shelly80

Ok, well here goes, i got up 2 days ago to find a dead cherry barb in my 38g, there was no obvious signs of diease or fin nippng there was a small bruise like mark on his head. Well needless to say he was sent to fishy heaven and then i found 1 fry in the tank, (quickly saved it into the breeder net).
Later that evening i was watching the fish when i noticed i could only see 4, when there shud be 5, after about 10 mins of searching i found her laying on her side at the bottom of the tank under a plant, of course i immediately assumed she too was dead, it was only as i scooped her out in the net that i noticed she was still breathing. She has been fin nipped i think as her dorsal fin is gone, half of her tail fin is missing and her fins on the side appear nipped too.
I placed her in the breeder net for safety from whomever is nipping at her and added some stress coat, as soon as i had done this i found another fry in the tank, both fry are now in a breeder trap so that my cherry can stay in the net. She continues to lay on her side and does shift herself towards food when i put it in there for her, but all the time is staying on her side at the bottom of the net.
Yesterday i found an additional 13 fry, so i assume it cant be a problem with my water parameters of which are ammonia and nitrite 0 nitrate 5 pH 7.2.
I thought that all of the fish i have in the 38g were peaceful community fish what could have caused the one to die and for her to be this bad, the other barbs seem quite lethargic too, they are not darting everywhere like they used to, i have not seen anyone showing signs of aggression to anyone else, could this be fin rot not nipping.
Any suggestions are gratefully recieved, sorry to have gone on so much but this has been bugging me for days with no-one to talk to about it.

mare2009

hi shell..I doubt your barb can do anything else in its condition. It does seem as if all your fish are community fish. The barbs can get rather nippy, and platys are mostly the shyer one, with chasing nipping tank mates Its never the 'rule'. Your water sounds correct. How do your other platys, mollies, look/ Hows their tail fin look, any spots, blotches? Any color changes?

shelly80

no all other fish are fine mollies and platys are breeding all the time, but the barbs seem lethargic they dont rush for food as they used to and seem to stay around the filter area.

mare2009

hi shell ..hows the airation? or the water temp?

shelly80

sadly she died today but thankfully the other barbs seem ok. Fingers crossed

matt6765

Oh I am so sorry

bolivianbaby

I'm sorry

shelly80

i dont beieve it another cherry barb has just been found dead, water params are good no signs of anything wrong on the fish, has been lethargic and hiding in the pot for the last couple of days but has been eating as normal. what is going on with my barbs

Aldric

how about contacting a vet and see what they think ? as there definatly seems to be something very wrong

gmen4life

do you use API liquid test kit?

shelly80

I use the API master test kit, have done a filter change a short while ago and was just looking thru threads as i found some tiny worm type things in my filter along with a couple of live fry, just wondering what these worm things were and if they could be the cause of my problems?

cherrybarbboi

hi shelly, at one point after my tank had been cycled (this was about 7 months ago) i brought in a new cherry barb to my tank. in a few days he was dead on the bottom with no sign of the cause of death. then another one of my cherry barbs ended up dying with what seemed to be popeye but then i did some research and discovered that a parasite could cause signs of popeye. later on in the month another cherry barb came down with illness and no sign of cause for it and we put him in the hospital tank and he died in there. we cleaned out the hospital tank and have not since had a problem with a cherry barb dying. i cant explain what happened to the fins but the parasite only targeted my cherry barbs. if you see another one of your cherry barbs, or any of your other fish for that matter, start to act like the rest of your decesed fish then i would put them in a hospital tank. i send my best wishes to you and your fish : )

jdhef

There is a little worm that sometimes occurs in aquariums, but I forget the name of them (hopefully someone will remember the name, but it's something like planeria, but I know that's not it). Generally they are a sign of poor water quality.

shelly80

its ok i realised i had gave them some bloodworms that day and it was some uneaten ones, so worm problem not a problem, my bad lol!!!!