tiger barbs dead :(

[JoLy]

On boxing day i bought a new aquarium, its a 28 gallon, and up until Friday i had only put the fish from my previous fish tank in it. On Friday i took a trip to Big Al's and purchased a total of 8 fish, one denison's barb, five tiger barbs and two very small bushy nose plecos. They all seemed happy and healthy and getting along quite well until this morning when i got up and found 2 tiger barbs dead. Needless to say i was quite discouraged... anyhow I've been keeping a closer eye on the tank and now I've spotted what looks like a candidate for the next casualty. The symptoms are; he's can't seem to balance himself, hes swimming upside down and sideways and his left eye has filled with blood... I tested the PH and Ammonia levels of the water and it seems normal. All the other fish seem perfectly fine.

Should I put this injured fish in a breeder net on his own?

Thank you very much in advance for any advice or tips.

[garnpet]

The usual questions...

How did you cycle your tank and what are the current water parameters?  How often do you do water changes?

[Darth]

test the other params as well, 8 fish at one time is a pretty big bio load change for the tank IMO

[Laura]

I agree with the advice already. Even if the water tests don't show anything, I would do a 1/3 water change.

Also, on your stock, denison barbs get up to 5" long, so if you want to keep them long-term, you will be looking at a bigger tank. It is my experience that when they are in a school are very well behaved. Singly or a pair, I have seen them act aggressively.

I personally don't think they should be kept in less than a trio.  I don't think your denison barb is the problem for the deaths, but as it gets older, it will likely behave badly.

[JoLy]

The PH is at around 8 and the ammonia is at 0.

I haven't changed the water yet.. I figured there was no reason to because it was still so new. The tank as been running for around a month. I will do a water change tomorrow, I'm preparing the water at the moment.  I will be changing the water every 2 weeks from this point forward.

Also, thanks for the advice about the denison barb. I wasn't able to get that much information on it before i bought it.

[delslo]

I had similar symptoms once I used something called melafix and it cleared it up. I would try that. Aswell I would return the denisoni barb as they require a very large tank 40+ gallons as a mininum and are supposed to be kept in schools of 5 or more. They will grow to +5 inches. You could probably take it back and get the melafix as a trade should be similar in price.

[Saltcreep]

Should I put this injured fish in a breeder net on his own?

I think I would be looking more at a hospital tank than a breeder net, and as soon as possible. Two out of five that quickly is not good, and that bloody eye should be sounding alarms. I would get the sick one out and into a hospital tank, and if you can rig something up, I would put the two survivors into a QT setup too.