I'm losing a fish!!

[RawketGurl]

Actually two of my new black tetras have been acting weird. One is hanging by himself in a cave in the tank and has been doing that for a couple days.

Another appears to be going fast. Barely has any strength to swim, has been laying down on the bottom of the tank on his side a couple times tonight. Not sure what is wrong or what to do...

The others seem fine, I've seen all of them (including the sick looking ones- I thought) eat...

Ammonia is 0
NitrIte is 0
NitrAte is 0

The tank is cycled,

The fish (6 tetras and 2 oto's) have been in the tank since Tuesday...I'm kind of at a loss here...

None of the fish appear bloated or anything

[RawketGurl]

Well, we lost him.


I'm thinking it might just have been stress of transport and perhaps he was injured when he was being caught. He was little too, so I guess he was a runt.

Still sad all the same, lost my first fish

And I was trying so hard too!

[Yipee]

This is strange bcos if it was supposely problems with stress and water parameters, the otos should be the more delicate ones compared to your black skirts. Do your black skirts exhibit any of the following:
1. Loss of fins(normally tail and dorsal fins may be somehow nipped at the store)
2. Eye color different from rest
3. Scales look somehow abnormal
4. Faded Coloring
5. Deformaties in any parts

[RinsMom]

Sometimes it is something you don't see at all.....  it may not have been a healthy fish to begin with... you never know what happens at the fish store or during transit.

Also, sometimes when they are being caught, the fish associate catches the ones that are EASY to catch... meaning the ones that may already be ill!

[Yipee]

In fish farms they raise fry in concrete ponds and place a net at the bottom of the pond, when it is time for those fishes to be sold they pull the net up and both healthy and sick are in. The type of catching you mentioned is done in the wild. But in your case the black skirts are commercially bred.

[Yipee]

Yup it may be something inside but a symptom may give us a clue on what is wrong inside.

[RawketGurl]

None of the other fish are showing symptoms of anything. Except the one oto doesnt move around as much as the other one. But I think that one was hurt and overstressed when I was adding him because he got stuck in a wrinkle at the bottom of the bag.

Another of the tetras is hiding a lot and a bit away from the other four, but it has always done that since I added them, its the smallest, and its being picked on.

The one that died was added a day later as a campanion to the one that was being picked on, forgot to mention that, but it was from the same tank.

The oto's were from a different store, and I know I should have waited to add them but they are eating and seem to be doing fine, just the one is a little dopey.

Three of the larger oto's have faded colouring now, but they are very active and seem fine other than that. There is no other noticible abnormalities with the tetras...

[Cholly]

Like you mentioned, it may have had a non-visible injury or like RinsMom mentioned it could have been sick to begin with.
Nitrates are zero? If the first two are zero with live fish in the tank, you should have readable nitrates.

[RawketGurl]

well nitrates were very very low.
ammonia and nitrites were unreadable so I'm assuming the bacteria is alive and well because the fish have been in there a week.

[kisses4alexandra]

I keep neon tetras, and I had the same problem during my first week or two of keeping fish. I had a couple just die out of nowhere. They appeared fine when I introduced them to the tank, but then after a day or two, they would deteriorate very fast. I thought I was doing something wrong, but I think that the fish that I lost were weakened or damaged somehow, due to conditions beyond my control.

The six tetras that I have now have been alive and well for about 2 months now, with no signs of illness. I think that there was just an initial "weeding out," if you will, of the weak ones. Probably the change in environment put more stress than they could handle on their already stressed immune systems.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's much you can do except continue with proper treatment of them. As long as water parameters are fine, and you're feeding them well, then hopefully you won't lose any more.