Guppy Death

Parker17

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Hi guys, yesterday (20/8/13) I bought my first guppies and this morning less than 24 hours later I woke up too one of them dead :(. The only visible differences I could see was yellow marks under its belly apart from that nothing. Can anyone help me please? Don't want to loose anymore. Thanks

P.s. I have attached a picture of the poor little guy!
 
SInce they are your first fish, can I ask how you cycled the filter? And how long ago did you start that? Did you add any chemicals, if so what were they (I need the name, not just "some stuff")? Have you taken ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH readings?
 
Tank was running for a week before I put the fish in so everything settled down had a water test and everything was good, however a week down the line I think the nitrate and ammonia levels may have increased so I may go and get it tested again. I have put no chemicals in as i want to keep it as natural as possible. Furthermore, what do you mean by cycled the filter?

Thanks.
 
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/forum/291-cycle-your-tank/
 
Follow this link toanswer all your questions regarding cycling your tank correctly prior to theintroduction of fish, unfortunately youare now in what is known as a 'fish in' cycle due to the fact that the beneficial bacteria have not built up in you filter.
 
You can find lots of usefulinfo to help save your fish here
 
There are two things that could have killed the fish - ammonia or chlorine.
 
Dealing with the ammonia possibility first, fish produce ammonia as part of their respiration process. Ammonia is highly toxic, it burns their gills, restricting their ability to take in oxygen, and once in the blood stream it does all manner of damage to their internals as well. In the wild, the water in their lakes and rivers is constantly refreshing so it doesn't matter. In an enclosed fish tank, there is nowhere for that ammonia to go. The good news is that there is a family of bacteria which love to eat ammonia, and these will start to grow in your tank, mainly in the filter but also in the substrate.
 
The downside of this is that these bacteria produce nitrite. Nitrite is also highly toxic, it attaches itself to the fish's haemoglobin, and stops it from transporting oxygen around the body, effectively it suffocates the fish. The good news is that there is also a family of bacteria which love to eat nitrite, and these will also start to grow in the filter and substrate. These bacteria produce nitrate, which, in low quantities, isn't toxic at all.
 
This is the nitrogen cycle. Growing the bacteria colonies in your filter is called "cycling". You haven't yet achieved this, but you will.
 
To do this properly and safely, you must (and I mean MUST) get your own liquid test kit. You need to test your water every day, and change enough water to reduce the ammonia and nitrite levels down to about 0.1ppm - this is too low to be measured on most hobbyist test kits, but will still provide enough ammonia to grow the bacteria. To decide how much water to change, it's basic maths. If you see a level of 1ppm, then to reduce this to 0.1ppm, you need to change 90% of the water (1-0.9=0.1). If you only have 0.5ppm, then you only need to change 80%. If you see 2ppm, then you need to change 95%. In practical terms, this would mean 2 water changes of as much as you can, in quick succession.
 
If you don't see a reading for either ammonia or nitrite, then you don't need to change water.
 
Initially, you will be changing water everyday, because you will be doing the bacteria's job for it. As time goes on, and the bacteria grow, you will get to a stage where you'll only need to do water changes every two days, then every 3, etc. Once you get to a stage where you can go a week without having to change water, you are classed as "cycled", in other words, you have bacteria colonies large enough to deal with the ammonia produced by your current level of fish.
 
At that point, if you wish to, you can add additional fish, such that you are adding another 25% to the bioload. This is an inexact science, but if you had 4 guppies, you could add another one. But you could potentially add 2 much smaller fish. (This obviously depends also on your tank's capacity). Because there will be more ammonia being produced, the bacteria colonies will need to grow to cope, so you will need to go through the above again, although it will take a LOT less time - we call this a "mini-cycle".
 
At the moment, though, you don't have a test kit, so I would say you need to do daily 80% water changes until such time as you can buy a kit. I personally recommend either the Salifert or the Nutrafin tests. Many on here use and recommend the API kit, but there are significant issues with both the ammonia and nitrate tests, so I don't use that range. So long as you get a liquid kit, rather than paper strips or tablets, you won't go too far wrong.
 
You may be wondering why your fish shop tested your water, and told you it was fine to add fish, when I've just told you that you have a problem. When the shop staff test the water, they are looking for the presence of ammonia and nitrite. But there was nothing in your tank to produce ammonia or nitrite, so at that stage, the water itself was fine, it was the filter that was not ready.
 
Now, about my 2nd possible cause of death. You said you hadn't used any chemicals at all, and I am assuming this includes water conditioner, aka dechlorinator. As you'll no doubt know, your water company adds chlorine (or chloramine) to the water to destroy any nasty bacteria and make it safe for human consumption. When it comes out of your tap, it's at a concentration that won't hurt you, but it is also a problem for fish, and immature bacteria colonies. We use dechlorinator (I recommend Prime, as do most on here) to remove chlorine and chloramine, and also to remove any heavy metal pollutants in the water. Since it seems you haven't used a dechlorinator, it may well be the chlorine/chloramine that killed your fish.
 
Even if the latter was the issue with your tank, you still will be having the former problem, so this is all stuff you need to understand. Sorry it's so long-winded. If you have any other questions, however silly you think they might be, please ask them, we were all beginners once.
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Cheers guys massive help, had it tested again nitrate and ammonia a tad high not massive so going to take what info you have gave and put it to use. Maybe a 10% water change as well bring them down.

Thanks again. :)
O and yes I have put de-chlorinator in but that is the only chemical. Like I said really want to keep things as natural as possible.

Thanks
 
Depending upon your pH, ammonia can be a problem and might not be. You don't mention nitrite at all, which could be a problem. I'd be interested to know what the LFS employee reckons is "a tad high, not massive". If it's 0.5ppm, then a 10% change, will bring it down to 0.45ppm. Insignificant change, to be honest, if you have a high pH, then it's still toxic.
 
Until such time as you know what your levels are, I would repeat my advice, do much larger water changes, to ensure that the poisons are in very low concentrations. Overnight a fish died - so you can see for yourself that exposure to these toxins can be fatal quickly.
 
It was at the local pet shop he tests for free said it was very high but needs to be brought down, he then said consecutive 10% water changes should bring it back down. However I like to be able to test my self so going to get a self testing kit like you suggested and get exact readings then use the ratio you have given. I have set 15L of water away to de-chlorinate and tomorrow will do the water change. He also said keep the feeding down to a minimum until I get the levels down so I have removed all excess food from the tank that was left from this mornings feed.

Really appreciate this info, really frustrated though as I read into everything before I do things so I get as much research on things as possible hopping that these kind of things are avoided.
 
You don't need to leave the water; once you've added the dechlorinator you can use it straight away.
 
As we don't know what the actual ammonia/nitrite levels are, do a massive water change, ASAP; leave just enough water for the fish to swim upright before refilling, making sure the new water is temperature matched (and dechlorinated!).
 

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