"Timothy E. Raborn" <Tim@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:111b1fojlank419@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 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
Assuming your water parameters are fine, your filtration adequate, the
fish being purchased relatively healthy and you have no ability/desire to
do a proper quarantine, then:
Let your stock go low, clean your filter, start feeding your fish very
well, then after a week or two, add all the fish (plants etc) you want,
as juveniles, in a very brief period (ie: 3 days). Do a water change
prior to adding the new fish, to approximately match the level of NO3 in
your tank to the NO3 in the fish bags, and to approximately match the
water hardness. Effectively, this has now made your tank into a
quarantine tank. The chances of your original fish surviving is not very
good, so expect losses. They have lived disease-free sheltered lives,
and the combination of fresh new diseases on their sleepy immune systems
is often fatal, especially with smaller fish. The extra feeding for the
2 weeks between filter cleaning and adding new fish has improved your
fish's health and boosted your good bacteria count (to process waste).
Now, feed sparingly while checking ammonia levels. You should not be
cleaning the filter at this point, or until you have gone a couple of
weeks with no NH3/4 or NO2, only with NO3. Don't be afraid to do lots of
water changes at any time, but in reasonable quantities, with water of
similar characteristics to your tank water. After a month, the survivors
will be your new stock.
Probably not the ideal way to do it, but a good way to do a non-ideal
way. ymmv
--
www.NetMax.tk
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