Did I accidentally doom our new cherry barbs?

Hey all,

Tank is doing well and it's been a while, so we felt that we'd look into some cherry barbs for my daughter's tank (it's "her" tank, but a "family responsibility"). We picked 6 up from the LFS, I was surprised how small they are - maybe the distance across my thumb nail.

They're in a warmed quarantine tank, a small 10 gallon upright model that'd typically be used to showcase bettas. The chemical reads on the tank were good - 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5.0 nitrate. We let the bag acclimate as we normally would and the six little happy fellows were bouncing around and happy. I added 1/5th of an algae puck for them to feed on this afternoon, and checked on them just now after dinner. I was saddened to see two that appeared to be on their last legs, just kind of drifting with the current; the other was stuck to the filter, but attempting to breathe.

We do have a small bubbler in the tank to help aerate the water but I'm wondering now if that's what caused them to die? Could constantly swimming against the current have been too much for them? I'm really struggling to figure out what could've gone wrong here. Any help would 100% be appreciated!

 

Hard to say without seeing the current in action. With that said, it is less common for current to be the cause of this, and more issues with the water or disease.

What are your three nitrogen-based parameters now?

 

Hard to say without seeing the current in action. With that said, it is less common for current to be the cause of this, and more issues with the water or disease.

What are your three nitrogen-based parameters now?

Just checked - still 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5.0 nitrate.

Sadly, four of the six didn't make it. Two of them seem to be swimming around well enough, and two were half swimming but laying on their sides on the bottom. I noticed that the ones that didn't make it almost seemed like they were falling while swimming. A possible gas or bladder issue?

My wife suspects that it may have just been stress from moving from the LFS? I'm blaming current and overfeeding, but I'm sort of grasping at straws at this point.

 

Cherry Barbs are a small schooling fish and should be kept in groups of 5 or more. They are generally very hardy and a very good begginers fish. I have had my 5 for several years now. It is hard to say what killed yours but perhaps your tank is 2 new yet and wasn't quite cycled.

 

Cherry Barbs are a small schooling fish and should be kept in groups of 5 or more. They are generally very hardy and a very good begginers fish. I have had my 5 for several years now. It is hard to say what killed yours but perhaps your tank is 2 new yet and wasn't quite cycled.

I'm wondering about that. It's a quarantine tank that's had fish in it before. I've "fed" it each week and it also had some dead plant matter that I presume released ammonia to keep things rolling.

 

I agree with your wife.

My money is on stress, or pre-existing disease. How long did you have them?

Based on what you've said, I really doubt it was the current. If they were healthy fish, they shouldn't have had any trouble with a bubbler. Unless you were really cranking the air in there.

Sometimes new fish just don't make it.

 

I agree with your wife.

My money is on stress, or pre-existing disease. How long did you have them?

Based on what you've said, I really doubt it was the current. If they were healthy fish, they shouldn't have had any trouble with a bubbler. Unless you were really cranking the air in there.

Sometimes new fish just don't make it.

The remaining two didn't make it over the night. They were happily swimming, but almost seemed "out of it" and would at times "fall" in the water column, but catch themselves later.

I'll test water chemistry later on, but could the fishes' "drunkenness" be a sign of a contaminant in the water? Ammonia poisoning? Could it have shot up that much over night?

After this I'll fully drain out all of the water and replace it, and monitor the readings for at least a week or two before we add anyone else to the tank. Assuming that the cycle somehow fell apart, would anyone recommend any of those "instant" cycling products, the additives or liquids that you add?

 

With test results of 0-0-5 it doesn't matter if the tank isn't cycled or you over fed. (in a few days it might)

Though it does sound like you took the proper steps to keep it cycled.

Maybe the PH was a lot different than the fish store tank they were in. Either that or some contaminant made its way into your tank. I would be hesitant to blame it on existing disease. If they were still at the store they'd likely still be fine. The fact that they all had issues almost instantly points to your water. (but not ammonia/nitrite/cycle related)

I'd put some snails in there and watch how they do.

Do you have another tank running?

 

With test results of 0-0-5 it doesn't matter if the tank isn't cycled or you over fed. (in a few days it might)

Though it does sound like you took the proper steps to keep it cycled.

Maybe the PH was a lot different than the fish store tank they were in. Either that or some contaminant made its way into your tank. I would be hesitant to blame it on existing disease. If they were still at the store they'd likely still be fine. The fact that they all had issues almost instantly points to your water. (but not ammonia/nitrite/cycle related)

I'd put some snails in there and watch how they do.

Do you have another tank running?

I'm just at a loss, but thanks for your feedback. Cold comfort that it wasn't my overfeeding.

This small tank was our QT tank, we have a fully cycled 20G tank with 5 Xray Tetras and 5 Java Loaches. I'll still test the water and if need be, fully drain it out and refill, and test again in a few days.

 

I wouldn't spend any money on trying to solve a problem that may not even exist. There's a good chance you just got some sick or stressed out fish that for whatever reason couldn't handle the transition. It happens.

So hold off on the products. Until you actually know there is a problem, and until you know what that problem is, you're just wasting money and complicating your situation.

But certainly change the water and do some testing. Make sure your ph is stable, and verify that your cycle is up and running. But whatever you do, don't start blindly dumping products into your tank.

Once you get some fresh water in there, with stable parameters, try again.