What Just Happened To My Guppy?

[slimeneo]

Hmm.. Well a reading of ammonia means your tank isn't fully cycled. Have you added any new fish lately? How long did you fish less cycle for? Have you treated the tank recently with any meds or other chemicals? ... I wouldn't put any "ammonia remover" in the tank, water changes easily remove the ammonia.

Do a 90% water change, if the results are the same. I would recommend getting a more reliable test kit, like the API master kit. Liquid tests are more accurate than strips. I would skip feeding for a day, to get ammonia to 0.

I haven't added any new fish as of late, and I let the tank cycle for over a week without fish : ) I haven't treated the water with anything besides the Stress Zyme and Stress Coat.

Alright I'll do that! Thank you very much!
Will my fishies be alright? I don't want them to get ammonia poisoning D:

It only took you a week to cycle? how exactly did you cycle it, adding liquid ammonia, testing, etc? Or did you just let it run?

Watch out for red streaks, flashing and other odd behavior. The fish that died may have died from ammonia poisoning.. Has there been ammonia readings before? Any exposure to ammonia is harmful to fish, unfortunately they may not die now, but it may shorten their lifespan. I did a fish-in cycle, and after it had been established for several months, more than half of the original fish died not to scare you or anything!

 

[Proud Pastry]

Hmm.. Well a reading of ammonia means your tank isn't fully cycled. Have you added any new fish lately? How long did you fish less cycle for? Have you treated the tank recently with any meds or other chemicals? ... I wouldn't put any "ammonia remover" in the tank, water changes easily remove the ammonia.

Do a 90% water change, if the results are the same. I would recommend getting a more reliable test kit, like the API master kit. Liquid tests are more accurate than strips. I would skip feeding for a day, to get ammonia to 0.

I haven't added any new fish as of late, and I let the tank cycle for over a week without fish : ) I haven't treated the water with anything besides the Stress Zyme and Stress Coat.

Alright I'll do that! Thank you very much!
Will my fishies be alright? I don't want them to get ammonia poisoning D:

It only took you a week to cycle? how exactly did you cycle it, adding liquid ammonia, testing, etc? Or did you just let it run?

Watch out for red streaks, flashing and other odd behavior. The fish that died may have died from ammonia poisoning.. Has there been ammonia readings before? Any exposure to ammonia is harmful to fish, unfortunately they may not die now, but it may shorten their lifespan. I did a fish-in cycle, and after it had been established for several months, more than half of the original fish died not to scare you or anything!

The woman at the store told me to cycle it for a week o___o I guess she was wrong... Now I feel terrible :'(

That's what confuses me about the fish that died, he wasn't gasping for air, he didn't have any streaks, and wasn't flashing or showing any other odd behavior... one of my fish was flashing, but he hasn't done it since... my other fish are acting normal as well D:
I'll change my water everyday until the ammonia goes down and get some better test kits.

sigh... Thanks everyone for your help :'D Next time I'll come here instead of talking to the people at the store :'(
If my fishies do pass away *knocks on wood* then I'll do a good cleaning (I know not to use soap, correct? : ) ) and let my tank cycle fishless for a long time and MAKE SURE I'm doing everything 110% right!
Although I'm doing everything in my power to try to help my fish at the moment ;__;

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Try not to feel too bad that your pet store lady gave you the wrong information... they are infuriatingly prone to misleading customers! Most of us started off making that same mistake... thinking pet shop people know something... I did the same thing. You will come to appreciate the rare gem of a fish shop person whom you may one day come across in a shop who DOES actually give useful advice.

 

[snazy]

Ammonia and nitrite poisoning can cause all type of damage, internal to the organs, block access to oxygen through the gills, secondary disease outbreaks, etc...so the symptoms are never the same. Just keep up with 80-90% water changes a day to keep the ammonia/nitrItes as close to 0 as possible until the tank cycles. Once the tank is cycled, and you fish are happy, you will enjoy fish keeping a lot more.

 

[Proud Pastry]

Awh Thank you all very much for your help and support! :'D I'll be sure to keep up the water changes, no problem
I'll need to pick up some more stress coat and stress zyme... adding both of those for each water change is alright, yes? (don't want to mess anything else up! haha)
Actually, could you all tell me how you do your water changes? Maybe I could learn something new

 

[snazy]

You don't need stress zyme. Only dechlorinator, stress coat works as such as well.
As for water changes, you need to buy a siphon from the pet shop, so all you do is siphon the water out via that siphon and you can also clean the gravel with it in the same time. There's plenty of youtube videos showing how to do it.
Never net the fish out during a water change or change 100% of the water at a time. Normally after the cycle is over, don't do more than 50% at a time but now during cycling you should do more as suggested above to lower the ammonia and nitrItes to minimum at once.
Then once the water is out, add dechlorinated/temperature matched water and that's it. Don't forget to turn off your filter and heater while doing a water change.

 

[Proud Pastry]

You don't need stress zyme. Only dechlorinator, stress coat works as such as well.
As for water changes, you need to buy a siphon from the pet shop, so all you do is siphon the water out via that siphon and you can also clean the gravel with it in the same time. There's plenty of youtube videos showing how to do it.
Never net the fish out during a water change or change 100% of the water at a time. Normally after the cycle is over, don't do more than 50% at a time but now during cycling you should do more as suggested above to lower the ammonia and nitrItes to minimum at once.
Then once the water is out, add dechlorinated/temperature matched water and that's it. Don't forget to turn off your filter and heater while doing a water change.

Alrighty!
I have a siphon/gravel vacuum and I use that to change the water. I also never net the fish out
I usually add the dechloronator to the water that's in the bucket first before I add the water in the tank, and then I add the water in very slowly.
Should I buy another thermometer to use for the bucket to make sure the temperature is the same? I usually run my hand through the water to make sure it feels the same as the water in the tank first.

 

[fluttermoth]

Just using your hand to temperature match is fine

 

[Proud Pastry]

Just using your hand to temperature match is fine

Alrighty!

A little update, I bought a LiveNH3 reader that I hang inside the tank to tell me if there is any ammonia in the water
So far so good! And my fish seem to be doing very well I hope the reader works well and that the ammonia goes away (also bought another ammonia test just in case )

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Good job!

Just wanted to add something else about changing water/cleaning the tank. Make sure when you do the gravel you poke the syphon right down into the gravel and move it around a bit, and do so across the entire bottom of the tank... there is a shocking amount of filth that get wedged in there that you don't see in the visual quality of the water.

 

[Proud Pastry]

Good job!

Just wanted to add something else about changing water/cleaning the tank. Make sure when you do the gravel you poke the syphon right down into the gravel and move it around a bit, and do so across the entire bottom of the tank... there is a shocking amount of filth that get wedged in there that you don't see in the visual quality of the water.

Oh I know It's amazing at how much stuff gets in there... I'm always so surprised whenever I move one of the decorations haha
I'll be sure to do a thorough job!