green tiger barbs keep dieing

I got a school (x6) of green tiger barbs earlier in the year and all developed Ich and I lost all of them in a matter of days, before I could raise temp in tank and try to treat naturally. I figured the cause was a combination of tank not fully cycled and I did not quarantine. Now I am trying again, since my 55 gallon is completely cycled. I moved fish from my 20 gallon to the 55 gallon and I am using my 20 gallon as a quarantine now. I picked up 6 green tiger barbs. They looked fine the first day or two, then started to develop Ich. I have now lost 5 of the 6 and am wondering why I keep losing them. Water parameters are good, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10-20 (it is a planted tank). Is there something else I am missing? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

Sorry to read this, and sorry about your fish.

It's difficult and puzzling to lose fish when we seem to be doing everything right. Just reviewing your profile, it seems as though you have lots of know-how.

Did you lose them while they were in quarantine? Was the QT cycled, filtered, heated? Did you "drip acclimate" or at least slowly acclimate them to the QT? Finally, although this is not something that you may have checked, but how were the pH levels in the "bring home" water compared to your QT water?

Have you had any other fish develop ICH besides the green tiger barbs? Because just from what you said, I'm suspecting the stock at the store or from wherever you purchased the barbs. And going back further, even the supplier. I hope at the least that you're offered a refund.

Sorry I can't offer more insight. I hope these questions help you figure it out though. Stand by for more replies.

 

How did you treat the ICH? That may have something to do with how they passed.

I am sorry that you lost some fish, it is never a good feeling, we all try so hard to give them a good environment to live in.

 

I am using my 20 gallon as a QT, it was cycled, filtered, heated and everything. But it did have just a few fish so I got my 6 tigers in pairs, every other day to allow bio filter time to adjust. I also moved my other fish to the 55 gallon because the barbs would probably harass them. I did "drip acclimate" over several hours for all 3 pairs. I did not test pH of LFS water but have not had this kind of problem with other fish from there.
As far as treating the Ich, I started to raise the temp to 30c and have vacuumed and done water changes. The last barb that is left appears to be doing well, just waiting for Ich to fall off and get better. Assuming he gets better, I will be waiting until then to try to add any more fish.

 

There's always the possibility that it's just poor stock. You might ask at the lfs if they've had troubles with this shipment of barbs.

 

k, well I will have to claim fault on this one. I had turned up the heater to raise the temp in the tank to combat the Ich. Did not expect that the weather outside would be nice enough, so we opened the windows but the temp in the house got to almost 80. So ambient temp ~80 + cranked up heater = fish fry.
I am going to re-check all parameters again, including bio filter/cycle but do I need to wait a while until Ich clears out of tank before I attempt to stock fish again?

 

Wait, temperature is not additive. If your ambient temp was about 80 and you gradually increased the tank temp to 86, that didn't cause the fish to fry. The tank temp would be 86, not 80 + 86 = 166!

So did you lose the last barb? And now starting over? Perhaps the ich spores in your QT now are the problem. Yes, either "treat" the QT tank with heat for two weeks to get rid of the spores (with gravel vacuum), or treat the new fish for ich when you get them (maybe start up a separate QT tank in addition to the 20 gallon!)

Here is a GREAT thread about using heat to treat ich, and when to gravel vacuum:
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/ich-heat-treatment.114024/