Help

[skimpy]

I am a beginner and have followed the advice of my dealer. (I reasonably trusted my dealer as I have used him for 3 years for my outdoor pond and he has not steered me wrong yet.)

I bought my tank Jewel Rekord 70 and set it up, after couple weeks my dealer tested the water PH 8 Nitrate 0 Nitrite 0 and said its ok to take 6 guppys. He will not sell more than six fish at a time and only if your water is tested by them and OK.

5 guppies died within 24 hrs and the shop told me to treat the tank with Liquisil General Tonic which should save the last fish, (this last guppy was purchased from a seperate tank to the other 5). The shop also lost some of their guppies from the same tank the same night and think it might be slime disease

My last guppy was at the surface a lot at first but after about 24hrs seemed to be acting more normally. Tues and Wed he seemed fine and fed well, but tonight he seem a little weeker and back up at the top of the tank or swimming erratically. He happily fed when i came home but i feel unsure.

When I added the tonic I was advisedby the shop not to worry about removing the carbon filter as it was just a short treatment to save the fish.

I feel so sad, I am trying so hard to do the right thing, I dont want to loose him, but I dont know what to do.

I have not got enough experience to know if his erratic swimming is normal or not, perhaps i'm just paranoid because of loosing the others.

He swims a lot in the air curtain bubbles I have going at the back of the tank but shoots around suddenly as if spooked by something. When hes at the top of the tank he hides a lot by the thermometer

I would now phone my dealer again but they are shut till tomorrow morning.

Any advice welcome.

 

[totalbolshevik]

When you set the tank up, did you cycle it, or just leave it set up for a few weeks? A pH of 8 is a little high, but then I've never had guppies so it could be alright for them. Also, if your fish was sick, he'd probably be acting sluggish rather than swimming erraticly...

 

[skimpy]

No I did not know about cycling until i came across TFF. I went on the shops advice. Adding my first fish about 2 weeks after set up (only if water showed as ok)

The shop said the ph 8 was ok and happily sold me the fish.

I understand what you say about sluggish, but the other guppies that died were not sluggish, it was as if they were short of oxygen. I know that my tank was not short of oxygen because i have an air curtain running all the time. The shop reckoned that it was slime disease that killed the others and that slime disease shows symptons similar to lack of oxygen.

Big Sigh, there is so much to learn!

 

[nightlife20]

if all you did was put dechlorinator in the tank and left it for two weeks without adding ammonia (or old filter media/gravel) then nothing would show up on the tests because theres nothin to show...

ur lfs if its worth its money should have known this...

id read up on doin either a fish cycle (prepare to lose a few fish) or a fishless cycle..... we have it in this section of the forum, take a look at the pinned topics.


hth's