MY MICKEY MOUSE PLATY DIED

Question
Hi,

I am Raj from Kolkata, India. I have an aquarium of 24"x12"x18.5" size and have it is a freshwater tank. I have a community fish aquarium consisting of Tetras, Barbs, Danios, Guppies & Loaches. The total nos. of fishes is around 26.  Recently I purchased 4 female Mickey Mouse Platy. I did the normal acclaimising procedure (by floating the bag for 25 mins in the tank & then added about half cup of aquarium water and keeping it floating for another 15 mins and then released the fishes into the aquarium). But within a couple of hours, two of the newly added Platy died and another one behaved very errotically, became very restless, swirled frantically around the tank and ultimately died on the next day.

Can you please suggest what went wrong ?

It is winter season in Kolkata and the temp. usually stays around 18 deg C to 20 deg C. I am using a 150 watt heater with thermostat which is set at 28 deg C. I use to perform 20% water change monthly. I use to feed the fishes CP Optimum Pellets and often live Tubifex worms.

Please give yr valuable suggestions & help me out.

Answer
Raj, The size of this tank is more than filled to capacity. It only takes one to many fish to crash a tank. The water conditions with that many fish in that size tank really require a 50% cleaning a month. You also would do better to get your temperature down to about 24 deg. C. I don't think you got sick fish. I think they did not acclimate to the conditions well. Your tank is very settled and I think if you try to add more fish you will see this happen quite often. Good Luck, Tina