always the case? So my fish getting sick and dying might possibly be from a rise in ammonia? could they last for a few days before showing signs? please elaborate!