Guppies died within 24 hours

[djlombar]

I have a 14gallon planted tank that has been cycled for a year. It has been stocked with only cherry shrimp for most of that time and have not had any death issues with the shrimp. I recently decided to add some guppies to bring some color to the tank and they all died within 24 hours. They were purchased from my LFS.

For acclimating, I floated the bag for 20min, replaced half of the bag water with tank water and continued floating for 20min, then repeated once more before adding the guppies to the tank. This technique has not been an issue in the past for me.

Tank parameters:
Temp: 77
pH: 7.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5

Any ideas? Just poor quality fish from my LFS?

 

[Colin_T]

pictures of the dead fish?
how often do you do water changes and how much do you change?

contact the pet shop and let them know all the guppies died.

 

[djlombar]

pictures of the dead fish?
how often do you do water changes and how much do you change?

contact the pet shop and let them know all the guppies died.

Water change about once a month; with just cherry shrimp the tank stays clean and parameters stay in check. Usually do a 20% change at this time.

 

[sharkweek178]

Moving fish is a stressful event for them. Getting netted must be like getting caught by a predator. Sometimes a fish will have an underlying health problem that their system can normally handle. The stress of the move weakens them enough for the problem to take effect.

 

[djlombar]

Moving fish is a stressful event for them. Getting netted must be like getting caught by a predator. Sometimes a fish will have an underlying health problem that their system can normally handle. The stress of the move weakens them enough for the problem to take effect.

Totally understand that, I just want to make sure I am doing everything correctly to reduce the stress and increase the chance of survival (other than just not having fish of course).

 

[Naughts]

I don't "acclimate" fish apart from temperature matching. It would take weeks/ months to acclimate to the other parameters and in some cases they will never acclimate.
So I just float the bag in the tank for 15 minutes then net them out and put them into the tank.
Getting them out of the bag water reduces exposure to ammonia.

 

[emeraldking]

It could've been just bad quality guppies.

 

[sharkweek178]

I don't "acclimate" fish apart from temperature matching. It would take weeks/ months to acclimate to the other parameters and in some cases they will never acclimate.
So I just float the bag in the tank for 15 minutes then net them out and put them into the tank.
Getting them out of the bag water reduces exposure to ammonia.

With corys, I don't even do that. My goal is to get them out of the bad ASAP.

 

[TNG]

Do you have an airstone or filter to aerate the water? If not, the oxygen in the water could be too low for the guppies as you only change the water once a month. Did they come to the water surface gasping for air?

 

[Ram419]

It could've been just bad quality guppies.

The guppies I've gotten from a LFS and a Petco recently have all gotten sick and died as of recent. I managed to keep one of them. The Petco employee said most of the guppies they have been getting in die after they get them. She blamed it on the heat. I'm not going for guppies for a while.

I had purchase a few a while back as well and actually got lucky and had multiple fry. Only one of those few are left alive now, the male. But the fry are really growing well and getting bigger everyday.

 

[davros]

It could've been just bad quality guppies.

This - The guppies I've been able to purchase have not been "robust".

 

[Colin_T]

The fish in the picture appear to have an external bacterial infection. This is common on newly imported guppies and so is external protozoan infections.

If you see any cream, white or grey patches on fish, avoid getting anything from that tank.

I would do a big (75%) water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week and clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Also wipe down the inside of the glass to remove any biofilm. This will dilute any pathogens that might be in the water and reduce the risk of new fish getting sick.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Don't add anything to the tank for a month.

 

[djlombar]

Do you have an airstone or filter to aerate the water? If not, the oxygen in the water could be too low for the guppies as you only change the water once a month. Did they come to the water surface gasping for air?

No airstone but the filter creates surface movement for oxygen transfer and it is also well-planted. They did not gasp for air that I saw.