I have a 40 gallon breeder that’s a little over 2 months old. Moderately planted (still growing in and adding). My ammonia and nitrite have been consistently zero. Nitrate 10. Ph 7. Temp 76-77 degrees.
I brought feel like every time I bring home new fish to add to my tank, I end up losing one or two. I just brought home 8 rummy nose tetras last week and I’m down to 4. I drip acclimated for an hour. I lost 2 corydoras and I brought home 7 (two weeks prior). I always wait at least two weeks to add new fish.
I do 10-20% water changes every 8-10 days. Could they just have been weak fish? Stress from transport? Is this something to just expect when you get fish? New to the hobby. Thanks!
Posted by EngineeringNeat2126
10 Comments
I stopped buying fish from big box stores from this exact reason. There are multiple factors, the ones you mentioned that can contribute to a loss of life.
I’d also question your cycling process…the frequent changes in water could also lead to what you’re experiencing.
Store bought fish seem to not be really hardy. I get this when I buy tetras also. I’ve even done like 3 or four day climitization slowly in another tank.
Sadly it’s common to lose new additions even under perfect conditions and acclimation. Sometimes there’s fish that are a little on the weak side.
Whenever I buy new fish, I ask the store to feed them then observe their behaviour. While’s it’s not fool proof, it’s a fairly good indicator of their health.
I also ask how long they’ve been at the store and will wait if they’ve not been there for at least 2 weeks.
Yes. But the ones that survive are the most resilient and should do well going forward. Survival of the fittest….
Yes. That was easy :). But seriously, we always float the bag to temperature acclimate, but we forget about acclimation to PH and hardness. And a lot of the time, they die of osmotic shock. Which can take several days. Next time you get fish home, test the water in the bag vs your tank water. If there are big differences, give them a long drip acclimation. I once lost a batch of guppies, so the next time I got guppies from the same store, same tank, I first tested the water. I stopped wasting reagent at 40 dgh. While my water was about 8. Gave them an acclimation and that whole batch survived.
It sounds to me like your maintenance practices are good. Where are you getting your fish? Fish from the Petco and Petsmart tend to be unhealthy and should be quarantined before being introduced into the tank. Google “aquarium coop medication trio”. That is one approach to quarantining fish.
I’ve had better luck at my local fish stores. There’s a couple in my Chicago area that I have had good luck with.
When you’re at the store, take a look at the tank and notice if there are other fish in the tank that look unhealthy. Swimming weird…white spots…etc… That sort of thing. I wouldn’t buy a fish in that tank. At the Petco and Petsmart, behind the scenes many tanks are sharing the same water so it’s possible for one tank to look fine but another tank in the same system to look terrible.
If you’re mail ordering fish, it’s always possible that the shipping process weakens them to the extent that they die soon after reaching your tank.
Anyway, I would think in terms of a display tank which is your actual tank and a quarantine tank (maybe a 10 gallon or 20 gallon). Quarantine fish before you introduce them to your display tank. That way you reduce the risk of introducing infection into your display tank.
Some Cory’s are more delicate than others. I had rotten luck with some black Venetian’s but my common bronze, peppered and panda Cory’s are doing great.
Rummy’s though… As much as I love them. They’ve got issues. And I’ve never bought a batch without losing some. The gene pool is a little small, if you get my meaning.
Sometimes you can see individuals having small seizures where they flounder lifelessly for a few moments while the school dart off together
Yep unless they’re neon tetra which die from a sneeze. Honestly it’s not uncommon to lose 1-2 from stress of travel or such.
Rummynose tetras are the most sensitive fish I’ve ever owned
I’ve had excellent results by:
Emptying half of the bag water.
Clipping the bag to the edge of the tank with a clothes pin.
For about 2 hours, every 15 minutes add a squirt of the tank water into the bag with a pipette.
I believe that this has helped them adjust to pH of the tank.
Where I had a few die in the past, I’ve had zero deaths as of late in my new/redone planted tank.
I add 3 tetras/week at this point.