My Guppy Seem To Be Dying....

Hello Everyone!

2 days ago I bought 2 new guppies, but one of them seem to be not doing so good. Can anyone pls HELP me....

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Tank size: 60Litre
pH: 8.0
ammonia: don't have testing kit sorry
nitrite: 0ppm
nitrate: around 80ppm
kH:
gH: very hard (i am in Southeast of England by the way)
tank temp: 79 degree F

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): he is not eating, just sunk on the bottom of the tank, i have been watching him for about am hour now but he only swam on the top 2 or 3 times, and he rarely swims

Volume and Frequency of water changes: once a week taking 25% - 30% of water

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Prime by Seachem, Nutrafin Cycle, Tetra Aquasafe

Tank inhabitants: 12 fancy guppies, 4 lyretail guppies, 1 neon tetra, 1 platy, 5 harlequins, 6 diamond tetra, 3 barbs and 2 fishes i can't remember the species

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): just the 2 guppy but i do use plastic plants and a driftwood

Exposure to chemicals:

Digital photo (include if possible): he used to look like this

Don't worry guys, he just died a minute ago .....thanks anyways.

R.I.P.
How many gallons is the tank.
Your nitrate reading high. How often do you maintain the tank.

I have 12 gallons in the tank. I maintain my tank once a week. About my nitrate, it seems like its always between 40ppm and 80ppm even I just did a water change. I use tap water by the way, and I am wondering if it has got to do with that. I check my nitrate and nitrite before and after water changing.
I have one of my lyretail guppy almost having same problem now, he is so thin and don't swim so much, I am not sure what is wrong with him.....

fishlover82 said:

I have 12 gallons in the tank. I maintain my tank once a week. About my nitrate, it seems like its always between 40ppm and 80ppm even I just did a water change. I use tap water by the way, and I am wondering if it has got to do with that. I check my nitrate and nitrite before and after water changing.
I have one of my lyretail guppy almost having same problem now, he is so thin and don't swim so much, I am not sure what is wrong with him.....View attachment 55939View attachment 55940

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Check the nitrate levels of your tap water before putting it in the tank because that is quite high. That will tell you if it's the tank or your tap water. 12 Gallon tank seems a bit small for how many fish you have in it. There may be some overcrowding issues. I would look into a larger tank especially before purchasing new fish. The ideal enviroment for your fish is 1 gallon to every 1 inch of fish. Also, ammonia readings are very important so if you can, look into getting something to test it with even if you have to just get the test strips for now. They aren't exactly 100 percent accurate but some reading is better than none. Wish I knew what else to tell you to help but I will read up a little and see if I can help you any. Good luck.

I am so upset and frustrated now because one of my fancy guppy had died this morning. He was the one that I thought was pregnant (silly me, was a male). This picture shows why I thought he was pregnant taken about 2 weeks ago but it just occured to me when he died that it might be because there was something wrong with him. Am I over stocking my tank? Or is this just something wrong with my guppy on the picture? Thanks for any opinion.

Your tanks overstocked.
What your tap nitrate reading.
I would rehome some fish or buy another filter to cope with the load of fish.

destinyxrose said:

Check the nitrate levels of your tap water before putting it in the tank because that is quite high. That will tell you if it's the tank or your tap water. 12 Gallon tank seems a bit small for how many fish you have in it. There may be some overcrowding issues. I would look into a larger tank especially before purchasing new fish. The ideal enviroment for your fish is 1 gallon to every 1 inch of fish. Also, ammonia readings are very important so if you can, look into getting something to test it with even if you have to just get the test strips for now. They aren't exactly 100 percent accurate but some reading is better than none. Wish I knew what else to tell you to help but I will read up a little and see if I can help you any. Good luck.

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Wilder said:

Your tanks overstocked.
What your tap nitrate reading.
I would rehome some fish or buy another filter to cope with the load of fish.

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My NITRATE level from my tap is around 40ppm (using API test strip), AMMONIA is 0, NITRITE 0ppm, ph 8.0. These tests were taken today.

And another guppy I found hiding looks like this and I can assure that he did not look like that last night before I went to bed. Is he having a fin rot or has he been bullied? I got him saturday from my LFS as an exchange.

Just rinse one of your filter sponges in old tank water if its really mucked up.
Buy another filter to run with the one you have to help cope with the load of fish in the tank.
Add a bacterial med to the tank.
Keep a look out for when your fish go to the toilet.

You are going to need to do water changes more regularly as 80ppm for your nitrates are way too high, around twice the maximum level, they should always be below 40ppm at the most.

Are you adding water conditioner to your tap water when you do your water changes??

Also the ammonia reading is important, get a better testing kit, the recommended one is the API freshwater master test kit which is a liquid test and tests for PH, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, normally around £25-£30 from most fish stores but you can pick them up on ebay for £15, it will be money well spent!

Also regarding the guppy with what appears to be fin rot, if you dont have a seperate tank where you can quarantine them to, get one of them hard plastic floating baby tanks and put your guppy inside that, it will stop the other fish being able to get near it and attack it whilst you administer medication.

Andy