# fish dying after adding new fish



## mousey (Mar 28, 2011)

bought tetras and cherry barbs at BA"S last week . Thought a couple of my fish died of gourami aggression. I now believe that the BA's fish brought in a vius. Have lost 2 of the new fish, 1 betta, 2nd betta looks iffy, 2 cory catfish, another looks dicey because it is tearing around the tank and my plec is covered in large red spots with white centers. See my post under gourami aggression for more info.
I just can't seem to get fish from Al's that don't kill off my old fish. The odd thing is- the fish are basically just dead with no apparent symptoms except the plec.
What to treat with?? 

Plec is going into q as soon as the water warms up in it. Don't want to treat main tank as it will kill bio filter.
And yes I moniored tank for ammonia etc when i added new fish. There was no spikes of anything as tank is well established and i cut back on feeding.tank is well planted.
HAve tried q in the past but nothing ever shows up til the new fish go into the main tanks.


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## Norman (Feb 13, 2011)

Sorry to hear about your fish. I've had a similar experience when I brought in a new rainbow from BA's and didnt quarantine. I ended up losing all but one of my angels (5 big angels) and the rainbow. I will never not quarantine again.

Since you dont really know what you are dealing with I would try Maracyn and Maracyn Plus to cover a broad range of bacteria and see if that helps. That is what has helped me in the past.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Norman said:


> Sorry to hear about your fish. I've had a similar experience when I brought in a new rainbow from BA's and didnt quarantine. I ended up losing all but one of my angels (5 big angels) and the rainbow. I will never not quarantine again.


Better yet, never buy livestock from BA again. The specials aren't worth the risk of losing your whole tank.


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## Nickz (Apr 27, 2011)

You should always quarantine your newly bought fish or this is the result i keep my new guys in a small quarantine container for atleast a week before i let them out to the main tank

@Solarz you can't really say never buy fish @ BA cause i have bought many fish from them and they are all healthy and living today


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## Norman (Feb 13, 2011)

I agree...I also think it has a lot to do with stressing fish. Some do have a hard time being moved. Mind you, I've never had a problem with a store like Frank's; his fish have always been healthy...


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## mousey (Mar 28, 2011)

as I said i used to q my fish for up to 6 weeks and they all passed muster in the small tank but once they got into the main tank they developed diseases. This is usually happening with tetras.
Angels, rainbows and bigger fish seem to do better.
And I have had some lovely ottos and saes from BA's


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

The thing with big chain stores like BA's is that it's always a gamble. Most of the time, the fish are fine, but sometimes you might get a diseased fish that wreaks havoc on your tank.

Even if the risk is small, and can never be eliminated in any LFS, I'd rather go to a reputable store where the risk is 1% instead of a store like BA or Lucky's where the risk might be 10%. This is all in my judgment, of course.

The best thing is to quarantine new arrivals, but not everyone has the room for an extra tank. I know if I could have another tank, I'd rather use it for something instead of housing the occasional new/sick fish. I know it's risky, that's why I try to minimize that risk by buying from reputable sources in the first place.


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## Nickz (Apr 27, 2011)

hmm if thats the case then there must be something wrong with the water in your main tank, maybe the fish your transfering in their system is to weak to handle so they stress and diseases start appearing i wouldnt say im 100% for sure but sounds like that is whats happening.

When you move your fish to the main tank do you acclimate them again?


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## default (May 28, 2011)

i personally support local stores, but the BAs i always go to is the one located in scarborough and to be honest, some of the best livestocks ive seen alongside proper service. its all about the buyer, always observe before you buy, even in surrounding tanks since they are linked to the same filtration system. but with your problem, i wonder how you acclimated the new fish into your tank. i do 45 minutes to 1 hour acclimation periods for my tank, i float for about 10 minutes before opening the bag. then i open the bag and add small quantities of water every 10 minutes over a period of 30-50 minutes. also how large is your tank/filter anyways? perhaps overload in bioload?
---also you said you had two bettas in the same tank? males?
hope this helps. good luck!


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

mousey said:


> as I said i used to q my fish for up to 6 weeks and they all passed muster in the small tank but once they got into the main tank they developed diseases. This is usually happening with tetras.
> Angels, rainbows and bigger fish seem to do better.
> And I have had some lovely ottos and saes from BA's


Can't stress enough the importance of a quarenteen tank. It's never an option, it's a must.
But if you have one and it's not working out, now that's really odd. You might want to check the water parameters of you q tank with your main tank. Look at the pH, temperature and TDS values. If the gap is too wide, these was the three things that can stress a fish when you switch tanks. It's also possible that the issue might be your community tank ...

There is usually an easy way to tell the difference between bacteria disease and virus disease. For bacteria it usually takes 2 or 3 days for the fish to die for no reason. For virus, it's really fast. It may look OK in the morning and by the night time, it's already dead.
To treat bacteria problems in your tank, you can go the anti-biotic route (becareful of your biomedia). Melafix/Primafix does a bit of help, but limited and only target the common bacterial disease, it's not a kill all option.
For virus, there is no known cure. This shit scares me the most.

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## mousey (Mar 28, 2011)

I am going with virus at this point as The fish were healthy one minute and dead 3 hours later. Many of them had no marks on them. Heck they even ate well and then died.2 out of the 12 new fish did have white marks appear on their heads just before they died-- large white marks -but after they died the colors reappeared.
My pleco responded well to tetracycline so I have him in his own tank. I moved him into 100 % fresh water last week and he is doing well.
I have 3 fish in the 20 gallon left. As I said whatever came in to the tank killed all my old fish except the plec and gourami. She does not look too lively.
Nickz when i acclimate my fish it take me a while i basicaly use a drip method after letting them get to the same temperature as the tank. I only live 5 minutes from the Stores so they fish are not in transit for any more than that time.
I am not a new fish keeper either. I have been keeping fish for the last 10 years and before that I had fish for several years when i was newly married- 40 years ago as well as when I was a kid.
My tetras until the last 2 years or so have lived extended lives- 9 years the previous batch lived.As well as i have ottos that are 5 years old. I have 3 year old cardinals and 3 year old rainbows.
I have bred my own platies and guppies for 8 years and have moved them from tank to tank with no fanfare other that dropping them in to the tank where i want them to go. No losses either. I am accustomed to my fish living a full life and dying of old age.All my tanks are kept at 74-76 dgrees except in the summer when it is hotter anyway.
I started to run into problems with guppies and platies about 3 years ago when i added new male platies and female guppies to better the genetics.
I picked up 'guppy disease' with the female gupppy i added and picked up some gene with the platies that turned them into dwarves.
I have 1 female platy and 2 males that are 1 year old and still only 1/4 inch long.
The other sibs in the group are all regular size.
My last home bred guppy from my old stock recently died at age 2 1/2! And a fine fat girl she was too.
I have had no luck with pet store or fish store guppies and recently of course I had this foul luck with the tetras and barbs.
I cannot say if it was the barbs or the tetras that carried the disease.
The danios I bought at the same time have been fine but they are in a different tank.
I spend oodles of time watching the fish tanks before I buy- they all looked great.
HAd the same problem last year with some new fish, and the year before. What ever they carried wiped out my bettas.but the new fish lived.

I am currently running only 5 tanks- have been up to as many as nine but this last huge setback has made me paranoid and edgy. hubby says to get back in the saddle but I have no heart for it at this time. I am getting too old to fool around with disinfecting tanks and starting again. I will probably just pack this tank in.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Oh hey, then you're one of the old hobbie guy, er gal. That's a shame you have to take the tank down. Yes, you have to becareful if you've own some of the isolated strains of fish. Especially if they are gold fish and guppies. Now a days, especially fishes from Asia, they are using medications and chemicals to grow their fish. There is one trick that is widely used that can double the grow rate of a fish. One of the big side effect is that they tend to generate weird bacteria and viral diseases.
For viral, the fish will just have to weather through it. Just keep the water clean and hope they can fight it off with their immune system.
Good luck.

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## mousey (Mar 28, 2011)

I figure they are doing something to get fish so big so fast. 

This next week the hurdle will be protecting the tanks while I have an exterminator in. We have 3 carpenter ant nests in our walls - you can hear them gnawing at night. Not a pleasant sound.
Costing big dollars too- 2 windows have to be removed and replaced with new and now the chewing sound has spread to another window. The exterminators are having a hard time keeping up with the carpenter ant calls in the gta and of course the wet weather seems to cause them to breed more for whatever reason.
3 out of 17 fish remain in the 20 gallon!!


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