Losing fish in quarantine overnight

[Kailani]

I’m quite new to the hobby having only had cherry barbs and Betta fish. I apologize for such a long post.
I got 5 albino corys, 5 otocinclus and 3 cherry barbs yesterday that seemed fine so I put them in my quarantine tank (after acclimation) with the aquarium co-op med trio but when I woke up in the morning I had lost 3 albino corydoras and 1 otocinclus.  I walked away from the tank to get my test kits and when I got back another Cory was on its side not moving so I netted it out and into the container the other dead fish were in but out of the corner of my eye I saw it’s water move so I took a video of what I think is the Cory gasping and stuck on its side. ( I can’t figure out how to upload videos though…) Not wanting to leave it in that cup I put him back in the tank. he kinda barrel rolled to the bottom and laid on its side again sadly I don’t think he’ll last long. 
I did some water tests that showed at least to me that everything was in safe  parameters ( the api ammonia test is bright yellow) water temperature is around  80

I must be doing something wrong I just don’t know what. can anyone enlighten me?

this is a photo of the one living fish when it was in the container with the ones that had passed

 

 

side note: while the barbs are swimming around and seem fine one has a “pimple” like thing below it’s mouth I don’t know if I should be concerned about

 

 

Edited November 30, 2022 by Kailani

[Kailani]

On 11/30/2022 at 12:24 PM, Pepere said:

Losing fish is always depressing… and frustrating.

 

were these  shipped fish or from local fish store?

how did you acclimate them to your quarantine tank?

Did you add aquarium salt to the med trio?  

 

They are from a local store. 
 

the woman that helped me in the store told me to let them sit in the bag in the tank for at least 20 minutes before I put them in, so they were put into the tank after about 40 minutes of floating in bags.

I have live aquarium plants in my quarantine tank thinking it helps water quality so i didn’t add any salt.

[Kurt Brutting]

If your quarantine tank is a new system or just cycled I would be careful adding so many fish at once. 
I would personally add one group at a time just to be safe. So I would get the cheapest fish 1st. Once in the quarantine tank for a couple weeks then add the next group of fish.

When I 1st started in the hobby I lost 8 cardinal tetras and I was very upset so I know your pain. Don’t give up and try and stay positive. Adding beneficial bacteria might help your situation. Fritz Zyme 7 might help. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/30/2022 at 2:10 PM, Kailani said:

water temperature is around  80

The betta wants high temps (80) and the other fish would want a lower temp generally.   That could be causing some stress on those species, which could be leading to the losses.  I'm not saying this is the cause, but just a note and that this could be a factor here.  Higher temps would reduce lifespan on those species long term, generally speaking.  I would keep them at 74-76 and keep the betta at 80 degrees.

Cherry barb: https://www.fishkeepingworld.com/cherry-barb/
Albino Corydoras: https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=51
Betta: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/betta-fish-care-guide

On 11/30/2022 at 2:10 PM, Kailani said:

( I can’t figure out how to upload videos though…)

upload it to youtube, mark it as unlisted, then paste the link here.

On 11/30/2022 at 2:10 PM, Kailani said:

I must be doing something wrong I just don’t know what. can anyone enlighten me?

First, welcome to the forums, and hopefully we can help you sort this out and have a better experience with the hobby!

Whenever you see corydoras struggling, the first thing I often do is check equipment and verify everything is working.  Second thing I do is add an extra airstone.  They generally like highly oxygenated water and that usually helps them with any stress situations.  Especially in QT, that might be a good thing to do! Otocinclus are similar as well.

Your testing results look fine.  I think this is purely a temperature thing, maybe a meds dosage thing, or it could just be acclimation stress causing issues.

Edited December 1, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Kailani]

On 11/30/2022 at 1:45 PM, Kurt Brutting said:

If your quarantine tank is a new system or just cycled I would be careful adding so many fish at once. 
I would personally add one group at a time just to be safe. So I would get the cheapest fish 1st. Once in the quarantine tank for a couple weeks then add the next group of fish.

When I 1st started in the hobby I lost 8 cardinal tetras and I was very upset so I know your pain. Don’t give up and try and stay positive. Adding beneficial bacteria might help your situation. Fritz Zyme 7 might help. 

Thank you for the advice and encouragement. I’ll look into getting some beneficial bacteria.
adding too many fish at once was definitely not smart of me. I’d used the growing plants method as well as adding a sponge filter and air stone that’d been running in my main display tank for over a year so I thought it’d be okay based on what I’ve seen people do online but they were experts so I must have messed up somewhere.

[Kailani]

On 11/30/2022 at 1:54 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The betta wants high temps (80) and the other fish would want a lower temp generally.   That could be causing some stress on those species, which could be leading to the losses.  I'm not saying this is the cause, but just a note and that this could be a factor here.  Higher temps would reduce lifespan on those species long term, generally speaking.  I would keep them at 74-76 and keep the betta at 80 degrees.

Cherry barb: https://www.fishkeepingworld.com/cherry-barb/
Albino Corydoras: https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=51
Betta: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/betta-fish-care-guide

upload it to youtube, mark it as unlisted, then paste the link here.

First, welcome to the forums, and hopefully we can help you sort this out and have a better experience with the hobby!

Whenever you see corydoras struggling, the first thing I often do is check equipment and verify everything is working.  Second thing I do is add an extra airstone.  They generally like highly oxygenated water and that usually helps them with any stress situations.  Especially in QT, that might be a good thing to do! Otocinclus are similar as well.

Your testing results look fine.  I think this is purely a temperature thing, maybe a meds dosage thing, or it could just be acclimation stress causing issues.

Thank you for all the helpful links and advice.

I don’t have a betta currently as mine died of old age a few months ago. But I might get another one for my 5g tank later on.

i’m not at all a tech person but I’ll try to figure out the YouTube thing. 😅

I’ll try getting some more air stones to have on hand and add another. I only have one in my sponge filter right now which is the only equipment in my tank. I live in the tropics so I have a heater in case I need it to help medicate or some emergency but my tank’s temperature stays at 80 degrees so I’ll look up some methods for how people cool down their tanks in case.

I used the aquarium co-op med trio method of dosing all meds at once and watching for a week

[Kailani]

On 11/30/2022 at 2:19 PM, Pepere said:

I have heard Otocinculus can be awfully hard to get through quarantine due to feeding issues, but I wouldnt expect overnight to be an issue.

 

Albino Cories are usually fairly easy to adjust.

Nothing really jumps out at me.  
 

as a general rule I place fish in a quarantine tank with lights out and leave them alone overnight and feed them the next day and observe them closely. If there is no sign of disease I observe closely and feed lightly twice a day for a few days before introducing quarantine meds.  I figure it gives them a few days to destress.

 

I avoid Aquarium salt with cories myself as I had a bad run with it with 3 out of 4 dying within days.  I am assuming it was the salt, but I dont know for sure.  I have read conflicting accounts regarding it.

Is there any possibility of some contamination in the tank?  Cleaning product, skin lotion, soap?

 

Again, nothing you report seems to jump out to me.  80 degrees does not seem sufficient to be the issue.  Some guides report 72 to 82…

Sometimes it can be a bad batch…. As an aside I find that most fish that make it through the first 3-4 days do fine as long as you dont make mistakes.  Before that time, I have seen fish die with nothing that I could tell I did wrong…

I was expecting difficulty with the otos eating because I heard that too. I got some brown diatom algae in the tank to hopefully help them eat along with wafers and repashy so I’d have options.

i got albinos because people have said they’re a hardy fish so when I found so many died in the morning I started freaking out that something was really wrong with the tank I just couldn’t figure it out.

i rinsed the tank only with water and left it to air dry because I was afraid of not rinsing it well enough and accidentally leaving chemicals in the tank so maybe not using chemicals to make sure it was 100% sterile is part of the problem…

in the time I posted this till now the last two Cory’s died along with another oto but unlike the first one the second has a badly curved spine. I’m still testing and watching the tank but I still can’t pinpoint my issue. 

[Kailani]

On 11/30/2022 at 4:25 PM, Pepere said:

Your prep of the tank sounds fine.

I had Albino Cories as a kid. As I remember they were problem free.

 

Have you reached out to the fish store?

I’m going to try calling the store tonight. 
when I got the fish the woman working said she wasn’t a fish person so she could only answer my questions about having all fish tank run on local water with water conditioner and whether they medicate the fish in shop or not. 
I’d never been to this store before that so hopefully their fish person is in 

 

[nabokovfan87]

Very unfortunate.  Tetras would do better at that temp.  I can't recall a bunch off the top of my head, but there are a majority of groups of other species that will do better at the 78-80 degrees.  Rams especially (not with a betta) do well there.

Is the tank you have running now with the heater or is that ambient air temp?  I just wanted to clarify.

Sometimes you buy a heater and it's set to 78 degrees.  The tolerance on them can be 78+2 which puts you at 80-81 degrees.  Some people use an external controller (heater plugs into it, secondary thermometer probe goes into the tank to read the temp with a bit better accuracy)

[Colu]

It's possible it's a reaction to the medication and medication can change the viscosity of the water lowering levels of desolve oxygen what I would do is water change out the medication add any extra air stone and add a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table for 5 gallons that will aid Gill function and add essential electrolytes @Kailani

[Kailani]

On 11/30/2022 at 4:44 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Very unfortunate.  Tetras would do better at that temp.  I can't recall a bunch off the top of my head, but there are a majority of groups of other species that will do better at the 78-80 degrees.  Rams especially (not with a betta) do well there.

Is the tank you have running now with the heater or is that ambient air temp?  I just wanted to clarify.

Sometimes you buy a heater and it's set to 78 degrees.  The tolerance on them can be 78+2 which puts you at 80-81 degrees.  Some people use an external controller (heater plugs into it, secondary thermometer probe goes into the tank to read the temp with a bit better accuracy)

Both of my display tanks and quarantine tank don’t have heaters. At ambient temperature the tanks stay around 80 all year around but I have a heater in case of emergency but it’s not in a tank at the moment

[Kailani]

On 11/30/2022 at 4:45 PM, Colu said:

It's possible it's a reaction to the medication and medication can change the viscosity of the water lowering levels of desolve oxygen what I would do is water change out the medication add any extra air stone and add a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table for 5 gallons that will aid Gill function and add essential electrolytes @Kailani

Thank you for the help and advice.

I was able to talk to the owner of the local shop I got the fish from and he said something similar. he said he doesn’t believe in preemptively medicate fish, only adding anything that isn’t water conditioner when you have to.

only the Cory’s seemed to be breathing hard and sadly they all passed away but I went out and bought a second air stone to hopefully help the remaining fish. since the shop owner couldn’t find any issue he could give me an answer for he told me to keep testing for ammonia and make sure there’s no temperature fluctuation but other then that just wait and see for a week. I’ll do that for a bit but if I lose another fish I think I’ll change out the water to get the meds out and see if that helps them.