what can i do to make sure my other fish are ok?

[moonstone630]

i had 3 10 gallon tanks to begin with.  5 tiger barbs in one, 3 glo fish, 3 zebra danios & 5 mollies in another and a jellybean parrot cichlid, a pink kissing gourami and a placosomus in the other.  3 days ago i bought a 40 gallon tank in order to combine the 3 tanks to give my fish more space.  all of the fish seem fine and are getting along great.  the only problem is that 4 out of 5 of my tiger barbs have died since i moved them.  i moved the one remaining tiger back into his original tank hoping to save him.  any ideas why this is happening?  the other fish all seem fine and appear happy with their new home.  i have 2 fake coral reef caves, a small rock decoration some fake plants and two little signs along with the gravel in the tank for decoration at the moment.  water temp is at 78 degrees.  the tiger barbs all seemed fine and were swimming around playing with each other  an hour before we found them dead

[onebettarepublic]

If the tank has just been set up it could be "new tank syndrome" I can't say that for sure....Did you use any water out of your ten gallons or media to seed the new tank, ? New tanks need to cycle and take some time to have established bacteria beds, It could be they succummed to ammonia poisioning....Putting all the fish in a new tank at once can cause this....Read up on cycling if your not sure about this...

[shadowcat330]

Im glad you got a 40 gallon tank becuase, I may be new to fish but those kissers get to be 1 foot sometimes i think the same with your placosomus.
is your kisser fish pretty timid?? i know mine is unless its feeding time

[moonstone630]

yeah that's why we got a bigger tank.  the kisser isn't bad now, but when i first got him i got another one at the same time and he would chase it around.  since that one died he's been fine.  he gets along great with my jellybean. the two of them are always together it seems.

i didn't use any water but the gravel and decorations are all from the other tanks.

[wendyjo]

If you didn't transfer over the filter media then you tank has to cycle.  You need to check for ammonia and nitrites daily and do water changes as needed or you will probably lose more fish.

[Yipee]

Transferring such a large amount of fish to a new tank that's not yet cycled might cause a spike in ammonia levels, did you test for ammonia? Even though some "good" bacteria might be on the decor and gravel, most of it is in the filter media so you ought to bring the filter media over too.