Tropical Fish Forums

[Rarzoki]

Hi all. I Recently purchased 7 tiger Barbs from my lfs. they were doing well until I noticed some of them would occasionally sit in the corner away from the rest of the school (but would rejoin them if they came by). recently though I found one of them hiding in a cave I had made for my spotted pleco. I left him at first but the next day he was hiding in the upper top corner of the aquarium and when I looked again the same day, I noticed a blur and saw the fish swimming in very tight circles at the bottom. I think he must have knocked himself out because he stopped swimming and got sucked to the filter intake. I have since quarantined him in a small container floating in the tank and have added some stress coat to the water as well. he seems to have calmed down but I notice that he occasionally is on a very slight tilt and is rapidly breathing.

The other barb (the smallest of the group) sometimes stays in one spot away from the school, rapidly breathes and will sometime have his head pointed towards the bottom of the tank. he does rejoin the school, but seems to be doing it less and less.

Before I had the barbs, my water readings were: pH of 6.2, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate and nitrite. I think the GH was 0 or as soft as you could get. I have added some Alkaline Buffer (product of Seachem) and Equilibrium (also Seachem). One of staff said I did not have any minerals that I needed in the tank for the fish to grow and breathe properly which is why I added the Equilibrium. I also have a Emperor 400 with activated carbon.
I am going to get my water checked again as soon as I can.

The barbs live in a 75 gallon tank with 3 blue danios and a spotted pleco.

Other notes: I bought the pleco and the tiger barbs from 2 different stores on the same day. I Know now that this is something you should not do.

Also, I am slowly adding the Equilibrium and have not registered the full dose to the tank yet.

any help would be useful.

[Rarzoki]

Edit* I think I have found the source of the problem. The flake food I have been feeding them is pretty old. could this be a cause?

[diademhill]

Sounds more like an uncycled tank.

[Rarzoki]

I did recently clean the filter (with tap water, nothing else) but the tank has been set up for a couple of years.

[diademhill]

The tap water definitely killed the filter bacteria so you are back to nearly square one with an uncycled tank.
You need to start doing daily 20% water changes adding tapwater conditioner to the new water and never use anything but water from a tank to clear filter material.

Hopefully if you haven't changed the decor & substrate the tank should have some bacteria to recolonise the filter so the cycle should be quicker than the usual 6 weeks.

Also never add more fish mass than half the established occupancy.

[Rarzoki]

OK thanks diademhill, the filter was the only part I cleaned.

I did a small water change, but I think the quarantined one was too far gone and has passed on. the smaller one seems about the same. I will update you on how things go

Thanks again.

[Rarzoki]

so I checked the water again. pH at 7.2, gh 25, KH 80, ammonia 0, nitrate 10, and nitrite 0.

they seem better then before and are schooling but some of the barbs are still rapidly breathing.

[diademhill]

What test kit are you using?

[Rarzoki]

I take my water down to my lfs and test it. not sure on the exact one but they use one of those strip kits that test all of them at the same time.

[diademhill]

Strips are not reliable.

You need to invest in a mini master liquid test kit. If funds are tight you can just get ammonia & nitrite tests.