# Both my tinfoil barbs just died, what happened?



## snowthedirtbub

I just got done transplanting my 2 tinfoil barbs and my 2 bala sharks to a bigger 55 gallon tank. After about 3 hours I came in to check on them again and one of them was upside down about to die still gasping for breath. I thought it was because of the shock of switching tanks. Then about an hour later I was watching my tank and the other barb started to swim sparodically hitting the sides of the tank and jumping out of the water, then it too turned over and died, so wth happened? I'm pretty upset by this because I've had these 2 fish for about 4 years and they were nice and big with beautiful red fins and silver body.

I just find it weird that they would both die within an hour of each other and the one would act like that, does anyone know why?


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## mec102778

Sounds like the temp was to high.


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## phys

What were your water parameters? had you cycled the tank before the transfer? how did you acclimate them?


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## rtbob

Sorry about your losses. 

Something like what your describing, a sudden death of two otherwise healthy fish could have been caused by a large difference in the water chemistry in the two tanks.

If the first tank had been set up for a long time with these fish in it they would have adapted slowly over time to the conditions of this established tank. Now all of a sudden they are placed in an totally different environment. The difference in the water chemistry of the two tanks IMO is the number one suspect in the death of your fish.

Secondly if you cleaned the new tank and it's equipment with something toxic to fish and some residue still remained in the water it could cause death quickly.

Finally if a dechloranator was not used on the new tank this would definitely not be good.


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## jrman83

Hard to believe you should drip acclimate fish when moving from one of your tanks to another of your tanks, but to play it safe you should.

Curious why you didn't switch them back immediately once you noticed their reaction to the new water?


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