Constantly have fish dying during 1st few days

[devind0446]

Hey all- So my problem is that every time I get new fish for my tanks, I have a huge problem getting the fish through the first week of having them. I have tried all different sorts of acclimation techniques and I still do not think I have bought a group of fish and had 100% survival. Most of the time its only like 50-60% survival rate. I have tried just floating the bag and letting them go, floating bag and then drip acclimation, and just drip acclimation and none have worked for me.

Today I picked up 7 neon tetras to add to my tank and I did 10 minutes of bag floating and then a 2 hour drip acclimation to double the amount of water. I put them in a quarantine tank with a cycled sponge filter and the quarantine med trio. I just went to check on them before going to bed and already had 1 little guy die on me.

Can anyone think of anything as to why I constantly have this issue. I feel like it isn't my store's fault because the fish always look healthy at the store and they are very reputable in my area.

Thanks for any help I can get!

Edit: Just wanted to add that I don't think its water parameters either. They are always tested before getting fish. Today that tank was 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10 nitrate, 7.5 pH, 79 degrees F.

Edited January 15, 2021 by devind0446

[FrozenFins]

I was going to say it was going to be a tank cycling issue but I don't beleive it is because the Nitrates are in check, Usually I like them a bit higher at 20ppm but its still fine.

As far as what could be happening, I have no clue.

[ChefConfit]

Without more info I have 2 guesses that can be checked easily.

1 what about your gh and kh? If hardness is vastly different from the water they came from it can cause osmotic shock and possibly death. Ask your store about their water hardness and compare it to yours. If that's the problem then the solution is longer and slower drip acclimation. Possibly see if you can get a few gallons of their water to use in the tank to start and do daily small water changes (like 5%) until you've got them on entirely your water. This would allow the mineral levels in the fish to normalize with you're water without causing shock. 

2 how do you treat your water? Do you use dechlorinator? Some people age their water to dechlorinate, but some areas use chloramine instead of chlorine which doesn't off gas. If you usually just age your water thy using a dechlorinator.

If both those check out then try to provide more info (any strange behavior, pictures or other observations) 

If this were happening to me I would double check my process first, then compare my water to the stores. If both checked out I would try again but once the fish are in quarantine I'd hold off on medications and observe for a few days making sure to feed well. Then I'd start the med trio if nothing seems off with the fish. Medicine itself can be a cause of stress sometimes so if a fish is already weakened that can be what puts it over the edge. 

Edited January 15, 2021 by ChefConfit
Can't type

[Wes L.]

The two questions above are definitely important and I'd be interested in hearing the answers also. But on another note...I had this happen one time to me with a gold fish tank of all things. The fish wouldn't live in there more than 24 hours, and the tank was a few years old and well established. Then it clicked....I bought a small piece of driftwood from my LFS and this is the only time in my life I didn't boil the driftwood before I put it in the tank. I yanked it out and boiled it, drained all the water and then refilled. I put the boiled wood back in, and now it's 2 years later and not one death since I boiled the wood. So clearly there was some kind of bacteria most likely in the wood. That was the only time I've had fish die like that.