[ptfan]

We started our tank on Jan 1st of this year. Not knowing better we placed 4 glow light tetras in our ten gallon tank and did frequent water changes and they survived the tank cycling. Had we known better we would have ammonia cycled the tank.

On 2/26 we did a 50% water change on the tank and then traveled to the local fish store where the tank passed the water test (they declared it cycled). This is a store that specializes in fish.

The tank is 10 gallons and has live plants and a few inert rocks and an oversized HOB filter.

We added 5 endlers to the tank (3 male and 2 female) as well as two cherry shrimp (one male, one female) This was Saturday about 4PM. Sunday all of the fish look fine. One of the glow light Tetras is nipping at the female endlers however they seem fine and eventually find a safe spot in the tank.

Monday morning three of the tetras are dead or dying with only one alive. We perform a 50% water change and head to the fish store. The new fish had been in the tank 36-39 hours before the tetras died.

The local fish store owner (in business for 20 years) examines the dead tetras and sees no obvious signs or clues. Water tests fine.

We did feed the shrimp a shrimp food that the tetras got to first.

Any thoughts? - Eric

 

[goodbytes]

First thing that comes to mind is that you should have quarantined the new stock for a few weeks before introducing them into a tank with established livestock. If some of those Endlers drop dead then you'll know they brought something in with them. If there are no signs or symptoms of any disease though then what it might be is anyone's guess. I had a similar experience myself where I added a Dwarf Gourami to a tank with 10 Harlequin Rasboras. The Dwarf died with a few bizarre symptoms and within a week all of the Rasboras except one were dead without showing any discernible symptoms.

Second thought is who the heck knows what test a fish store is running. I honestly wouldn't trust it. Sure they're a specialty fish store--y'know once when I was young and naive, I took my car to a place that specializes in oil changes and wouldn'tcha know, they didn't tighten the oil plug enough and it leaked all over my driveway. Now I change my own oil. If you're into that testing sort of thing you should just get your own test kit and DIY. They're not very expensive or difficult to use and you can rely on the results because you know for sure some hack didn't do it.