All Female Guppies Have Died...don't Know Why..

[LRPRESTO]

Hi! Just wondering if anyone knows why my female guppies in my 45 gal. tank would die when all the males are doing just fine. I was down to the last girl and she died today. No visibal reason of death. No ammonia, no nitrite, nitrate .10, PH 7.5 I add 1 TBSP salt ber 5 gal. and amquil and cycle with weekly water changes, water temp is 78 Thanks!!

 

[Egmel]

Hi! Just wondering if anyone knows why my female guppies in my 45 gal. tank would die when all the males are doing just fine. I was down to the last girl and she died today. No visibal reason of death. No ammonia, no nitrite, nitrate .10, PH 7.5 I add 1 TBSP salt ber 5 gal. and amquil and cycle with weekly water changes, water temp is 78 Thanks!!

What ratio of male to females did you have? If there aren't enough females then the males will hassle the females until they wear out, their immune systems get weakened and they succumb to something. Did you see the males chasing the females much?

 

[modaz]

you dont need to add salt to the water for guppies, you should only use it if there is a problem and not as a general use when doing water changes, cycle doesnt need to be put into the tank either on the changes, the filter that you use should only be partly cleaned when needed and should still have bacteria in it to keep the tank cycled, i would stop using both and just provide water changes with conditioner to take the impurities out. its just pure unluck that youve lost all your females, I personally would replace the females and start using freshwater as guppies are freshwater fish after all.

 

[LRPRESTO]

Thanks Egmel and Modaz! I will start NOT puting the cycle or salt in the tank for them. I will restock the females but at what ratio should I go with?

(those darn horny boys!!!)

 

[chucksmo]

the should be 2 or 3 fml per each male. I have 6 fml and 2 males in my tank and they love one another.

 

[LRPRESTO]

Great! I'll get more! THanks!! After they get out of the quarentine tank the boys won't know what hit them!!

 

[chucksmo]

They might not but they will love you for it.

 

[platyfanatic]

Lol.
Dont you just love adding new fish to an aquarium, especially if its a member of the opposite sex lol.
Anyway, i hope you enjoy watching your lads, well should i say make fry lol.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

How long did you have these females for before they started dying? How long did you acclimatise them to the tank for when you got them and how did you go about it exactly?
If they were new, its probable they died of stress related to the salt in the tank if you bought them from a freshwater tank and didn't acclimatise them to your rather salty tank for long enough. Guppys can be kept in brackish conditions, although i personally think that freshwater is preferable as it puts less stress on their bodys in the long term as petshop guppys tend to be more accustomed to freshwater conditions since the majority of guppy strains you find in petshops were initially created in freshwater and have been kept in freshwater for many decades etc. Wild type guppys tend to be more adaptable salty conditions in the long term.
Salt should only really be used as a medicine for treating certain deseases and parasites in guppys, other than that its generally unesarsary as it is completely posible to keep healthy guppys in freshwater conditions if you look after them properly .

For a lot of livebearer keepers, buying healthy guppys can be a fustrating experience now days since so many are riddled with parasites and other infections (partly due to the conditions they are raised in at many suppliers- the over-crowded conditions guppys are often bred and raised in makes it easy for parasites and infections to spread like wild fire amoungst them).
My advice would be to not buy any new fish for the next 2 weeks to see how your other fish go and to get a quarentine tank of around 5gallons or more with heating and filtration- you'll find that having a quaretine tank which you can quarentine your fish in for a couple of weeks before introducing them to the main tank will help prevent to a large extent you introducing fish which are carrying diseases or parasites into your main tank .