Guppy Problem Help!

[Nick217]

Hi guys,
My first post here so go easy on me
I seem to be having a huge problem with my guppy’s in my 135L tank.
There gills seem to go red and there bodies turn black and then yellow then they die One or two have started too loose there tail fins?
I don’t know what to do with them or what could be the cause? poor quality water?
I do remove chlorine? And that’s about it?

Bit of history on the tank.
It's 135L
Fully matured
Filter is a Fluval 205 with the charcoal biomax and water polisher pad.
Air pump is a tetra tec 200

Current live stock is
30 different tetra's all around 3-5cm long
7 baby mollys around 1cm long
Around three sucker fish (don’t know there names) around 7cm long
5 baby guppy’s (1cm long)
10 female guppy’s
5 male guppy’s

Could it be that i have over stocked the tank maybe?

Here is a picture of what i mean (Sorry about the poor quality)
Black mollys have been removed since the photo was taken.

I just don't know what to do anymore? help me before i loose intrest as i dont want to keep killing fish?
Thank you
Nick

 

[This Old Spouse]

Welcome to the forum, Nick.

You're definitely overstocked. The very first thing you need to do is a nice, big water change. Red gills and tails disintegrating are signs of poor water quality.

Then please answer a few questions so we can better help you.

How long has your tank been running? What did you do to cycle it before you added the fish?

You should remove the charcoal part of the filter. The only good reason to use charcoal is to help remove medications after treating the tank. It's only effective for a few days anyway.

What's your procedure for cleaning your tank? How much water do you change and how often? How do you clean the filters?

We also need to find out what kind of "sucker fish" you have in there. Can you post a photo?

 

[the_lock_man]

Hi Nick,

I personally wouldn't remove the charcoal straight away. Spouse is right that it's not serving it's true purpose, but it is still providing a home to some ammonia and nitrite crunching bacteria, and right now, you need all of those that you can get, as I agree with her assertion that it looks like poor water quality is your problem.

As well as answering her other questions, do you have a current set of water statistics you could post, ie ammonia, nitrite, nitrate levels, and pH level?

Once your immediate problems are sorted, then you can look at swapping the charcoal for some ceramic or sponges, but I think it's wise to deal with one problem at a time.

And welcome tro the forum, I hope we've been easy enough on you so far.

 

[This Old Spouse]

+1 to that. But he also has a floss medium that holds the bacteria.

 

[Nick217]

The tank is near enough 8 months old now and only had fish in for 4/5 months.
It was cycled in using the fishless method for around a month then slowly added fish in to start with. (Did loose a few to start with)
The sucker fish i think are sucker loaches
My tank cleaning procedure is to remove 20% water and clean all the filter media in old tank water.
The water is removed via a gravel cleaner so that takes the old food away during that.
Fresh water is added with tetra aqua safe and a little salt to make brackish water which makes it more realistic for the natural habitat.
If i have over stocked what do you suggest that would be reasonable about to have in my tank?
Thank you

 

[the_lock_man]

+1 to that. But he also has a floss medium that holds the bacteria.

 

[Nick217]

Also I have just done a 50% water change.

 

[comocrayfish5]

if its what i had with my goldfish, it is red pest. the fish look 'bloody' on their gills and there are red lines on the fins.

 

[Cazgar]

You are overstocked, & from what I've learned on here, you shouldn't clean your media every time you do a water change.
Do you use a dechlorinator & match water temperature when you do a water change?
It does sound like ammonia poisoning to me & with that amount of fish a 20% change doesn't sound enough

 

[Nick217]

You lot were correct,
I made the common newbie mistake and over stocked!
Its now down to 16 adult guppys and rummy nose tetra's
and around 14 fry which sounds alot better for the tank.

 

[the_lock_man]

The tank is near enough 8 months old now and only had fish in for 4/5 months.
It was cycled in using the fishless method for around a month then slowly added fish in to start with. (Did loose a few to start with)

Was that fishless, using bottled ammonia? Tank is 8 months old, 1 month cycling, 5 months with fish. What about the other two months? The reason I ask these questions is that redness around the gills is often associated with ammonia poisoning, which would tend to indicate an uncycled filter. Ammonia poisoning can also have delayed reactions, rather like smoking in humans.

and a little salt to make brackish water which makes it more realistic for the natural habitat.

Sucker loaches are also known as Hillstream Loaches. In their natural habitat, they live in fast-flowing streams on hills (hence the "Hillstream" thing). There is no salt whatsoever in those streams. Likewise, mollies, guppies and tetras come from completely freshwater areas. Mollies, as I understand it, can tolerate brackish water, but do not need it. Salt is not necessary for your aquarium, and could have been contributing to your problem.

 

[This Old Spouse]

if its what i had with my goldfish, it is red pest. the fish look 'bloody' on their gills and there are red lines on the fins.

After doing a bunch of research, Shelly, it looks like "red pest" boils down to plain old poor water quality. And I don't even keep goldfish.

 

[Nick217]

Well every bit of info i have had (from lfs or home breaders said to add a little salt to my tank) and from there tanks it dont seem to be any problem.
It was cycled using fish food to decay in the bottom of the tank. (cycled for three months with two or three fishes added with in them months)
After it all settled down slowley built my stock up.
Now the water quality has been tested since i gave away my neons glow lights ect and basicley halfed the stock in my tank and has come up nicely no ammonia ect.
So it was just a simple case of over stocking on my behalf.

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like you have things back under control Nick. Salt is not needed in a healthy tank unless you have brackish fish. If you are going brackish, do not try to keep tetras in the tank since tetras are very sensitive to higher mineral contents and do not do well there.

Salt is a useful medication for many diseases but is not a good idea in a fresh water tank for normal care. It may well be that your LFS is using salt to try to control the diseases that are inevitably brought in with a constant stream of new fish in their tanks. That is not your situation and it makes no sense for you to follow the Petco pattern with salt in every tank.

 

[Nick217]

Okay thank yo ufor the help.
No salt was added when i did a 30% water change so it should be okay.
I now only have rummy nose tetras in there (5) and a few guppys and baby mollys.