Boraras brigittae dying.

[mo sheng ren]

Hi, just wanna to check does anyone having problem with keeping boraras brigittae. I having boraras brigittae keep on dying for no reason and my tank with shrimps (20+ cherry, couple rili and 10 crs), 4 corys, 2 oto and 2 lamp eye are fine. I recently reset up my whole tank and now been 2 weeks. When i intro boraras brigittae into the tank, after next day or couple days later, they just died. So i'm not sure what wrong?

Sorry i didn't check my water parameter and i did a water change for couple of times during this 2 weeks (40-50%), recently Singapore weather is quite cooling so i got a fan cooling temperature of 24-26'C (75-78'F).

[RiverAquatics]

Without knowing your water parameters and tank size it's hard to offer advice.

I've kept them so here's my experience and knowledge:

1. very small but kept like most tropical fish, no special needs other than provide proper water conditions, see Google for help

2. relatively new to the fish hobbyists, some are tank breed but many are probably wild caught which may be your issue. I have a few wild caught Nannostomus mortenthaleri (red pencil) for about a year now but it took them a long time to adjust

3. though small they like to swim and be busy, they may be stressed in small quarters (small aquariums)

Hope this helps

(PS) - resetting your tank? You may have had problems with your cycle (mini cycle)

[mo sheng ren]

Without knowing your water parameters and tank size it's hard to offer advice.

I've kept them so here's my experience and knowledge:

1. very small but kept like most tropical fish, no special needs other than provide proper water conditions, see Google for help

2. relatively new to the fish hobbyists, some are tank breed but many are probably wild caught which may be your issue. I have a few wild caught Nannostomus mortenthaleri (red pencil) for about a year now but it took them a long time to adjust

3. though small they like to swim and be busy, they may be stressed in small quarters (small aquariums)

Hope this helps

(PS) - resetting your tank? You may have had problems with your cycle (mini cycle)

Thanks for the reply, my test kit used up, will try get a new set.

My tank is 40cm x 25cm x 25cm, having a shiruba xb301 filter. I'm not sure could it be strong water flow got them stress up, I know boraras brigittae is gentle fish.

Yes, i resetting my tank with new soil, mean i need to have a proper 1-2 week. I add BT-9 under the soil.

[HYUN007]

They prefer acidic water.
What is the PH of your tank?

I have them in a PH 7 and PH 5.5 tank.
The first batch in a PH7, 3 out of 5 survive. (1 died of transport stress and the other died while I was away for holiday)
The second batch in the PH5.5, 5 out of 5 survive.

What kind of plants do you have in your tank?
You need to check ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in your tank.
A picture of your tank will be good as well.

[mo sheng ren]

They prefer acidic water.
What is the PH of your tank?

I have them in a PH 7 and PH 5.5 tank.
The first batch in a PH7, 3 out of 5 survive. (1 died of transport stress and the other died while I was away for holiday)
The second batch in the PH5.5, 5 out of 5 survive.

What kind of plants do you have in your tank?
You need to check ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in your tank.
A picture of your tank will be good as well.

Thanks, I will post the picture once image is approve by administrator.
I will get a test kit soon and update my tank parameter.
Was busy with Chinese New Year and work.

[mo sheng ren]

i got a test kit JBL Easy test strips 6 in 1.. got a test and the result is..

NO3 - 0
NO2 - 0
GH - 7
KH - 6
PH - 6.4
CI2 - 0

so i still not sure how come boraras brigittae still dying.?

[Ecalyte]

i got a test kit JBL Easy test strips 6 in 1.. got a test and the result is..

NO3 - 0
NO2 - 0
GH - 7
KH - 6
PH - 6.4
CI2 - 0

so i still not sure how come boraras brigittae still dying.?

How come you never learn your lesson from AQ? Now you come to an International forum that does not know your history of reckless fish keeping..

2 weeks is NOT enough for you to cycle a tank. You should never, EVER judge a cycling tank by a time period. Only the water will let you know when it's done cycling. The test strips that you bought are almost as useless as not having any. It will only provide a general indication. Want an example? With the amount of life stock you have in such a small tank, there is ZERO chance that your Nitrate is zero. Unless you stuffed your entire tank with horn worts and floaters.

Not only that.. doing a 40-50% water change is hazardous. Especially since I know for sure you didn't adjust the water you changed to similar parameters as the one in the tank. How could you know if you don't have proper test kits?

I hope the others reading this don't get offended by the harsh tone that I'm using. It's just that he killed half his lifestock previously and asked for help on another forum. We gave him tons and tons of information, help and advice.. including pointing out the bad things that he was doing and how to rectify it. After reading this, he obviously didn't read any of the advice and continued his reckless way of fish-keeping.

mo sheng ren, are you trying to go from forum to forum and hope to find one that will tell you "it's not your fault, its ok" ?

[HYUN007]

How come you never learn your lesson from AQ? Now you come to an International forum that does not know your history of reckless fish keeping..

2 weeks is NOT enough for you to cycle a tank. You should never, EVER judge a cycling tank by a time period. Only the water will let you know when it's done cycling. The test strips that you bought are almost as useless as not having any. It will only provide a general indication. Want an example? With the amount of life stock you have in such a small tank, there is ZERO chance that your Nitrate is zero. Unless you stuffed your entire tank with horn worts and floaters.

Not only that.. doing a 40-50% water change is hazardous. Especially since I know for sure you didn't adjust the water you changed to similar parameters as the one in the tank. How could you know if you don't have proper test kits?

I hope the others reading this don't get offended by the harsh tone that I'm using. It's just that he killed half his lifestock previously and asked for help on another forum. We gave him tons and tons of information, help and advice.. including pointing out the bad things that he was doing and how to rectify it. After reading this, he obviously didn't read any of the advice and continued his reckless way of fish-keeping.

mo sheng ren, are you trying to go from forum to forum and hope to find one that will tell you "it's not your fault, its ok" ?

I do not think it is harsh if you guys had explained this issues to him before.

2 weeks to cycle a tank is not totally impossible and will depend on some factors like filter, media, type of water used, plants(frogbit and hornwort), type of soil and etc. Although I do not encourage beginner to do this nor for fragile fish as well.

For his case, I suspect he did not acclimated his fish properly rather than bad water parameter judging that he has CRS in his tank which will be the first one to say "Bye Bye" when water parameter is bad.

[mo sheng ren]

If harsh comments is a good solution, help or advice, in that the case I guess I'm stupid enough to understand it. I never ask anyone here to tell me "it's not my fault", I'm just wanted to learn and understand more. Appreciated those guys who help me out. Thanks

[Ecalyte]

If harsh comments is a good solution, help or advice, in that the case I guess I'm stupid enough to understand it. I never ask anyone here to tell me "it's not my fault", I'm just wanted to learn and understand more. Appreciated those guys who help me out. Thanks

If you want to learn, then why aren't you learning from your previous mistake that wiped out half your tank? We already told you there that doing such a big water change is not good and will likely cause deaths.

Also, have you bought test kits? You overhauled your entire scape 3 times in the last 5 months.. each time (depending on how you did the rescape) may require another cycling period. Without test kits, you will never know if your bioload is too high, if your filtration can handle your stock.. if there is anything wrong in your tank. You're keeping the lifestock blind not knowing what the causes of the deaths are. Without all this information, how can we help you? I repeat.. those test strips are useless. They really are. They are usually only used as a general indication and even then, they're bad at that.

Buy proper LIQUID test kits. If you're on a budget, buy the following: Ammonia, Nitrate, pH. You can buy API brand for all 3 tests.

There is no such thing as "Dying for no reason." If there isn't any reason for them to die, they won't. It's either they were diseased and already dying, or it was your fault. These are the only 2 explanations.

Did you properly acclimatize them? If you think you did.. explain to us your method in doing it. Just putting the bag in the water to temperature acclimatize is definitely not enough.