i am new at this so bear with me ,,,,,,,,yesterday i had 7 bichir's and all of a sudden they all appeared dead,,,,,,i had put then in a 5 gallon so that i could change the water ,,,,,and then i placed them back in the 20 gallon ,,,,,changed the filters,,,,,,and the next morning they where dead,,,,,,,and only that servived,,,,dead today,,,,,i am wondering is there a standered,,,,on how to maintain these spieces,,,,,and yes i have had them before,,,,,,,the ones now where babys they all measured about 3 to 4 inches,,,,,i feed them blood worms and brine shrimps ,,,,,,,,,and i change the filters every 2 weeks,,,and i dont know what to do,,,,,,,,all my bichirs died
- Thread starter doc_evil212
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i am new at this so bear with me ,,,,,,,,yesterday i had 7 bichir's and all of a sudden they all appeared dead,,,,,,i had put then in a 5 gallon so that i could change the water ,,,,,and then i placed them back in the 20 gallon ,,,,,changed the filters,,,,,,and the next morning they where dead,,,,,,,and only that servived,,,,dead today,,,,,i am wondering is there a standered,,,,on how to maintain these spieces,,,,,and yes i have had them before,,,,,,,the ones now where babys they all measured about 3 to 4 inches,,,,,i feed them blood worms and brine shrimps ,,,,,,,,,and i change the filters every 2 weeks,,,and i dont know what to do,,,,,,,,
temp, water parameters and maybe because of stress. small fishes tend to be very stressful when cleaning or transferring them to a new home. 
sorry to hear that.
sorry to hear that.
1) How old is the tank, and did you use some dechlorinator when you changed water?
2)Do you change all the water in the 20 gallon tank, while the rest of the fish is in a 5 gallon tank?
3) What is the water temp?
You don't need to take the bichirs out of the tank, and rinse the gravel and filter with chlorinated water. This will re-start a cycling event and kill the living organisms in your tank. As mentioned above, baby or juvenile fish is not as hardy as the older larger ones.
2)Do you change all the water in the 20 gallon tank, while the rest of the fish is in a 5 gallon tank?
3) What is the water temp?
You don't need to take the bichirs out of the tank, and rinse the gravel and filter with chlorinated water. This will re-start a cycling event and kill the living organisms in your tank. As mentioned above, baby or juvenile fish is not as hardy as the older larger ones.
i agree... no need to transfer all the fish to the smaller tank. if you have left them their they would have not died (maybe) and if you put new water in my opinion try to have them in a bucket for at least 24hrs and put stress coat on them. and don't shock the temp like dumping new cold water to old warm water. this puts the baby bichirs in a lot of stress.
by changing filter, did you do a 100% media swap?
If you did you almost definitely started your cycle again. Its not necessary, in fact, detrimental to your fish to take them out with each water change. Think of how hard that would be with 7 foot long fish
If you did you almost definitely started your cycle again. Its not necessary, in fact, detrimental to your fish to take them out with each water change. Think of how hard that would be with 7 foot long fish