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I have a fully cycled 80 gallon planted tank. You can see what I've got in it in my signature at the bottom. Ammonia and nitrite are at zero and nitrate is 5 ppm. I do weekly 20% water changes religiously and treat new water with Prime and small amount of aquarium salt and let sit overnight. I live in Phoenix, where the water is hard and has a high ph. I don't mess with that. I'm running 2 Eheim Ecco canisters and 2 bubble wands continuously. Treat plants with underground ferts as well as Florin-K and Flourish Excel every other day per the directions on the bottles.
So here's the deal. I ordered 6 denison barbs to add to my tank last week from a place in Tucson, AZ which is about a 2 hour drive from where I live. I had them overnighted and got home about 10 minutes after they were delivered so they weren't outside very long. I had one DOA, which I guess can be expected. I acclimated the 5 survivors and placed them in my tank. I can tell they're juveniles because of their size and lack of coloration. That night, one of them was not doing well at all. He could not keep his equilibrium. He floated with the current and banged into plants, rocks, other fish, etc. He went upside down, sideways, and every other direction imaginable. After watching this horror show for about 30 minutes, he died. All the other fish seemed fine for the next few days. Then, a few mornings later I woke up to find a dead cardinal out of the blue. And it was one of my large fat healthy ones too. Again, all the other fish seemed fine and the 4 remaining barbs were doing great as well. Yesterday, I lost my female ram, which I posted about in another post. She was also fine the night before so this was also a surprise. OK, so today I get my replacement barb from the DOA I had. To my surprise, they shipped me a mature one. I acclimated him and placed him in the tank late this morning. I turned the light off. I turned the light on about 7 hours later and fed everybody. Now the new barb is doing the same thing that the other one did. Just floating around in every direction and orientation and "panting" heavily. What is going on? Is it the tank or the fish? I understand fish just die sometimes for no apparent reason. The remaining 8 cardinals, 4 yoyos, and my male ram are showing no signs of illness at all and the 4 juvenile barbs are happily swimming around and eating heartily. And, my water params seem optimal. I just don't get it. I'm still new to the hobby so is there something I'm missing?
So here's the deal. I ordered 6 denison barbs to add to my tank last week from a place in Tucson, AZ which is about a 2 hour drive from where I live. I had them overnighted and got home about 10 minutes after they were delivered so they weren't outside very long. I had one DOA, which I guess can be expected. I acclimated the 5 survivors and placed them in my tank. I can tell they're juveniles because of their size and lack of coloration. That night, one of them was not doing well at all. He could not keep his equilibrium. He floated with the current and banged into plants, rocks, other fish, etc. He went upside down, sideways, and every other direction imaginable. After watching this horror show for about 30 minutes, he died. All the other fish seemed fine for the next few days. Then, a few mornings later I woke up to find a dead cardinal out of the blue. And it was one of my large fat healthy ones too. Again, all the other fish seemed fine and the 4 remaining barbs were doing great as well. Yesterday, I lost my female ram, which I posted about in another post. She was also fine the night before so this was also a surprise. OK, so today I get my replacement barb from the DOA I had. To my surprise, they shipped me a mature one. I acclimated him and placed him in the tank late this morning. I turned the light off. I turned the light on about 7 hours later and fed everybody. Now the new barb is doing the same thing that the other one did. Just floating around in every direction and orientation and "panting" heavily. What is going on? Is it the tank or the fish? I understand fish just die sometimes for no apparent reason. The remaining 8 cardinals, 4 yoyos, and my male ram are showing no signs of illness at all and the 4 juvenile barbs are happily swimming around and eating heartily. And, my water params seem optimal. I just don't get it. I'm still new to the hobby so is there something I'm missing?