fish stress?
 

Hello,

I have a tank that has cycled once, and I put four new damsels in
(there are three others in already and they are happy). I brought them
home, and they were in trouble it seems, as soon as they hit the water.
They appear to be gasping at the surface for breath, and their colour
has changed to an unhealthy dark. I took all my levels, Amonia, Nitrite
and Nitrate at 0 (as far as my test kit reads), and PH was about 7.9.
Salinity was perfect. So I am really curious as to why these fish have
died? The only thing I can think is that this is stress. Is that
possible? Ideas/comments more than welcome!

S.


--


-- GNU/Linux is user friendly... it's just picky about its friends.

fish stress?
 

I have a tank that has cycled once, and I put four new damsels in
(there are three others in already and they are happy). I brought them
home, and they were in trouble it seems, as soon as they hit the water.
They appear to be gasping at the surface for breath, and their colour
has changed to an unhealthy dark. I took all my levels, Amonia, Nitrite
and Nitrate at 0 (as far as my test kit reads), and PH was about 7.9.
Salinity was perfect. So I am really curious as to why these fish have
died? The only thing I can think is that this is stress. Is that
possible? Ideas/comments more than welcome!

I wonder what you did with the fish when you got home from the fish shop
did you just pore them into the tank ?

David

fish stress?
 

david wrote:
I have a tank that has cycled once, and I put four new damsels in
(there are three others in already and they are happy). I brought them
home, and they were in trouble it seems, as soon as they hit the water.
They appear to be gasping at the surface for breath, and their colour
has changed to an unhealthy dark. I took all my levels, Amonia, Nitrite
and Nitrate at 0 (as far as my test kit reads), and PH was about 7.9.
Salinity was perfect. So I am really curious as to why these fish have
died? The only thing I can think is that this is stress. Is that
possible? Ideas/comments more than welcome!


I wonder what you did with the fish when you got home from the fish shop
did you just pore them into the tank ?

David


Hey,

I don't have a spare tank so I put the bag into my main tank and let it
sit for about 30 minutes. Then use a net to catch them and place them
into the main tank water. I have never really had a problem doing this!

S.
--


-- GNU/Linux is user friendly... it's just picky about its friends.

fish stress?
 

Hey,

I don't have a spare tank so I put the bag into my main tank and let it
sit for about 30 minutes. Then use a net to catch them and place them
into the main tank water. I have never really had a problem doing this!

S.
--
I sort of thought you may have done something like that.
What you did was to let the temp equalise, but the other water parameters
may have been
very different. Im not that good at explaining things. If your PH was out
just a little the shock
will kill the fish. There's lots of other things that they don't like to.

When I get a new fish I turn off the lights in the tank before I put the
bagged fish into the tank
after 10 - 15 mins I open the bag and add a little tank water into the bag
then 5 mins later I put
more tank water in the bag, if the bag is getting to full of water I pour
some water away down the drain
I never put any of lfs water in my tank. So by slowly adding tank water into
the bag the bag water
becomes more like the water in the tank and the fish don't get a massive
shock when I put them
in my tank.

adding new fish to your tank this way may help them survive.

David

no doubt someone will be along to post a link explaing this better.

fish stress?
 

david wrote:
Hey,

I don't have a spare tank so I put the bag into my main tank and let it
sit for about 30 minutes. Then use a net to catch them and place them
into the main tank water. I have never really had a problem doing this!

S.
--

I sort of thought you may have done something like that.
What you did was to let the temp equalise, but the other water parameters
may have been
very different. Im not that good at explaining things. If your PH was out
just a little the shock
will kill the fish. There's lots of other things that they don't like to.

When I get a new fish I turn off the lights in the tank before I put the
bagged fish into the tank
after 10 - 15 mins I open the bag and add a little tank water into the bag
then 5 mins later I put
more tank water in the bag, if the bag is getting to full of water I pour
some water away down the drain
I never put any of lfs water in my tank. So by slowly adding tank water into
the bag the bag water
becomes more like the water in the tank and the fish don't get a massive
shock when I put them
in my tank.

adding new fish to your tank this way may help them survive.

David

no doubt someone will be along to post a link explaing this better.


Hey,

I believe you are right in some sense in saying this. Silly me checked
all the levels on the lfs bag, except the salinity. Amonia, Nitrite and
Nitrate were all good in both. After reading your post, I went through
everything again, and this time checked the salinity on both. On my
tank, it was 1.024, and on the lfs bag, 1.022. I am assuming that this
is to much of a shock for them. Does gasping at the surface symtoms
match up with going from a 1.022 to 1.024 salinity? I have not been
able to find anything exact on this. I guess I got lucky bringing in
new fish in the past on this. Still new to this, and unfortunatly
learning at the cost of fish lives. :(

S.

--


-- GNU/Linux is user friendly... it's just picky about its friends.

fish stress?
 

What is your specific gravity? and your ph seems a little low to me try
using a ph buffer of approx 8.2 the older damsels would be ok with the lower
ph as they're aclimatised to it as opposed to your new stock. Hope that
helps.
"Steve Schreiber" sschreibATTmagmaDOTTca wrote in message
...
Hello,

I have a tank that has cycled once, and I put four new damsels in
(there are three others in already and they are happy). I brought them
home, and they were in trouble it seems, as soon as they hit the water.
They appear to be gasping at the surface for breath, and their colour
has changed to an unhealthy dark. I took all my levels, Amonia, Nitrite
and Nitrate at 0 (as far as my test kit reads), and PH was about 7.9.
Salinity was perfect. So I am really curious as to why these fish have
died? The only thing I can think is that this is stress. Is that
possible? Ideas/comments more than welcome!

S.


--


-- GNU/Linux is user friendly... it's just picky about its friends.

fish stress?
 

Hey,

The tanks Ph tested the same as the lfs bags, so I was not really
concerned with that. My specific gravity is 1.024, and with the
constant temperature the salinity is at 34/35. I am still thinking that
it was salinity shock.... As for the PH, I am having a hard time keeping
it up, I do use a buffer, so maybe it is the test kit I am using. I
would like to pick up an electronic one just to see how close it jives
with the kit! Thanks for the input!

S.

Andrew Mason wrote:
What is your specific gravity? and your ph seems a little low to me try
using a ph buffer of approx 8.2 the older damsels would be ok with the lower
ph as they're aclimatised to it as opposed to your new stock. Hope that
helps.
"Steve Schreiber" sschreibATTmagmaDOTTca wrote in message
...

Hello,

I have a tank that has cycled once, and I put four new damsels in
(there are three others in already and they are happy). I brought them
home, and they were in trouble it seems, as soon as they hit the water.
They appear to be gasping at the surface for breath, and their colour
has changed to an unhealthy dark. I took all my levels, Amonia, Nitrite
and Nitrate at 0 (as far as my test kit reads), and PH was about 7.9.
Salinity was perfect. So I am really curious as to why these fish have
died? The only thing I can think is that this is stress. Is that
possible? Ideas/comments more than welcome!

S.


--


-- GNU/Linux is user friendly... it's just picky about its friends.






--


-- GNU/Linux is user friendly... it's just picky about its friends.