# Fish dying?



## Rohkey (Apr 25, 2011)

Have a 30g tank and the last couple days I purchased 2 ADF's, 8 Cherry Barbs, and 6 Ghost Shrimp. They looked to be doing well but when I came home today one of the male barbs (3 males 5 females atm) was hanging at the surface (which they rarely do) alone and his mouth/gills are opening and closing rapidly. He then floated listless next to the heater (it was off) for a while and went down midway from the tank and then came up as if he wanted to jump out, but instead he did a couple spirals and swam upside down for a second. He doesn't look so good and is completely separated from the rest of the fish which seem happy and are hanging out near the plants.

Ammonia under .25 ppm.
Nitrite at 0
Nitrate at 10-20 ppm.
pH at 7.5

He has been in the tank for only a day. Is there anything I can do to help him out? Probably just a bad fish? I fed them all bloodworms last night and I noticed one of the males wasn't interested while the rest gorged themselves, perhaps this is the same fish. When I noticed him at the top I tossed in a couple worms and he ignored them so I netted the food out.

I acclimated all my fish the same. I bought some Tupperware just for this purpose and put them in a container (after washing the Tupperware with water only and letting it dry) with the water from their aquarium and about every 10 minutes put half a cup of my aquarium water in and took a half a cup or so of the original water out. After nearly an hour I put 2 cups of my tank water in and let them sit for another 20 mins or so before gently netting them and placing them in my tank.

Any suggestions?


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## Rohkey (Apr 25, 2011)

Now he keeps spiral-swimming while completely vertical from the bottom of the tank to the top of the tank, inverting himself and doing all sorts of 'tricks' before going back upright. There is also a large white/yellow spot on the base of his 2nd dorsal fin and he continues to gasp/etc while none of the other fish are showing signs of distress. Added 2 tablespoons of aquarium salt (wanted to do so eventually anyways).


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Sadly, that fish probably has nothing you can do for it. Not that it is related, never liked that method of acclimation. It is better than nothing, but only a little better. Drip acclimation is the best method.


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## Rohkey (Apr 25, 2011)

jrman83 said:


> Sadly, that fish probably has nothing you can do for it. Not that it is related, never liked that method of acclimation. It is better than nothing, but only a little better. Drip acclimation is the best method.


Figured as much. As for acclimation, I'm not much of a handy man...didn't think it would make too big of a different if I did it the way I did it versus the 'drip' method, for my next batch of fish I'll probably attempt to rig something up though.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

All you need is your container and some air-line tubing.


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## Rohkey (Apr 25, 2011)

I think the Barb could have Neon Tetra Disease, it looks a lot like this picture 

http://www.sobrepeixes.com/arquivos...-do-neon-89b3a5a1600937af708f5e6e787c8ab6.jpg

About.com has an article on the disease and states

"During the initial stages, the only symptom may be restlessness, particularly at night. *Often the first thing an owner will notice is that the affected fish no longer school with the others. Eventually swimming becomes more erratic, and it becomes quite obvious that the fish is not well.

As the disease progresses, affected muscle tissue begins to turn white, generally starting within the color band and areas along the spine*."

Bolded part is an exact description of what is going on, and I wouldn't really have noticed restlessness since I interpreted my Barbs chasing each other around and being active as a positive sign, at night I turn the light off and don't observe the fish much since I'm sleeping obviously.

Looks like I have to separate the little guy and let him die...I'm worried because the article also mentions there is no cure and my fish could all be at risk now, especially since they only came from 2 locations (3 from one Petsmart, 5 from another). Going to have to wait a while before purchasing new fish and have to monitor my existing fish...

Even if I am misdiagnosing the fish, there is probably bacteria/parasites affecting the fin and I should get him the hell out of the tank, right?


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