Endler dying after 24 hours

[firstname-lastname]

Hi all, yesterday I got some endlers (my first livebearers) however I noticed today one of the females is twitching on the bottom of the tank.

The parameters are 0s across the board for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate as the quarantine tank was re-established (with filter from another tank) yesterday prior to getting the endlers. I did check to make sure though.

I don't have a pH or hardness kit at the moment but it's usually 7.4pH out of the tap and hard (lids get very crusty with calcium).

I have attached pictures of the fish in question but I can't see anything other than it being a bit darker than the other females.

Any idea if this is just due to the stress of moving to a new home, or there might be some diseases in these fish.

 

Thanks in advance

[firstname-lastname]

Sadly, she passed away. I will keep the rest in quarantine for a while (I was planning on it anyway as one of them was so small I think she'd get eaten by tankmates)

[Colu]

On 6/27/2021 at 10:36 AM, firstname-lastname said:

Sadly, she passed away. I will keep the rest in quarantine for a while (I was planning on it anyway as one of them was so small I think she'd get eaten by tankmates)

With out noing your pH and harness it difficult to give a diagnosis my best guess would be osmotic shock if your pH and hardness are very different from where they  came from it can cause osmotic shock I would recommend getting a pH and GH kH test kit 

Edited June 27, 2021 by Colu

[Seahorse]

I am new to fishkeeping so my questions may seem silly but how would one know the pH and hardness of the lfs they came from or I guess a better question is, how does one correct for that difference to avoid osmotic shock when putting new fish in my quarantine tank?  TIA

[Rob E.]

On 6/27/2021 at 12:42 PM, Seahorse said:

I am new to fishkeeping so my questions may seem silly but how would one know the pH and hardness of the lfs they came from or I guess a better question is, how does one correct for that difference to avoid osmotic shock when putting new fish in my quarantine tank?  TIA

Most places are happy to tell you what kind of water they have.  In my experience, moving fish from soft water to hard water is normally not a problem.  I have hard water, so I've never tried going the other way.  If I had soft water, I might add salt to the quarantine tank and reduce the amount over time. 

In regards to the original post, It would be difficult to know the journey of this endler.  The LFS may have the same water as the customer, but it may have come from a farm with hard/brackish water and only been at the store for a short period of time.  It could also be just weak genetics.   Unfortunately, when things like this happen, we may never really know.

[Seahorse]

Thanks Rob, I never thought to ask my local fish store about their water hardness or pH.  BTW, I have never had any success with Endlers, may be the supplier my lfs get them from but they never do as well as my little mutt guppies. 😊

[firstname-lastname]

On 6/27/2021 at 9:41 PM, Colu said:

With out noing your pH and harness it difficult to give a diagnosis my best guess would be osmotic shock if your pH and hardness are very different from where they  came from it can cause osmotic shock I would recommend getting a pH and GH kH test kit 

Yeah I really should get some testers, but the LFS is on the same water grid as me and should have pretty similar parameters unless they use RO water for all of their tanks or something.

Is it possible that she died from childbirth, as I just spotted a fry in my tank this morning?

[Colu]

It could have had complications from giving birth 

[RonBFree]

My guess is you water parameters were different than the supplier.  The other factor is how you acclimate the new arrivals to the new tank.  It is not enough to just float the bag in the tank for awhile to even out the temperature.  I would suggest using the drip method on the new arrivals.  They other method I use is to place the new fish in a shallow bucket with an air stone and every hour add 1/4 quarter cup on your tank water to them until you have doubled the amount of water.  After a few hours then I flout them in a bag to even out the temperature.  A few hours later I feed baby brine shrimp and continue to do for about 5 days.  No scientific data to support my method.  It's just what I find works for me.