What Is Killing My Guppy's?

[madcaow]

Hi there!

i recently purchases several guppys. i had 4 male and about 6 females.

already in the tank were 6 glowlight tetras, 7 rummynose, and 5 neons.

i now have only 3 females left, all the males died within a week. they didnt seem to be being picked on or harrassed by any of the tetras and they looked completely healthy of course up until i found them dead or dying. the females seem to have been either eaten alive or just carked it giving birth.

i have moved the fry (about 7 surviving) into a breeding net for safe keeping.

the tank is a 40US gallon
water temp is 26 degrees
pH is around 5-6
Nitrate & Nitrite and Ammonia are all at 0
phosphate is at about 1

i regularly change the water about 40-50% a week.

any ideas anyone?? im stumped.

 

[puddle_inc]

WHAT!? 26 degrees? they must be freezing dude! wait, that can't be right, the water would be frozen...

could you please correct the typo and let us know the real temp?


the fish may have something unoticable like an internal parasite or something. first thing i would try is to start simple, see if melafix and quickcure would help. if that doesn't help, try more expensive medications for internel parasites. also, put some salt in there to releave stress. thats what they said i should do for my goldfish, so it may help a little.

if you can, get a good look at all the sides of gthe guppies. check for small white spots, black specks on them, wormlike things hanging on near the gill, small spots of fungus type stuff, anything like that. let us know if you find anything and try what i said above. keep me updated so i can help more.

 

[smurfyy_2k3]

c not f puddle


mmm alot of my 6th generation guppies died recently but thats because they are serious inbreeds(twas an experiment)

 

[puddle_inc]

oh, hehe. i knew that.... >_>

 

[madmom]

I think the guppies are mot as hardy do to inbreeding. I had problems with male guppies also. Just don't give up. I finally got some males that seem to be doing fine and I am keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[F.O.H]

it might sound daft but it could just be that batch of guppies i bet you that they have lost a hell of fish at your lfs but even if you ASKED THEY WOULDNT ELL YOU.

 

[madcaow]

hehe yeah 26F would be pretty chilly.

there does not seem to be anything wrong with the fish other than how they simply cark it. i treated the tank for 3 days with melafix after adding them. i originally got 4 males and 1 female. then the enxt day i got 5 more females.

then all the males died, no signs of any sickness, no white spot, no parasites. i have not had any other fish die on me in months and months.

i was thinking it could be the glowlights as they seem to be a bit aggressive, but mostly toward each other.

found another female dead today (was away last night) all the fry seem quite happy in their little breeding net. im feeding them so they get big and fat fast so i can at least have some more in there.

so out of the 10 i got (3 females were from a different LFS) i now have 2 females and about 6 fry left.

bit of a pain in the arse. i thought i had this fish thing down. huhuh. well at least the plants still look great!! might wait a week or so then get some more and see how i go.

cheers for checking the thread

 

[Danny4]

Hi there, unfortunatly i have been told by the man at my local fish store that guppys have been bred so much for colour that nowadays they have basically no immune system he actually recommened that i don't bother trying to keep them becasue it's very rare to keep any alive for nay length of time, i used to try but have lost every guppy i ever bought from several different places within a couple of weeks.

 

[gsta13]

Hi there, unfortunatly i have been told by the man at my local fish store that guppys have been bred so much for colour that nowadays they have basically no immune system he actually recommened that i don't bother trying to keep them becasue it's very rare to keep any alive for nay length of time, i used to try but have lost every guppy i ever bought from several different places within a couple of weeks.

I got my guppies 2male 2female about 6 months ago, we lost one male and one female to fin rot, but the other fish all were fine. It might be worth checking the Ph of the water they are kept in and that of your tank, as the sudden shock can i belive induce illness upon your fish. I was thinking about all the guppies inbreeding and thinking wouldnt it be a good idea to all swap fry? this would help us keep the guppies gene pool as large as we could, infact im goin to start a thread about this now!
Greg

 

[Neo8223]

Hi, i have had my guppies for 2 generations (with a few male guppys swapped or introduced every generation) and they have lasted about 2 years so far. I find pH very hard to create, so i dont bother. although guppys do like slightly acidic water) I also have found that using water from water softners made the fish unhappy also. I do however, keep my temperature at 27 Celcius. I pair them up with a ratio of about a minimum of 3 females to 1 male and at the moment, i have 7 females to 1 male. They are happy as larry! They are in a pretty small tank atm, but they were pretty happy in my old tank which was 12x12x24 inches. which is 15 US gallons and 12.5 UK gallons.

Heres a few basic things that you might want to add in a check-list and ask yourself.
Is the tank clean. (I found that when my tank was full of algae, my guppies developed fungus disease. )
Have i done a 25% water change at least once every 2 weeks (maximum twice a week)
When i change my water, do I use aqua safe and also what temperature is the water. (mix the aqua safe and water before putting it in the tank. Also, add some boiling water to the mix before you put it in the tank to make it closer to the tanks temperature)
When i add fish to my tank, do i leave my fish floating in for long enough and do i mix the bag water with a bit of tank water about 10 mins before puting it in the tank. (i find it helps)
Have i removed any dead fish (if fish eat infected fish, they may become infected too in some cases)
Do i tamper with the tank all the time. (Try not to put your hands in the tank too often, you introduce harmful bacteria into the tank)
Do i vary the food. (my fish go wild over freshly hatched brine shrimp and love it. This brings up their colours and makes them very easy to breed)

Umm, thats all i can think of for the moment. Good luck

 

[madcaow]

right. might try some different species then! huhu.

the tank is pretty much perfect. when i introduce the new fish to the tank i add them over about a 1/2 hour 45 min, gradually adding tank water to the bag. i then net them out of the bag and add them to the tank. never let the LFS water into my tank. LFS pH was apparantly 6.

 

[Rhiannon]

Puddle, he is talking about degrees celcius. 26 is normal for a fish tank in australia!

Your ph might possibly be a bit low. They like it around the 7 mark.

 

[stargirly1208]

i have 5 male guppies and 6 females and i got them from a low grade petshop (petco haha) and they're doing just fine. my ph is 7 and i keep my water at 80F. i also have glolites and neons and they don't seem to bother at all. maybe it was just a batch with parasites. same thing happened to me when i got baby mollies from the petshop and i treated them and nothing helped. don't get discouraged tho. you could quarantine them in a 10 gallon tank or something first before adding them to your big tank in case they do have diseases, you wouldn't want it to affect your other fish. did you add stress coat or something of the sort before putting them in? i always do this to try and prevent stress.

 

[faithless1294]

Hello,
i have had 4 male guppys and 8 female guppys for about a year and have only started to die off because of old age a made a few mistakes when i first got them first was there was bogwood in tank which kills guppys cause of water thickness i dint do anything for stress which is the worst mistake and last the tank temp was not right, i lost about 4 guppys in the beginning before i started to do water tests and find out what sort of things guppys need to live without dying off in first few weeks. since when i first got guppys the lfs puts stress coat in the bag with the fish which helps and most good lfs should have.
Good Luck.

 

[lilfishie]

well good luck with the remaining ones you have