Just Rescued A Tank - 4/5 Guppies Dead With Previous Owner. Just One

[purpleshade]

So I have rescued a tank (I have no experience with fish) and all of the bits and bobs from a friend. She bought 5 guppies and a mountain shrimp. Within 2 days 4 of the guppies died and the last one looked bad. She was just going to throw it all away so I rescued it. Unfortunately the last guppy died last night, the Shrimp is looking fine and being very active

The symptoms I saw in the guppy was it seemed to stay at the surface of the water then it suddenly started insane swimming, vertically and horizontally. It really struggled to stay balanced and it just died....

The tank itself has weird white little floaty specks stuck to the glass. could that have caused the deaths? Will the shrimp be ok?

The plants are still in the pots and are Staurogyne repens, Alternanthera rosaefolia and Lilaeopsis novaezeelandiae.


what should I do?? Can I some how completely clean out the tank whilst keeping the shrimp in? The substrate is aquatic compost and play sand.

Also the filter/pump looks to be blocked at the bottom or rather there is bits of algae? stuck in it.

Anyways I really need help so I can save this shrimp and the tank

 

[mike455555]

okay first things first. how long did she have the tank. i doubt you need to clean the whole thing. as id say its down to a filter not being mature. (having bateria to turn ammonia- which the fish poo out into nitrite and then into nitrate, 2 different sorts of bacteria)
if the filters blocked (not pushing water out from the top) unblock it.
is the tank heated?

what you need to do is a big water change (75%) of the water. make sure the water you put back in the tank is dechlorinated (use a chemical like tapsafe, there's loads out there.) and up to tempture (about 23-28[sup]o[/sup]C you want to do this once every day for the next 4 weeks (more or less)

in my signature theres a link to beginners recourse, read up on cycling the tank there

 

[Murrayjane]

How big is the tank? Perform a thorough water change, and get a test kit (or get it tested for free at an aquatic store) before putting anymore guppies or other fish in.

 

[4seasons]

What size is the tank and how long was it up and running? From the sounds of the little info given I would guess that the fish died from ammonia or nitrite levels. In other words the tank wasn't cycled. You can read up on this here and get a better idea of what you are getting into:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/