Guppies Dying

[oscar52]

Tanks has been re-set up approx three months, only had 4 neons and three small harlequins. Due to a slight algae burst, 4 small ottos were added aprox two weeks ago. Mum decided to add 6 guppies.

Tank is medium planted (no co2) and all seemed fine. Then the guppies (and just the guppies kept swimming right at the surface, or in the filter outlet current. Now, four have died in a short space of time (and all died at night) Im assuming its not oxygen content as only guppies are affected

Any ideas?? water quality (ie no3) is not superb but is in acceptable limits

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

How many gallons/litres is the tank and have you tested the water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and ph? Are any of the fish (including the dead guppys) showing any odd symptoms whether physical or behavioral? When it comes to water quality and oxygen content, some fish are more sensitive to these things than others, so i wouldn't rule out the oxygen content of the water yet being an issue, is there anything in the tank to help keep it well oxygenated?

 

[oscar52]

How many gallons/litres is the tank and have you tested the water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and ph? Are any of the fish (including the dead guppys) showing any odd symptoms whether physical or behavioral? When it comes to water quality and oxygen content, some fish are more sensitive to these things than others, so i wouldn't rule out the oxygen content of the water yet being an issue, is there anything in the tank to help keep it well oxygenated?

Apart from the plants, and some slight water movement from the filter there is no other oxygenation methods - there are roughly 12 plants (made some cuttings from others). Tanks is just over 60 litres, so shouldnt have been over stocked with the guppies - unless people count neons as 1 inch of fish. Unsure as to the exact water conditions - LFS didnt have any decent test kits earlier so will go elsewhere this week. However, I would have thought if it was a major issue the other fish would have been affected too.

 

[Kiwigirl]

Neons do count they grow to about 1.5 inches in size and should be in schoals of 5 or 6.

It also sounds like your tank was overstocked after putting in the guppies.

 

[Vicky99]

Hi,

I would just like to add - I have tried (unsucessfully) to keep guppies. I think these days they are so highly bred that they are not as hardy as they used to be. My tank conditions were spot on, not overstocked and all other fish were fine but the guppies died. This was when the tank had only been running a couple of months.

Tried again a few weeks back (the tank is now over 2 years old) and had the same thing - all were dead within a week.

So - it might not be your tank that's causing the problems.

I'm not going to bother trying them again - there're loads of other much prettier fish out there!

Still best to keep an eye on the stocking & keep up with water changes.

Good luck!

Vic

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

How many gallons/litres is the tank and have you tested the water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and ph? Are any of the fish (including the dead guppys) showing any odd symptoms whether physical or behavioral? When it comes to water quality and oxygen content, some fish are more sensitive to these things than others, so i wouldn't rule out the oxygen content of the water yet being an issue, is there anything in the tank to help keep it well oxygenated?

Apart from the plants, and some slight water movement from the filter there is no other oxygenation methods - there are roughly 12 plants (made some cuttings from others). Tanks is just over 60 litres, so shouldnt have been over stocked with the guppies - unless people count neons as 1 inch of fish. Unsure as to the exact water conditions - LFS didnt have any decent test kits earlier so will go elsewhere this week. However, I would have thought if it was a major issue the other fish would have been affected too.

I would add something to help oxygenate the water as the guppys sound like they were stressed out by the lack of oxygen in the water, fish hanging near the filter outlet current is a sure sign of this, plants are not very good at oxygenating water in tanks as they stop producing oxygen at night and some types of plants can even take oxygen out of the water. Adding something like a bubble pump will help a lot .
Neon tetras are counted in fish stocking like any other type of fish, but they are not big waste producers so do not add much to the bioload of the tank, but should be counted in stocking like any other type of fish as they still take up space and need space themselves. Both harlequins and neons are shoaling fish and should ideally be in groups of at least 6 each, but i would avoid buying anymore fish until you have got a good test kit for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and ph and know the exact state the of the water quality in the tank.
You say the tank was only relatively recently set up, when you set up the tank how did you go about cycling it? If you cycled the tank with fish, it could still be cycling and adding any large group of fish at once to the tank could upset the fragile bacterial ecosystem establishing itself in the filter, causing the tank to suffer ammonia and/or nitrite problems. This would be particularly bad for any new fish, who would be stressed from being acclimatised to a new tank and posible underweight/malnutritioned from being in the petshop for a while (as not all petshops feed their fish particularly well), so would be more weak when confronting water quality issues in their tank.

 

[Spooky76]

Hiya,
Shame about the guppys. I had the same problem with mine, guppys were the only fish to die, and funnily enough, they stayed around my fluvel outlets for hours before they died, and again, I would go to the tank in the morning and they would be dead.

I think as has been said, due to such intense breeding I think they are less hardy than they used to be.

I stopped keeeping them and everythings been ok (Until the ich)

Cant add anything helpful sorry, maybe try aggitating the water with your filter a bit more...

 

[vinylman]

My LFS will only carry Guppies from local breeders who can supply him with quality fish. Unfortunately, the popularity of Guppies has been responsible for the drastic drop in their quality and longevity, and I wouldn't be surprised if it happens in the future with other fish, too.