Nutter

So Daniella got her first lot of fish for the tank that I am doing for her yesterday. I gave her the new 6x2x2ft & I'm going to have the 4ft I was originally going to do for her. Anyway she went to the aquarium by herself & picked out her first 6 fish. She was supposed to get M. Trifasciata but she ended up getting 3 of them & 3 M. Splendida Inornata - Chequered Rainbows.
As soon as they went into the tank they all started gasping at the surface but after awhile 5 out of the 6 started to act normally & seem fine. One of the Trifasciata is still gasping away at the surface, does not attempt to eat, does not swim around at all & has seperated itself from the others who seem happy enough together. The fish looks healthy from the outside but clearly this is not the case. If it was oxygen starvation it would be more than one fish & there's no way it is that anyway, like I said they are the first 6 fish in a 6x2x2ft.

Does anyone have any ideas about what might be the problem or should I just get her to try to return this fish? She bought it at a dealer I refuse to deal with anymore so I think she was sold a dud & probably quite intentionally as it isn't the first time she has come home with sick fish from this particular aquarium.

jprime84

I just got done reading something about CO2 injection and fish gasping for water at the surface. I assume there is good water agitation and oxidation?

Je55*e

^Second this suggestion.

Nutter

No co2 on this tank. No fertilizers, good circulation. Parameters - ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5-10, GH 7, KH 7, pH 7.8, Temp 77.8f. It's definitley not oxygen starvation. Even if there was no water flow in there they would be hard pressed to run short on oxygen. As I said they are the only fish in a 6x2x2ft tank & the other 5 rainbows are acting just fine now. They were only gasping for a few minutes when they first went in there. Probably from stress, I would assume as they are now eating & swimming around in typical rainbow fashion.

aquarist48

Hello Nutter. Sometimes we do get fish that just can't handle another transfer from the fish store to our tanks. Too, sometimes fish we buy live in horrible conditions and being placed into a clean tank can cause issues as well.
How did you acclimate your fish? I've found the drip method to be the best. Here is a link on acclimation just in case you haven't seen it. I see that you have years of experience but I'll post it anyway:
Acclimating Tropical Fish to Your Fish Tank
Did you check the pH level in the bag of fish and compare it to the pH levels in your tank?
I hope your remaining fish are going to be ok.
Best of luck and I hope you can share some photos with us down the road.
Ken

Nutter

I use the drip method & a foodsafe black 20 lt bucket. Takes about 2hrs or so to fill the bucket. No didn't check the PH because I know for a fact that this aquarium uses plain tap water for thier tanks & thier parameters are exactly the same as mine. They are only 5mins up the road so the bag water doesn't get any significant drop in PH from fish wastes during the trip.
It's probably because of the way the aquarium handles thier fish, I think. They are very rough on them when they bag them. This is one of those aquariums that want to make a quick sale, not help you have a happy successful aquarium. I don't deal with them at all & I ask the g/f to stay away from them to but she has a mind of her own & doesn't care for my opinion of the place. Thanks for the link Ken. I read all the links I'm given, even if they are about stuff I already know. You just never know, they might have a new tip for me that I didn't know. Even after 8 years & soooo many tanks I'm still learning. That's what I love about the hobby, you can never know it all. I'm not sure the drip method actually really helps to aclimate the fish though. I have read several articles about acclimatisation & it supposedly takes weeks for the fish to acclimatise, even to relativley smal changes & that slow acclimatising might actually cause more stress on the fish. I still use the drip method myself anyway, partly because it is what I have always done & partly because I figure most aquarium breed fish have been through enough that a short stint in a bucket shouldn't bother them too much.

The sad news is the rainbow died overnight. The others are going quite nicely though, so that is something I guess. I'm going to let her have about 15-20 rainbows in there, I just hope she doesn't decide to have more than the two species she has now.