Guppies in Corner

[KCGuppy]

Hi there and thank you. My reason for joining is simple - been searching like crazy tonight for answers on our particular situation. We have had a tank for 15 years with only guppies. Never added any or taken any away, they just kind of re-produce and there has never been an issue with excess fish.

Suddenly, tonight, all the guppies in the tank are clustering in the upper front right corner. If you move around the water a bit, they'll swim around but always return to that corner. They have never done that before. Always been hardy souls that swim around.

All we've done lately is:

- Several weeks ago, we added a light to the tank as the light on the lid doesn't work anymore even if you replace it. So we added a light that does a subtle blue light and then another setting that lights it up normally. We keep it at the subtle blue. No issues or impact on the fish. I will note it had been dark for a very long time but it gets plenty of natural light during the day. So this isn't the issue.

- A couple days ago, we added a heater as the old heater was getting too hot. It's one of those cylindrical heaters that goes about 2/3 down through the tank. It is up the back right. Maybe a culprit for our issue.

-Today, my wife added a glow in the dark fake plant and it's on the left side of the tank. Could it be the issue? Seems odd but it's the other new element.

After noticing the problem with the fish clustering, we immediately think perhaps it's the new heater so we went ahead and unplugged it for now, as the water temp is in the mid 70s where it should be, and we weren't sure if it's the issue. About 3 hours post-unplugging, they're still in the corner.

I have searched forums and a lot of the responses / advice seem to be geared towards those with brand new tanks or brand new fish - neither is the case with us. Again, 15 year tank with no issues. Suddenly clustering.

Any advice? We're trying to narrow down the possibilities - hence the turning off the heater for a few hours to see if that helps. Seems harmless to remove the new plant to see if that was freaking them out. If that doesn't work, what else?

 

[GaryE]

Do a 25 to 50% water change, to reduce the fear hormones in the water. Clustering at the top often says a disease has hit, so look closely.

You should have a way of measuring the heat in the tank. Heaters, new or old, are not to be trusted, ever. Excessive warmth would do that.

 

[emeraldking]

I would check the water parameters first before doing something else.
And welcome to TFF...

 

[KCGuppy]

So update - it appears to be at least somewhat related to the glow in the dark plant. My wife took that out at 7 a.m and by 9 a.m. they were all out of the corner . They are still hanging near the top so we'll check everything else, but that at least was part of the problem.

 

[Archerfish]

So update - it appears to be at least somewhat related to the glow in the dark plant. My wife took that out at 7 a.m and by 9 a.m. they were all out of the corner . They are still hanging near the top so we'll check everything else, but that at least was part of the problem.

Welcome to the forum! I absolutely agree with the above; it sounds like a water quality issue. Was the glow in the dark plant specifically made for aquariums? If not, it might have leached toxins. Just curious, are the guppies decedents over the 15-year period?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Yet another reason that live plants are best

 

[davros]

I wonder what might glow in the dark in their natural habitat- predators? I speculate putting the plant in a ziplock might prevent leaching while testing the glow factor. But me- I would toss the plant.

 

[KCGuppy]

Welcome to the forum! I absolutely agree with the above; it sounds like a water quality issue. Was the glow in the dark plant specifically made for aquariums? If not, it might have leached toxins. Just curious, are the guppies decedents over the 15-year period?

1. Yes, it was. But given the new heater was in there several hours before and they didn't move, and then they all darted for the corner once the glowing plant was there, I suspected it may be an issue.

2. My wife also changed out about 25% of the water, so that may have helped too. We're going to re-plug in the heater after testing the water so the temp is where it needs to be on an ongoing basis.

3. Yes, given that we originally got these guppies from a school at the time (maybe 13 years ago, not 15) and we didn't add any, they are all descendants. It's actually been pretty fascinating! They're not the most exciting things in the world, but they're quite hardy and the population has been stable.

 

[KCGuppy]

I wonder what might glow in the dark in their natural habitat- predators? I speculate putting the plant in a ziplock might prevent leaching while testing the glow factor. But me- I would toss the plant.

Yeah, the plant isn't coming back given that it instantly solved the issue.

 

[sharkweek178]

I wonder what might glow in the dark in their natural habitat- predators? I speculate putting the plant in a ziplock might prevent leaching while testing the glow factor. But me- I would toss the plant.

Unless we're creating a biosphere, we house fish with lots of plants, rocks and other decor that are foreign to their species. There probably aren't too many SpongeBob pineapple houses in nature. But the glowing part is probably so far removed from anything they could encounter in the wild that it confused and scared them.