Dying Guppies

[Miss M]

Hi everyone. Over the past week and a half, I have been trying to add 2 male guppies to my community tank.
Within 48 hrs, they're dead. I've lost 5 of them in this time frame, trying to only add 2 at a time.

Here's the info on my tank:
ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate:20 ppm
1 airstone
1 whisper filter (currenty has 2 filter bags in it because the old one needs to be changed. It's been running w/2 bags for almost a week).

40 gallon tank set at 78/79 degrees. It's been running for for approx 8 mnths.

Fish in tank:
5 corys
1 otto
2 guppies (which I've had for months)
2 platies
1 molly
5 neons
2 glow lights
3 tetras (not sure of the name)
2 zebra danios

I've changed the water faithfully (up to 40% once a week) adding water conditioner only. I don't add salt due to the corys.

Now one of my guppies that I've had for a while is showing signs of problems: his tail fin looks like it's becoming clamped. I've raised the temp on the tank a few degrees and added salt to see if this will help. He's swimming/eating/acting like he always does, and all the other fish seem fine.

What could be leading to the problems I'm having?
Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you
Miss M

 

[Davo86]

were the guppys showing any symptoms of illness when you added them?
How did you acclimatise them them?
Could they have been harassed or nipped by your danios and tetras when they were initially added?

 

[Colin_T]

Sounds like the guppies you bought were not healthy to start with. Now they might have given your ones a bacterial or protozoan infection (the clamped tail). Guppies and other livebearers are a bit like pigeons, dirty disease carriers, sorry but they are pretty grotty fish when they come from asia. Once they have been in a healthy tank for a while they are fine but new imports are always iffy.
You should use a quarantine tank for any new fish to prevent diseases getting into your tank. It also means you can say the fish were crap to start with if they get sick within a few days of being in a nice clean Q tank.
In the mean time don't get any more guppies from the shop for a few weeks and keep a close eye on the male with the funny tail.

 

[Miss M]

all the guppies were purchased from the same chain pet store. I floated the bag for 20 minutes, put them in a bucket with the bag water and some aquarium water for a few minutes, and netted them from the bucket into the tank.

I made sure to pick ones that were bright, swimming well, and had full fins.

Each did the same: within one day, they would get pale and hover at the top of the tank, trying to keep from sinking (heads up, tail fins vertical).

2 of them looked like they got a white film (no spots) on their tail fins. The best way to describe it is it looks like when your skin peels from a sunburn. The one that died this morning I had in the tank for about 5 days, and then his tail fin looked like it rotted away over night. His symptoms were different from the others.

I'm holding off for a while on purchasing any more, but I'm hoping the one I have comes around. The tank is at 81.7 degrees and is set for about 83 degrees. I'm hoping the rising temp won't harm the other fish in the tank.

The other fish had pretty much ignored the guppies. None seemed to be nippy or pesty to them.

 

[Colin_T]

it sounds like a water quality issue. What is the PH of your tank?
The white slime on fish is excess mucous that gets produced when the fish is stressed.

 

[rossyboy]

You know... this is a coincidence!

I'm having a similar problem!

I've got a breeding tank containing only guppies, i've got 10 females in there and 2 males.

the two males have been in from day 1, but everytime i add another male (to even things up) he dies within days.

Stats are perfect, regularly maintained, fed a healthy diet.

Only explanation i could get from anybody was that due to inbreeding males a weaker than the females and so can die from the smallest problem... eg stress. I don't know if this is THE explanation but at least it's something.

 

[Colin_T]

Guppies have been inbred for years and are weak compared to fish from 20 years ago. However if they are swimming around in a shop tank and look healthy they should be fine to transport home.
Perhaps there is a significant difference in water chemistry between the shops and your tanks. The shops might have hard alkaline water or lots of salt in the water. Then there would be enough of a change to stress the fish and possibly kill them. Next time you are at the shop ask them if they put any salt in their guppy tanks.

 

[Miss M]

update

My beautiful blue neon guppy died overnight. The tank only made it to 81.5 degrees; I had it set for 83. I wanted to bring up the temp somewhat slowly so the other fish wouldn't get stressed.

I'm afraid my last blue neon is going to do the same thing. I don't know what to do now. Should I just do a massive water change at this point? Also, should I leave the temp on the tank raised to possibly kill any disease bacteria in the tank, and if so, how high should I set the temp?

the ph level is 6.4. I changed 50 percent of the water monday. Only added salt yesterday.

The only thing the pet store told me was that their water has a high level of nitrates, so don't add the bag water to the tank (which I did do the first time). After finding that out, I did a water change. This was sometime last week. Readings were good. The last 2 times I added the fish, I netted them into the tank.

Please help.

Thank you
Miss M

 

[rust81]

Your problem with your guppies sounds exactly the same as mine that I had back in December last year. I bought 4 females and 2 males from the same LFS. Within 2 days both the males were dead. They were fine in the shop and I made sure to pick healthy ones. Within 2 days they had clamped fins and were dead.

So I went back to the LFS and got another 2 males (replaced for free). Over the next few days they went the same as the first 2 males – clamped fins then dead. I think I also lost 1 female around this time as well – again clamped fins. When I went back to the LFS and looked at their tanks, I could see a couple of dead ones behind plants that hadn’t been netted out yet – so I have put that all down to bad/infected fish.

The good news is that the 3 females have all given birth over the course of the past few months, and I have 20 fry in a breeding trap at the mo.

I should also say that my 2 bristlenose plecs also seem fine in the tank (I got these at the same time as the first batch of guppies) – so there cant be anything majorly wrong.

I would keep on trying, but maybe change your LFS. I will only buy guppies from one LFS now.

 

[fourthtimelucky]

Sorry to hear he didn't make it.

Have you separated out the last one? If he is showing any signs of illness I would put him into quarantine straight away. You don't want it spreading.

Were there any other symptoms you could describe?

Are you using any meds? I don't think that raising the temperature alone will eradicate the bacteria. If you are sure of a diagnosis then start treating for it. If not then post pics / more info e.g swimming funny, itching, white poop, swelling, growths etc.

If their water has high nitrates then you may not have acclimated them for long enough. Floating the bag for 20 mins would have got the temperatures about level, but only a few minutes in a bucket with 50% new and 50% old water before going straight into 100% new could have been quite shocking. The advantage of setting up a QT tank for the first few days is that you can really take your time, a cup in a cup out, before netting them into the tank. And as Colin_T says it also means you can decide whether the problem was your tank or the shop.

Good luck!

 

[Miss M]

I have not separated the last guppy. I don't have a quarantine tank. Only a 10 gallon that's occupied with 5 happy healthy fish and 1 baby fish.

He's not showing any symptoms as of yet. My blue guppy that died last night began to get a clamped tail fin and the fin color went from a nice blue to sickly dark gray in the middle.

My next thought is maybe to just treat the tank with melafix if he starts showing symptoms. I've never used any meds before, but I understand you need to remove the carbon from the filter. I have whiper filter cartridges, so would I just open the cartridges and dispose of the carbon, but put the filters back in the tank? I'm a bit confused, and don't want to screw up the filter system. It also has a black mesh filter in front of the filter bag, so I'm assuming I can leave that in while trying to treat the tank? Ugh! Please help.

If I set up a quarantine tank, what is the bare minimum and least expensive way to do it? Please be specific as I would be purchasing my supplies from petco. I could run out today and purchase what I need.

Again, thanks everyone

Miss M

 

[shaz3271]

hello

i was just wondering if your ph was a little low at 6.4 guppys do best 7 to 8.5.

not sure but its worth thinking about.

Sharon

 

[Miss M]

Hi Sharon. I don't know if the ph is too low for guppies. I have one large guppy in my 10 gallon tank that we've had for quite some time, and he seems to be doing fine too. My other 2 neon guppies had flourished in the tank for months (except now one died). Also, I wasn't adding salt to the tank due to my cory's. I'm pretty convinced the fish I purchased were a bad batch and somehow spread something in the tank.

I feel awful that the one blue one is by himself. The one that died was always swimming next to him. They were by far, my favorite out of all the fish in the tank.

I'm going to do a large water change and bring the temp back down to about 78 degrees. Keep your fingers crossed. My blue guppy is getting a raggedy looking tail fin at this point.

***********update*************
Just performed approx 80 percent water change. Tank temp is 78.2 degrees. I'll let you know if there's any changes in the fish.

Thanks to everyone who responded

 

[Colin_T]

The warmer temperature will actually increase the speed that the disease spreads. Bacteria grow faster in warm water.
Clamped fins and losing body colour is generally bacterial in guppies. Melafix might help.
When you medicate a tank remove the carbon cartidge or bag of carbon and throw the carbon away. Leave all the other filter materials in the filter. The carbon gets removed because it absorbs chemicals from the water. if you have it in the tank when medicating it can remove all the medication in a few hours and the fish continue to get sick and die.
Moving a fish from a tank with high nitrates into a tank with low nitrates is not a problem. Doing it the other way is, (low nitrates to high nitrates).

A cheap quarantine tank can be made using a 20, 30 or 40litre plastic storage crate. Put some clean water in it and put a heater and small sponge filter in there. If you don't have a spare filter you can just have an airstone bubbling away in the water. Each day you change part of the water and over a couple of weeks you see how the new fish do. If they get sick you treat them in the plastic tub. If they don't get sick then after a couple of weeks you can add them to the tank. When the fish have been quaratined and added to the main tank you can wash the plastic tub out with bleach, rinse it well with freshwater and put it somewhere safe until it is needed next time.

 

[Miss M]

Thank you Colin for the info. I will see how the guppy responds to the water change, and if there's no improvement overnight, I'll run out and buy the equipment for a quarantine tank and start with the melafix treatment.

Keep ya fingers crossed