# Fish bought from Big Al's dead within 3 days



## dudebrah (Jul 6, 2009)

*New Fish dead within 3 days *

All,
Have 6 cardinal tetras for at least a month. bought 3 blood fin tetras and one red tail shark from big al's (scarborough) on thursday.

everything seemed fine - tested water yesterday (using the stick, which i know isn't ideal), which indicated that my water was fairly hard and somewhat alkaline.

checked them out an hour ago - all clear. looked again 20 minutes ago - one of the blood fin tetras is dead. the only erratic behaviour of the blood fins i can think of is when one ate a blood worm that was too big for itself and nearly choked - but it seemed to have shaken it out (two days ago). the other behaviour i recall is one of them shaking in an almost seizure like way but not for very long.

suffice it to say, i just did a 25% water change. wondering whether i should do a 75% change (as there's lots of particles that the water change brought up)

any advice??


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Are there any signs of aggression between the tetras and the shark?

How did you introduce the new fish into the tank?

Also, what is the size of the tank?

Did you also test for the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?


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## dudebrah (Jul 6, 2009)

thanks for your reply Hitch.

No signs of aggression between the shark and blood fin tetras - in fact the blood fin tetras seem to kind of bully the cardinal tetras but so far no signs of attacks/stress. it seems like the two remaining bloodfins might have become more aggressive after losing their third companion. would they be more docile in greater numbers?

i introduced the fish as i was instructed there - simply by letting the bags sit in the water for 20 minutes, then releasing them. what is the recommended approach otherwise?

as soon as i saw that the bloodfin tetra had died, i immediately removed it from the tank (much to the confusion and chagrine of the other bloodfins), tested the water (i only have the stick tests, but everything appeared normal on all fronts) then did a 25% water change using vacuum siphon.

thoughts?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

dudebrah said:


> would they be more docile in greater numbers?


It's best to keep tetras in schools to spread out the aggression. With only two tetras, one will end up picking on the other.



dudebrah said:


> i introduced the fish as i was instructed there - simply by letting the bags sit in the water for 20 minutes, then releasing them. what is the recommended approach otherwise?


Did you do a drip? When you introduced the new fish, did you net them out of the bags, or did you pour them in (along with the water from the store)?



dudebrah said:


> tested the water (i only have the stick tests, but everything appeared normal on all fronts)


What were your values?


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

when getting new fish, especially from a store. 

You really should put them in a quarantine tank for a couple of weeks before adding them into your main tank.

As for the acclimatization, put the fish into a bucket with their old water. Use a tube (those air lines for air pumps), get a siphon going so that there is water flowing from the tank into the bucket, tie the tube at the bucket end so that there are only drops instead of a steady stream (I usually do about 4 drops per second). Then just wait a couple of hours (I usually do between 3.5-5 hours for my plecos), this will allow for the new fish to slow adapt to the new tank conditions. Net the fish out and put them into the tank and dump the water in the bucket (you should avoid adding water from someone els' tank or stores into your tank).

This way, you will avoid deaths of new fish just because they were suddenly put into a totally new environment.

And like darkblade said, what are the values for the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH? and invest in a liquid water test kit. I never trust the strips.


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## dudebrah (Jul 6, 2009)

hey guys -
yes, i opened the bags and poured them and their water into my tank. i don't have a quarantine tank really. the best i could do is a 1-2 gallon plastic tank that I inherited - but there is no heater or filtration. I do not have the space to setup a quarantine tank, so I suppose I'm just going to have to purchase hardier fish...(though I didn't think it could get much hardier than the tetras).

just tested the water again - comments?
Ammonia: 0 to 0.5 (How should I reduce this?)
Nitrate: 10ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Hardness: ~150
Chlorine: 0
Alkalinity: 120ppm
pH: ~7.8 (hard to tell, could be more alkaline)

I will get a liquid testing kit soon. Perhaps I should add two more blood fin tetras to get the total to four? I don't want them attacking each other or the other fish...

Thanks so much for your patience and help.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

dudebrah said:


> Ammonia: 0 to 0.5 (How should I reduce this?)
> Nitrate: 10ppm
> Nitrite: 0ppm
> Hardness: ~150
> ...


When did you start this tank? It's still cycling, or has just finished it's cycle - the ammonia and nitrites without nitrates suggests that the tank isn't yet mature enough to support the increased bioload that you've put into it.

At any rate, you're seeing either a cycle or a mini-cycle due to death or some other factor (overfeeding is the usual suspect).

Also you mentioned that the WC brought up a lot of particulate matter - this can cause a cycle as well. What filter do you have? How big is your tank?


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## dudebrah (Jul 6, 2009)

Hey ameekplec, 
Started the tank over a month ago... I don't think I overfeed: I give these fish (9 in total) a pinch to a pinch and a half of flaked food (I forget the brand but it was recommended to me by Menagarie). 

I'll give them a half-pinch, if that, of dried blood worms once every 3-4 days...

Is that too much?

My tank is 23G and my filter is an inherited (new and unused at the time) AquaClear 30, though I don't think it has the fine gravel element, but has the sponge, carbon, large rocks. I have it on the highest input/output possible - should I reduce that?

Many thanks for your attention


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