Very Quick Harlequin Rasbora Deaths.

Author Topic: Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.  (Read 11213 times) 11 replies

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Offline Alex_N

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Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.
« on: March 25, 2016, 11:53:41 AM »
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I brought 6 H.R last week, for my newly cycled 180L tank, and it was a matter of days before I was left with just the one.
All the water tests were fine before purchase, all the fish were in good health.
There was no sign of any ill health on the dead fish and the remaining H.R has shown nothing either.
The only conclusion we (staff and myself) could come to is that they haven't travelled well, became stressed which caused their demise.
Has any one else got any theories?

Offline Richard W

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Re: Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2016, 11:56:52 AM »
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When you say that all tests were Ok, did that include nitrates? Did you do the very large water change required after cycling?
Another possibility is that the water parameters in your tank are very different from those in the shop, did you check their pH and hardness and compare to yours?

Offline Fiona

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Re: Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2016, 11:58:40 AM »
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I'm afraid not  :(  The only thing I can think of is that my might have recently arrived at the shop, the weaker fish that were stressed from that hadnt had a chance to die and they got doubly stressed by the move to your tank.

If your water parameters are fine and there's no sign of disease, thats all I can think of.

Offline Littlefish

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Re: Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2016, 12:23:53 PM »
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Sorry to hear about the sudden demise of your new fish, after you had done so much to make sure everything would be ok.  :(
Theory-wise I can't add anything to what I have already seen the others post.

Offline Alex_N

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Re: Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.
« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2016, 12:31:50 PM »
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Yeah I did do the large change, with frequent small changes ( mainly to replant, as I didn't plant deep enough ::)) and the nitrates were fine as well.
The shops ph is 6, or as close to neutral as possible, mines 7.5 (in that tank anyway) Not sure about the hardness, I can't remember what mine is off the top of my head, I would assume the shop is similar as it's only a 5 minute walk away. Not sure if it's possible to change the hardness or not.

Indeed Fiona, that's the only explanation we came up with.

Oh to add I brought a further 6 from the same store yesterday and they have been fine so far *fingers crossed*

Offline Alex_N

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Re: Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.
« Reply #5 on: March 25, 2016, 12:41:29 PM »
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Thanks Little Fish, it was extremely irritating and dissapointing.
Sorry Richard did you German hardness or general hardness? I have general hard water, not sure about KH though.

Offline Fiona

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Re: Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.
« Reply #6 on: March 25, 2016, 12:43:41 PM »
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I hope they gave you a refund

Offline Alex_N

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Re: Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2016, 12:54:25 PM »
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Sadly not, I lost the receipt but they did say "if it happens again we'll sort you out"

But I did only get the original 6 for 1.99 thanks to a dodgy till  :rotfl:

I am know thinking it's karma though  :-\
lol

Offline Richard W

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Re: Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.
« Reply #8 on: March 25, 2016, 01:02:01 PM »
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Hardness shouldn't be a problem if you are near to the shop.

I assume you meant that the pH of the shop water is 7 (not 6) as you say "as close to neutral as possible". If you did move them from pH 6 to 7.5, that would be a pretty big shock!

One thing people do wrongly (as a result of wrong advice) is to leave the fish floating in a bag in the tank for a long time to equalise the temperature. 5 minutes is long enough, leaving them a long time is stressful and allows ammonia to build up in the water in the bag.

Offline Alex_N

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Re: Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.
« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2016, 01:12:15 PM »
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I'm sure the guy said 6, it was a while ago so I could be mistaken.

Ahhh that could have been the issue, I left them for about 15/20 minutes once I got home.

Offline Richard W

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Re: Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2016, 01:19:08 PM »
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15 - 20 mins isn't very long, but might have contributed to stress. Still, I remain convinced that chemical factors are most likely involved, will be interested to hear how the new ones do. I can't imagine any disease that would have that sudden effect. Harlequins are robust when established, but can be quite sensitive at first, especially in a still immature tank.

Offline Richard W

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Re: Very quick Harlequin Rasbora deaths.
« Reply #11 on: March 25, 2016, 03:54:42 PM »
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There's no obligation for the shop to refund for fish which die shortly after they are sold. Especially in a case such as this, where 5 fish died quickly with no apparent sign of disease, the cause is almost certainly some form of shock, whether temperature, pH, nitrate or osmotic (caused by different concentrations of salts in the water). This is the responsibility of the purchaser, not the shop.

In terms of getting compensation or replacements, the following advice copied from Practical Fishkeeping is as good as any :

"Test your water immediately and take a sample from the tank straight away. Half a clean jam jar’s worth of aquarium water will be more than enough for any self- respecting retailer.
The first question you will be asked is what the water conditions are in your tank. If you don’t know you don’t have a strong case. Equally, if you don’t know but refuse to provide a water sample then it’s unlikely that any retailer will help you.
If testing reveals your water parameters are unsuited to the fish you purchased, or if you added it to a tank where ammonia or nitrite was rife, then you need to accept that you were responsible. Only if explicitly informed by the retailer that the fish would be fine in your conditions do you have grounds to hold them accountable."

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