Fish Getting Sick? --Tiger barbs & Rainbow Shark--

On June 25 I bought a rainbow shark, and 2 tiger barbs from petsmart.
Ive had a tank for a while, used it once before a couple yrs ago. It is either a 10 0r 15 gallon I believe. A water pump came with it. I was just using that at first, then I got a bubble stone machine. I use the water pump during the night and the bubble thing during the day. I do not have a water thermometer or any other meter that reads ammonia, nitrate, etc. a bout a week and a half ago I noticed the water getting a bit muggy, my mom said it looked like dirt was in it. I thought it was just getting dirty because I didnt have a tank cleaner fish. So I bought an Algae Eater a...Picatsamu...or w/e it is Lol. It just mainly seems to stick to the glass or decorations and potty allover the place Lol. a few days ago my "Sharky" was found dead...she was upside down inbetween the fake plant stems, I'm not sure if she died then somehow ended up there...or got stuck there then died? ---then lastnight one of my Tiger barbs was in a corner of the tank on its side swimming in circles slowly and it kept seeming like it was dead. I figured it wasn't going to make it. =\ This morning it was dead floating atop the water. I planned to go get another Rainbow shark today, So I decided to take the alge eater and other tiger barb out and put into a smaller tank & clean out the bigger one and refill it (adding the fish safe drops you put into tap water).
I brought back home two more smaller tiger barbs and a new rainbow shark. when I got home I noticed one of the new tiger barbs has 2 silver spots on its side...I don't think this is normal. After readon a few other forums..Maybe its the Petsmart fish are infected ??!! The older tiger barb is now acting strangely, and ive noticed it has gotten ALOT darker..swiming on the top of the water...it was acting like it was trying to die , and was letting me touch it, but I read something about putting it in a quarantined bowl or some sort with an ice cube to "shock" it back to life. I did this and am now keeping it in the bowl, it seems more lively now, and it running from my finger/movements, but I'm not sure if its totally "fixed".
I took pics of the tank when I first got the fish and just now. I will try and attach them with this post.. OH...and I have been feeding them avg sized flakes ="TetraMin tropical flakes" then I recently got these moist gel packets "tetraSelect" but the tiger barbs only ate the moist food once. They seemed to like it..bt wouldnt eat it the next time I tried to feed them. I attemptedd dried krill, but they didnt eat those at all. I have heard frozen foods, but I haven't got found any yet . Any suggestions would be most helpful!! I would love to keep my new fish for more than 2-3 weeks! Help! Lol <3

 

I would not put him in a small bowl with a ice cube. never heard of this but dosnt sound good. put him back in the other tank.

my guess is the tank is not cycled. you have to cycle the tank or your fish will continue to die. do some reading about the nitrogen cycle. do not buy any more fish right now.

you will need to buy a few things. a test kit the best is API freshwater master test kit. I would also pick up a bottle of prime. you need to test your water to see what the levels are at. do not trust the pet store they use the test strips and those are useless.

what temp is the tank? it would be very helpful if you filled out your aquarium info in you profile.

how big is your tank all sharks need at least a 48in tank. do not trust pet stores! they will lie and tell you whatever to make the sale.

 

Honestly, chilling a fish is an easy way to kill it.
I agree with jojo, absolutely. Your toxic chemical levels are probably terrible right now. Take all the fish back, and read up on the nitrogen cycle. Get yourself the master test kit and pay close attention to the levels. You'll most likely want to test every day at this point. Also, get a gravel vac to clean up fish poo - I'll post a link to a good youtube video on tank maintenance.
Getting them into fresh water is a good first step; you got that right.

Another thing is that sharks and plecostomus catfish (your suckerfish) never belong in a tank that size. They get much, much too big. I'm not even sure about tiger barbs in that tank...

EDIT: Here's the video on cleaning your tank. I'll see if I can find you one that explains the nitrogen cycle.

 

And now I'm giving you a video that explains about how to properly set up your aquarium nitrogen cycle so that the fish will have a nice, safe, nontoxic home.

 

I removed the barb from the bowl and put her back in the aquarium b4 I went to bed lastnight. When I checked on her again 2day, I thought she would be dead, to my surprise she was swimming around happily with the 2 new barbs closer to the bottom of the tank! =) But...I think when she saw me..She went back up to the top <_< She isn't leaning over to a side slightly like she was lastnight, but just hanging around the top . I have the bubbler going. -----
Also to the Pleco problem. We have 2 outside ponds with Koi in them. a med circlular one with 1 Koi in it and a much bigger one with 4 Koi. I was thinking about putting him in with the big pond. Is this a good idea or no? --- Ive heard from a friend who had a Rainbow shark...and a Pleco. and The pleco got BIG along with teh shark and the placo like..sucked the scales off the rainbow shark, soI'm kind of scared that might happen, so Ive been watching him closely.
&& Do thy sale the water testing stuff at walmart or a general store or do I probably have to go to petsmart again? --for the "api"

 

I would think it would be very hard for a pleco to catch a rainbow. unless maybe they were in to small of a tank. my guess is the shark died the the pleco ate him.

I'm not sure about the pond. I have heard of people doing this but I don't have a pond. so wait for some more responses.

I'm not sure about wall mart my local one dosnt have fish so I'm not sure. petco and petsmart deff do.

I would take all you fish back and cycle your tank. its to small for tiger barbs. I know that sucks but its better for the fish. if you want some suggestions on what to put in just ask this site not the pet stores. this site won't tell you what you want to here but what you need to here. good luck

 

It's cheaper on Amazon, but you need to get it ASAP. I would say petco should have it. You want the "Master Kit".
As for the food you're feeding...I only just saw that. Don't use TetraMin...the tetra foods are not very good. Most people around here advocate the New Life Spectrum family of foods, which are also available at Petco. Maybe you can find something in that line your fish will enjoy.

 

I bout some testing strips.... and ive come to find that my tap water that I put in is ....
Nitrate=0
nitrite=0.5
hardness=25
alkalinity=300
pH=8.4
and when I tested the water in the tank((after renewing all water like 3 days ago...)
Nitrate=10
Nitrite=3.0
Hardness=0
Alkalinity=300
pH=8.4
I got some Stress coat....and these tables that are supposed to regulate the pH balance, but I don't think it helped much. I don't know if this helps with anything or not... My tiger barb that I thought was going to die is still doing much better though also!

 

What you need to keep the biggest eye on is the ammonia and nitrites.
Test your tap water and see if it has ammonia, nitrites or nitrates already present in it.
You're going to have to do probably twice-a-week 20-40% water changes for now to keep the ammonia and nitrites down to a habitable level until your beneficial bacteria grow sufficiently. You could try adding Tetra SafeStart to speed the process. Keep doing the changes that way until you stop seeing either ammonia or nitrites in your test. Then you can probably drop it to 10% changes once a week unless you're overstocked.

 

really need a liquid test kit. the strips are not very accurate. ammonia is the most important test and you don't have one.

nitrite is very deadly for fish and you have a lot of it (although strips are inaccurate). you need to be doing daily 40% water changes. did you get some prime water conditioner?

I would never use anything to altar ph. fish can adjust to ph, but what they can't handle is ph swings. stuff like that can be hard to keep steady.