plant crab

Hello All!

Its been awhile since I've posted but I need your help and input into this situation.

I will preface this by saying that I know the following details are many of the WRONG things to do. I'm aware of what I did wrong, but I didn't think the outcome would be so bad. Please don't come down on me too hard about this. I think I've learned my lesson! So here goes:

My husband and I are trying to get our house cleaned up to put on the market. I had a 10 gallon QT set up in an upstairs room that we took down as the realtor was coming this weekend. There were 3 one-year old zebra danios doing really well in there that were born in my 55 gallon (main tank) last summer.

I moved them to the 55 which contained ONLY 2 ottos, 4 serpaes, and 2 cherry barbs. As you can guess, the poor baby danios were immediately being chased and nibbled by the serpaes. They killed one that night and the other two were hiding (and freaking out) in the corner of the tank.

I went to Petco (sorry!) the following afternoon, as I figured my best bet was to restock the schools so all the fish would feel more comfortable and stop fighting/ chasing the babies.

I got 4 danios (all they had), 4 serpaes (fancy ones), and 4 cherry barbs. Everybody *looked* healthy and I had taken down the QT, soooo I acclimated them to the 55 and put them in. Now I know that is a lot of fish to add at once, but once again, I felt like it was one of my few options to help the baby danios.

The next morning I looked in the tank - 2 dead - ok fine- it sometimes happens when you bring home new fish - but then there was the ICK! EVERYWHERE! Every single fish had it, even the ones that I had already!

I upped the temp in the tank to 84, it was at 80, did a 30% water change and within a day the ick fell off. Then it started... within 3 days I lost the other two baby danios plus 1 of the new ones, ALL of the barbs (6), and ALL of the fancy serpaes (new ones) plus 2 of my own (6). Now I'm down to 3 danios and 2 serpaes... and, of course, the 2 ottos.. which strangely have remained untouched this entire time, either by the random deaths or the ick.
The fish that were getting sick would be "twitching" or "hiccuping" and then seemed to just go completely limp after awhile. They would still breathe and move occaisionally, but it was as if they were paralyzed and they would just get pushed around the tank by the currents. No other apparent causes of death.

Sorry to say I don't have a reading on my tank for any Nitrates, Amm, nitrite, etc. I lent my test kit to a friend and just got it back today, so I'll check it when I get home from work. I wonder though that if the chemistry was bad, wouldn't I have lost the ottos immediately?

I know this all sounds so stupid... but any thoughts on what happened?

Please help! I'm willing to take the helpful comments with the scolding I deserve...

Lucy

Welcome back.
I'm really sorry about your fish
No scolding, you probably feel bad enough as it is and we all make mistakes.
Hind sight is wonderful, isn't it? lol

Sounds like the new fish must have brought ICH in with them or the stress of everything going on lowered their resistance.
I agree it's odd the ottos weren't effected. It'll be interesting to see what your readings are when you get them. That's a lot of fish to add at once. I wonder if you over whelmed the bacteria.

Did you increase the aeration along when you upped the temp?
Be sure to keep the temp raised for at least 2 weeks and do thorough gravel vacs to pick up any ich spores.

Best of luck.

aquarist48

Hello PlanCrab. So sorry to hear about your fish tank problems and fish loss. I know it isn't easy at times. The fish loss could have been a combination of the ICH and ammonia poisoning. Adding so many fish at one time probably sent your tank into a mini cycle. (without knowing your readings I'm kind of guessing here).
How often have you been doing water changes on the 55g?
Again, sorry about your losses. Best of luck with house!
Let us know your readings when you can.
Ken

plant crab

Thank you both, Lucy and Ken!
I think you're right about the ammonia/ bacteria surge and Ich combo. Looks like a mini-cycle. Readings are as follows:
Amm 1ppm
Ni 0ppm
Na 5ppm
pH 6.0
Unfortunately, I haven't been keeping up on water changes as well as I should have. I only had the 8 little guys in there, so it was every few weeks. This week I did one after I saw the first round of dead ones. I'm going to do another tonight.
You know, I still don't understand why the otos are fine...

Lucy

A series of daily water changes should put you back on track....I agree, weird about the otos unless no one was bothering them. The other fish had added stress.

Meenu

If you have some Prime or Amelquel plus, you may want to add to detoxify the ammonia, too. good luck

plant crab

Thanks guys!