"Tedd Jacobs" <Jacobs@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:cv43l201j3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "Timothy E. Raborn" wrote...
> > I'm having problems adding new fish to my 30 gallon freshwater tank.
(I
> > typically keep guppies and neon tetras in my tank with a pleco or
two).
> >
> > All the water levels are fine, temp is fine, etc. (ph is actually a
little
> > high at 7.6, but that doesn't seem to be a problem). My tank can go
for
> > months with no problems. The fish will be healthy, the tank is kept
clean
> > through water changes, etc.
> >
> > THEN
> >
> > I can introduce a couple of fish to the tank (from either of two pet
> > stores in my area -- one a very large national chain -- the other a
local
> > mom & pop outfit). I always end up with a diseased tank with many
fish
> > dying off in the process.
> >
> > This happened about 8 or 10 months ago and I lost all of my fish
except
> > about 6 or 7 baby guppies and one neon tetra. I was so frustrated
that
I
> > didn't add any new fish. Felt sorry for the lonely tetra, but he
seemed
> > to be OK even without some buddies to school with - in fact he got
pretty
> > darn big. The guppies eventually grew to full adult size and were
quite
> > nice.
> >
> > I finally decided to give the tetra some playmates and added new ones
to
> > the tank. Within a few days, my entire tank except one pleco was
dead.
> > There were no signs of disease and no warning of any kind. The fish
would
> > look fine before going to bed and by morning, I'd find 2 or 3
floaters.
I
> > did not add the water from the pet store to the tank. After properly
> > acclimating the fish to the new water (by adding small amounts of
water
> > from my tank to their bag over a period of about 30 minutes), I netted
> > them into the tank rather than just pouring them in.
> >
> > Actually, in the 3 or 4 years I've had my tank, this has been a
chronic
> > problem -- usually I'd lose a few fish -- but this time it was really
> > severe and I'm royally pissed about it.
> >
> > Is there some preventative measure I should take when adding fish?
I'm
> > thinking of treating the tank for disease when I add new fish just as
a
> > preventative measure, but until I know what causes such a quick death
with
> > no warning signs, I really don't know what to treat it for.
> >
> > Any help is appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > -Tim
>
> use a quarentine tank(*) and quarentine the fish for about two weeks
before
> introducing them to the main tank.
>
> *usually a ten gallon works fine and is cheap, easy to set up and clean,
and
> stows away farily easily. you can in most cases get away with setting it
up
> the day before with a handfull of substrate (or better yet, filter
material)
> and water from your main tank.
>
>
I totally agree with Ted here about getting a quarentine tank if it is
physically possible. I'd also check out what quarentine regime they use at
your LFS with new stock - in the ones I use you will often see whole tanks
of fish marked as "aclimitizing" and they will not sell these for a couple
of weeks. Also would be worth checking out what water maintenance regime
they use and try and get them to tell you the PH etc. - a good LFS should
tell you this. I heard a story recently of a local "national chain" that
used the same water/filtration system for all of their fish and ended up
with the majority having to be taken off sale because of disease. So I
would
advise checking out the general health of all the stock that they carry
not
just the ones that you are interested in.
Another option, of course, is to look elsewhere for your fish.....
Sorry to hear about your losses :-(
Hope this helps some
Gill
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