Hi. New to the forum and looking for advise. I purchased a pair of fancy Guppies last week and the female already died and the male is in obvious trouble. They appeared to be in very good health as were all the other Guppies in the tank where I purchased them. My tank is 28 gallons and well established (3 years) with Neons, Glowlight Tetras, Red Minor Serpaes and Corydora catfish. They have all been in the tank for at least 1 year and are all healthy. The ph is around 7.2 and the only water measurement high is general water hardness at 180ppm. Any ideas what I should look for that may have affected just the Guppies? Thanks in advance.
Fancy Guppie pair dying
- Thread starter Bob S.
- Start date
Welcome.
The guppies are quite possibly being harassed to death by the serpae, they are not a good community fish, especially with long-finned fish, they are aggressive and nippy....how many serpae are in the tank?
Tetras are soft water fish, guppies prefer hard water.
See "Behavior and Compatibility" in the link below.
The guppies are quite possibly being harassed to death by the serpae, they are not a good community fish, especially with long-finned fish, they are aggressive and nippy....how many serpae are in the tank?
Tetras are soft water fish, guppies prefer hard water.
See "Behavior and Compatibility" in the link below.
What Slaphppy7 has stated or they were carrying something with them that may have caused their deaths.
Thanks for responding. I have 4 Serpae in the tank. I wasn't aware about Serpae not being good for a community tank and was actually told the opposite when I bought them. I wish I had known earlier so I could have avoided subjecting the Guppies to this. Thank you very much for the information.
Welcome.
The guppies are quite possibly being harassed to death by the serpae, they are not a good community fish, especially with long-finned fish, they are aggressive and nippy....how many serpae are in the tank?
Tetras are soft water fish, guppies prefer hard water.
See "Behavior and Compatibility" in the link below.
More than welcome....beware of ANY advice you are given from pet store employees, most of the time, they have no clue about proper fishkeeping.
Pictures and video of the fish?
Guppies regularly carry external protozoan and bacterial infections when they first come into shops. These can kill the fish in a few days or it might take a week or two.
The best treatment for guppies is salt (sodium chloride, aka rock salt or aquarium salt). Add 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres (5 gallons) of tank water and keep it in the tank for at least 2 weeks. The salt won't harm the fish, plants or filter bacteria.
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The other thing to be careful about is buying fish that have just come into the shop. Fish suffer a lot of stress being shipped around the world and if you get fish that have just been added to the tank at the shop, they will be suffering from stress. Likewise if the shop has done a water change on the tank just before you buy the fish, that will stress them too. And if the shop assistant chases the fish all over the tank for a few minutes before catching it, that can kill the fish from stress.
Find out when the shop does their water changes and buy the fish a day or two before they do the water change.
Find out when the shop gets their fish in and come back a week later, or get fish before they release the new fish into their tanks.
If the shop assistant can't catch the fish in a few seconds, and they chase it all over the tank, tell them not to worry about it and come back another day and try a different staff member.
If there are any dead fish in a tank, do not buy anything from that tank.
If any fish are rubbing on objects in the tank, do not buy anything from that tank.
If any fish have a cream, white or grey patch or patches over their body or fins, do not get anything from that tank.
If any fish have white mouths or puffy red lips, avoid that tank.
Guppies regularly carry external protozoan and bacterial infections when they first come into shops. These can kill the fish in a few days or it might take a week or two.
The best treatment for guppies is salt (sodium chloride, aka rock salt or aquarium salt). Add 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres (5 gallons) of tank water and keep it in the tank for at least 2 weeks. The salt won't harm the fish, plants or filter bacteria.
--------------
The other thing to be careful about is buying fish that have just come into the shop. Fish suffer a lot of stress being shipped around the world and if you get fish that have just been added to the tank at the shop, they will be suffering from stress. Likewise if the shop has done a water change on the tank just before you buy the fish, that will stress them too. And if the shop assistant chases the fish all over the tank for a few minutes before catching it, that can kill the fish from stress.
Find out when the shop does their water changes and buy the fish a day or two before they do the water change.
Find out when the shop gets their fish in and come back a week later, or get fish before they release the new fish into their tanks.
If the shop assistant can't catch the fish in a few seconds, and they chase it all over the tank, tell them not to worry about it and come back another day and try a different staff member.
If there are any dead fish in a tank, do not buy anything from that tank.
If any fish are rubbing on objects in the tank, do not buy anything from that tank.
If any fish have a cream, white or grey patch or patches over their body or fins, do not get anything from that tank.
If any fish have white mouths or puffy red lips, avoid that tank.
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