Perfectly healthy guppy died?

[ella777]

One of my very healthy guppies has passed away overnight.
I have no idea why or how as all the other fish are still thriving.
I did get them from a pet shop, could that be why? I'm not sure how ethical it is.
He's still very colourful meaning it would've been a recent death.
I'm struggling to find one more of my guppies as well. I think they might've died.

I did my first 30% water change in 6 months as people were telling me to.
They were all fine before that, not sure what happened.

Nitrates 0
Nitrites 10

 

[Playsander]

You did your first water change in 6 months?

I panic if I miss a weekly water change.

Also did you match temperatures OK?

 

[GaryE]

He looked perfectly healthy. He wasn't, clearly.

One water change in six months? Ouch. I do mine 7-10 days apart. I have a couple of tanks I neglected because I've been working a lot, and they are at 17 days. I'll do a gradual water change there - less than usual but two small changes during the week to come. When you let a tank go the water changes chemically, and when you add clean fresh water, it can be a shock to the fish. It's a reason why regular weekly water changes are better than big monthly ones, even in an understocked tank.

In nature, in dry seasons, water course shrink and often vanish. Fish bodies go into energy conservation mode, trying to stay alive til the rains come. A lot of our aquarium fish live short lives in that mode, because we neglect their care or don't know how to care for them yet. Even rains refilling a river are more gradual than a water change in a tank, and long neglect followed by sudden clean good water can be too much for some fish.

 

[otterblue]

Did you put any water conditioner in the water before adding it?

 

[emeraldking]

One of my very healthy guppies has passed away overnight.
I have no idea why or how as all the other fish are still thriving.
I did get them from a pet shop, could that be why? I'm not sure how ethical it is.
He's still very colourful meaning it would've been a recent death.
I'm struggling to find one more of my guppies as well. I think they might've died.

I did my first 30% water change in 6 months as people were telling me to.
They were all fine before that, not sure what happened.

Nitrates 0
Nitrites 10

It could just also be a cardiac arrest. That does happen as well with fish.

I panic if I miss a weekly water change.

Oh, wow... I wouldn't be panicking if it's just a week. If there's really a reason to panic when one misses out a water change, then the tank itself isn't in balance. No weekly water changes needed overhere.

 

[Playsander]

It could just also be a cardiac arrest. That does happen as well with fish.

Oh, wow... I wouldn't be panicking if it's just a week. If there's really a reason to panic when one misses out a water change, then the tank itself isn't in balance. No weekly water changes needed overhere.

I just like panicking

 

[Back in the fold]

This is something you will see every so often. Something called “Sudden Unexplained Fish Death”. Why does it happen ? Nobody knows. Is there a reason for it ? Nobody knows. Is it from something you did wrong ? Nobody knows.

 

[Playsander]

This is something you will see every so often. Something called “Sudden Unexplained Fish Death”. Why does it happen ? Nobody knows. Is there a reason for it ? Nobody knows. Is it from something you did wrong ? Nobody knows.

You just won the QI bonus.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

If these numbers you reported, "Nitrates 0 Nitrites 10" you will be losing more fish if you do not deal with this. You should see fish gasping at the surface and/or hiding. Please confirm these numbers are accurate or else that you made a mistake and they should have been nitrate 10 and nitrite 0.

Also, do a bit of reseach on "Old Tank Syndrome."

 

[ella777]

I explained why I haven't been doing water changes in a different post.

Yes I did add water conditioner, it was saying 0 chlorine.

Yes sorry I meant 10 nitrates, 0 nitrites

One fish does gasp for air quite a bit. I'm not sure why as none of the other fish do this.
Saying that, I've noticed a few of the guppies have randomly started as well.

The temperatures were the same, always have been.

The other guppies are fine by the way! It must've been hiding before.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Excess nitrate can cause similar breathing issues ad nitrite, but we are talking more like Nitrate in the 100s of ppm not 10.

Also, the cycle itself is acidic. This means with no remedial actions (read water changes) the pH of a tank will drop. This has another effect in terms of ammonia. Below a pH of 7 more and more of the ammonia will be in the form of ammonium (NH4). By pH 6.0 it will all be NH4. When one then does a water change it risks the potential to raise the pH and thus turns ammonia more toxic.

That said, most hobby test kits measure Total Ammonia which includes the sum of ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4). However, you did not say anything about whether you tested for ammonia here. I did not read your other post, so I have no idea why you might not be doing water changes. If this is relevant it should have been mentioned in this thread, I think?

Many years back I lost one of my larger clown loaches. At thet time I was a mod in an active fish chat with some very expert members regularly in the chat. One such person suggest I out the fish in the freezer and send it to him. He would do an autopsy. I did this and hwere is what he told me. The gills looked fine, there were no blockages on fthe digestive systems and not signs of infection or parasites. He explained to me that fish can have heart attacks or strokes and this is most likely what happened to the fish. It can happen.

edited to fix typos

 

[ella777]

Excess nitrate can cause similar breathing issues ad nitrite, but we are talking more like Nitrate in the 100s of ppm not 10.

Also, the cycle itself is acidic. This means with no remedial actions (read water changes) the pH of a tank will drop. This has another effect in terms of ammonia. Below a 0H of 7 more and more of the ammonia will be in the form of ammonium (NH4). by pH 6.0 it will all be NH4/ When one then does a water change it risks the potential to raise the pH and thus turns ammonia more toxic.

That said, most hobby test kits measure Total Ammonia which includes the sum of ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4). However, you did not say anything about whether you tested for ammonia here. I did not read your other post, so I have no idea why you might not be doing water changes. If this is relevant it should have been mentioned in this thread, I think?

Many years back I lost one of my larger clown loaches. At thet time I was a mod in an active fish chat with some very expert members regularly in the chat. One such person suggest I out the fish in the frezzer and send it to him. He would do an autopsy. I did this and hwere is what he told me. The gills looke dfimne, there were no blockages on fthe digestive systems and not signs of infection or parasites. He explained to me that fish can have heart attacks or strokes and this is most likely what happened to the fish. It can happen.

Do you think my fish might've had a heart attack as well?

I don't think the fish died because of the water change, but I dont notice any difference in their behaviour.

People didnt agree with me when I said my reasoning for not doing water changes.

My test strips don't say anything about ammonia, but there must be none as theres no nitrites?

I have a lot of plants as well, I thought it would help but apparently they do nothing to help.

 

[Alice B]

One of my very healthy guppies has passed away overnight.
I have no idea why or how as all the other fish are still thriving.
I did get them from a pet shop, could that be why? I'm not sure how ethical it is.
He's still very colourful meaning it would've been a recent death.
I'm struggling to find one more of my guppies as well. I think they might've died.

I did my first 30% water change in 6 months as people were telling me to.
They were all fine before that, not sure what happened.

Nitrates 0
Nitrites 10

Nitrites 10 or nitrates 10? Also pH shock can kill and after 6 months ph will have dropped

 

[ella777]

Nitrites 10 or nitrates 10? Also pH shock can kill and after 6 months ph will have dropped

10 nitrates, 0 nitrites, sorry.
He died a few days after doing a water change, not when I did it.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Plants do help with ammonia and nitrate. Further, they also host some of the nitrifying bacteria. Based on everything you have reported I doubt the issue was related to cycling.

Water changes are normally good for fish not fatal. Unless one forgets to use dechlor or one's tap water parameters have suddenly changed, they do not harm fish. And when there is something wrong with the new water it should affect most or all of one;s fish. So it is often a coincidence when a problem occurs soon after a water change rather that its being the cause.

What would make more sense is either the fish arrived with whatever caused its death or else it had a heart attack, a stroke or other fatal cause which has nothing to do with us or the water conditions.

One more note, pH is rarely the cause of fish deaths unless the needs of the fish and the actual pH are greatly different. More important parameters in this respect are hardness and TDS. Normally, the harder the water and the higher the TDS, the higher the pH and vice versa. But this is not 100% the case. There are some places with a high pH but softer water. Lake Sulawesi shows these sort of parameters.

A big change in hardness or TDS can be fatal much moreso than a change in pH. I keep some acid water fish and I have dropped their pH by 1.0 in under 5 minutes with no ill effect. However, the hardness and TDS barely budged when I did this.

You need to monitor the rest of the fish now to be on the lookout for any strange behavior or symptoms of illness etc. Make sure they eat when fed if you can. Look for external symptoms or unusal looking poop if you spot it. Be aware that fish which are ill tend to hide to avoid being picked on or attacked. Dish with gill or nitrite issues tend to be gasping at the surface or hanging the the filter outflow trying for oxygen even though there is enough in the water.

Funally, when looking for help with sick fish it always helps to have pictures or vids. It is often gard enough for folks ereading a thread like this one to see what you can even when you get a decent pic. But that is always more helpful than no pic.