Help! Fish Dead...

[Jayladd]

I had 6 guppies, 1 has died, and one looks like its going to. My guppies seem a bit lethargic lately. The ill guppy seems to be kind of laying on the floor and not doing much. This guppy has always seemed a bit bloated so i'm not sure if its a digestinal problem. The other guppy which died didn't have this problem.

The only thing i have done differently lately is removed the carbon sponge last week and added an extra mechanical filter foam. I use interpet fresh start conditioner. Maybe my water has too many heavy metals in it and now aren't being removed from the carbon sponge? The tank is cycled. I only feed my guppis flake food, could this be a reason?

Just tested the water parameters:

P.H = 7.8
Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite= 0ppm
Nitrate = 10/20 ppm

Its just been a week since i did a water change. That's why my nitrate's are high.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

Ohh after the first one died i did have a mini ammonia spike afterwards, it rose to 0.5ppm. I'm pretty sure it was the guppy that caused this as the nitrites was still 0ppm. I did a 50% water change. Could this have caused shock?

 

[Tizer]

Nitrates are not high, nitrates are only "high" when you get into 200+

Doesnt sound like you have done anything wrong, perhaps over fed them?

 

[willowstwin]

hmmm cant tell what's wrong from that... possibly an ammonia spike would cause a little stress, but so long as you got the dead one out quick and did a partial water change to get the ammonia levels down, it shouldn't have that much of an effect I wouldn't think?

 

[the_lock_man]

Varying the diet is always a good thing, just as it is with humans. Pretty much any sort of vegetable is good, mine often get deshelled peas, and occasionally carrots or swede (I wouldn't cook them in salted water). Additionally, you can get frozen or freezedried live foods from the LFS for a bit more variety. If the dead one was also bloated, then perhaps constipation was the cause, it's difficult to tell.

If your carbon filter is more than a few weeks old, then it hasn't been removing heavy metals anyway - most hobbyists suggest keeping a carbon filter in the cupboard to use to remove medication from the water when necessary, and then discarding it.

 

[mtbdean]

How long has the tank been setup?

 

[Jayladd]

My tank is about 3-4 months old now. Fully cycled.

Now another one looks ill, he just keeps lying on the floor, hardly looks alive

 

[Jayladd]

Ohh i feed them every other day.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I had 6 guppies, 1 has died, and one looks like its going to. My guppies seem a bit lethargic lately. The ill guppy seems to be kind of laying on the floor and not doing much. This guppy has always seemed a bit bloated so i'm not sure if its a digestinal problem. The other guppy which died didn't have this problem.

The only thing i have done differently lately is removed the carbon sponge last week and added an extra mechanical filter foam. I use interpet fresh start conditioner. Maybe my water has too many heavy metals in it and now aren't being removed from the carbon sponge? The tank is cycled. I only feed my guppis flake food, could this be a reason?

Just tested the water parameters:

P.H = 7.8
Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite= 0ppm
Nitrate = 10/20 ppm

Its just been a week since i did a water change. That's why my nitrate's are high.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

Ohh after the first one died i did have a mini ammonia spike afterwards, it rose to 0.5ppm. I'm pretty sure it was the guppy that caused this as the nitrites was still 0ppm. I did a 50% water change. Could this have caused shock?

Did you have other biological media left behind when you replaced the carbon sponge?

 

[Jayladd]

Yehh, i only changed one sponge out of the two and there are also these bio media interpet things.

I did see a small white worm crawling on the front of my glass last week, i read these are suppose to be harmless though and just feed on fish poo and leftover flakes? Could i have a bacterial infection?