Lost three tiger barbs today :(

[invadertoast]

I just went down to the basement to do laundry and noticed 3 of my 6 green tigers were missing. They were all stuck to the filter intake, very much dead :( I have an Eclipse hood with the filter built into it, and last week the filter was overflowing down the back of the tank because I had too much filter media in the box. I took some out but I didn't think it was enough to affect my parameters (I have a ton of filter sponge and a bio-wheel, removed maybe 1/5t to 1/4 of the sponge.) Parameters now are Amm. 0 'trites 0 and 'trates 5-10ppm. I removed the media last Monday or Tuesday and did a 20% WC on Friday, I didn't check any params. and all fish looked healthy and normal, except for one large green barb I have that has always looked a little skinnier than the rest. The "skinny" barb is alive and well, my largest one and two small ones are the ones that died. My 5 striped and three remaining greens (except for the skinny one) look lovely and healthy and are acting fine. I didn't see any signs of stress or strange behavior leading up to this at all - should I narrow this down to owner-error and assume I must have caused a mini-cycle? Could it be parasites (from the skinny barb?) I feel so bad, that big green one was my favorite :(

[Sharon]

I don't know, really, but you'd think if the "skinny barb" was ill, he'd be the first to go. I lost a whole school of Barbs, and never did figure out why.

[invadertoast]

I'm still guessing mini-cycle... skinny barb is doing fine and super active this morning, as are all the other remaining barbs. Next time I mess with the filter I'll be checking parameters religiously...

[Wild Turkey]

Its possible you had a mini and just didnt check the params soon enough to see it. Keep a close eye on everything, unusually skinniness can mean a lot of things