Random new guppy death!!

JennySolano said:

Next time try Petco. I bought a few pretty & healthy guppies there. At the time, maybe 3 months ago, PetSmart had their entire stock of fish under quarantine and not available for sale. The tanks were cloudy with medications. Scary! I called another big box store new to the area & they said all their fish were under quarantine too, & likely they used the same vendors as PetSmart.

Click to expand...

Obsessed with fish said:

Quarantine the guppy, put some aquarium salt into the quarantine tank, also add a fast growing plant to the hospital tank. After that add a filter and air pump to your hospital tank. If all that does not work than put some meds in the hospital tank. I would recommend a multi purpose medication in case you don't know exactly what the problem with the guppy is.

Click to expand...

Sgooosh said:

Duckweed is a good idea, soaks up the bad stuffs instantly… it is a nusiance when it takes over your tank though, pesky lil guys get stuck on my arm

Click to expand...

Obsessed with fish said:

Its not my fault the betta killed the guppy, and otos need to be in groups of 6 at minimum so thats why i said it, and the salts cant do any harm? There just salts, as long as you dont add to much of course. Everything you just said is not true so be quiet and mind your own business.

Click to expand...

Essjay said:

I have duckweed in my main tank. It spontaneously appeared. Well, OK there must have been a bit on some plant I bought recently. I cannot get rid of the stuff. It hides under the frogbit then comes back out when I close the lid

Click to expand...

Bruce Leyland-Jones said:

View attachment 145207

Click to expand...

Essjay said:

I have duckweed in my main tank. It spontaneously appeared. Well, OK there must have been a bit on some plant I bought recently. I cannot get rid of the stuff. It hides under the frogbit then comes back out when I close the lid

Click to expand...

mjfromga said:

It IS your fault the Betta killed him because you were told NOT to put them together in the first place! Everything I said is 100% true. When you can't even keep your own fish alive, you don't need to be offering advice for others, especially horrible advice such as telling someone with a tank full of sick fish to add more fish as the FIRST THING. Awful. You also need to work on your spelling and grammar if you want your posts to be taken seriously.

You are likely a minor and I don't argue with children, so you'll no longer get any replies from me... but you definitely should refrain from telling others what to do with their fish as you are not experienced enough to do so. Have a nice day.

Click to expand...

Bruce Leyland-Jones said:

Okay...the Bad News first.

• Your small tank has too many fish in it. Assuming that your tank is properly cycled, (which it won't be), a 10 gallon tank should only have a maximum of 10 guppies and nothing else.
• You've wasted limited money on buying plastic plants. Whilst these may look pretty, (although the Jury's out on that one ), they serve very little useful purpose.
• Your single Oto will be a miserable little fish and will be subsequently over-stressed. The Oto needs to be in a group of at least half a dozen. Those who know what they'r doing might keep a shoal of 10 - 15. Obviously, you don't have room in your tank for this species. I suspect you were sold it as an 'algae eater', to keep your algae down.

(Lordy, I'm growing to detest these stupid shops and their ignorant staff).

Now the (sort-of) Good News

We can help.

• Keep up with the water changes.
• Buy a test kit...you need to be able to monitor your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels. Liquid test kits are better, but for you, you just need something simple, because the only acceptable reading for ammonia and nitrites is zero.
• Swap the plastic plants with real ones. You don't need to be an aquarium gardener at this stage, just throw something relatively fast growing in there, like Elodea (pond weed). Floating plants are also recommended and these need no care whatsoever. These plants will reduce the toxic wastes in your tank, produced by the fish.
• Add some aquarium salt, 1 rounded tablespoon, per 5 gallons. Dissolve this salt in a jug of aquarium water, before adding it to the tank. The salt will boost the immune systems of the fish and help manage any bacteria and fungus and will help your fish repair their fins.
• Buy some bottled bacteria and add this to the tank. This should start your cycling process*.

*Cycling - a summary.
Your fish produce toxic waste, ammonia. With cycling, you grow beneficial bacteria which will turn that ammonia into nitrites.
Nitrites are also toxic, but you're also growing bacteria that will turn those nitrites into nitrates, which are far, far less toxic.
These bacteria can be added artificially, speeding up the process a little.
Live plants use ammonia when they're growing, go adding growing pants will significantly reduce ammonia and nitrite (and nitrate) levels.

Click to expand...

itiwhetu said:

When going to an LFS. You start by looking in all the tanks. If any tank has a dead fish, you don't buy a fish from that tank. If any tank has a fish that doesn't belong in the parameters of the other fish, you don't buy a fish from that tank. If any tank has a fish behaving abnormally you don't buy a fish from that tank. So now you are down to about 10% of the tanks in the shop. So now you only select a fish that is perfect in every way for its species, and you ask for THAT fish. If the shop assistant chases the fish around and around the tank to catch it, you say " No Thanks ".

Click to expand...

Guppynoob2008 said:

Ok I just want to thank everyone here for telling me what I should do and giving suggestions. But where should I start? Like right now what should I do. I’m a little confused.

Click to expand...