All of my guppies (mainly female) dying in close proximity of eachother

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Freshyfishy

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I have recently bought some guppies from 3 different stores, and now the death count (after a week) spiked to like 3 a day... Any ideas? There are more males than females, and they had white "floof" fungi looking things on their bodies. I did find a male and female mating and still "attached" that were both lying dead on the sand substrate. I have never heard of male and female guppies killing each other while mating.. I did just finish treating them for ich, so I was expecting a few deaths (some don't make it out of ich) and was going to give an anti-fungal until i noticed the breeding ones... Can anyone help?? note : my tank is 85 gallons
 
I have recently bought some guppies from 3 different stores, and now the death count (after a week) spiked to like 3 a day... Any ideas? There are more males than females, and they had white "floof" fungi looking things on their bodies. I did find a male and female mating and still "attached" that were both lying dead on the sand substrate. I have never heard of male and female guppies killing each other while mating.. I did just finish treating them for ich, so I was expecting a few deaths (some don't make it out of ich) and was going to give an anti-fungal until i noticed the breeding ones... Can anyone help?? note : my tank is 85 gallons
Hello Freshy. Most tank problems are water related. This may be a good time for a slightly larger than normal water change. The best way to keep fish healthy is to remove and replace most of their tank water every week. If you're not doing this, then gradually work up to that point.

10 Tanks (Now 11)
 
Pictures of the fish?

Guppies regularly carry external bacteria and external protozoan infections, as well as intestinal worms and gill flukes. This is why they should always be quarantined before being added to an established tank.

Test your water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.
Do a big water change and gravel clean the substrate.
Add some salt.

If you want to deworm the fish, see section 3 of the following link. But use salt first.

---------------------

SALT
Using Salt to Treat Fish Health Issues.

For some fish diseases you can use salt (sodium chloride) to treat the ailment rather than using a chemical based medication. Salt is relatively safe and is regularly used in the aquaculture industry to treat food fish for diseases. Salt has been successfully used to treat minor fungal and bacterial infections, as well as a number of external protozoan infections. Salt alone will not treat whitespot (Ichthyophthirius) or Velvet (Oodinium) but will treat most other types of external protozoan infections in freshwater fishes. Salt can treat early stages of hole in the head disease caused by Hexamita but it needs to be done in conjunction with cleaning up the tank. Salt can also be used to treat anchor worm (Lernaea), fish lice (Argulus), gill flukes (Dactylogyrus), skin flukes (Gyrodactylus), Epistylis, Microsporidian and Spironucleus infections.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
 
as soon as I moved all of my female guppies to the 25 gallon.. not a single death on either side. Hmmm I haven't read through what yall posted yet, just wanted to update.
 
something in the other tank is poisoning them.
check the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.
 
Is it possible it could only hurt the females?
It could also be that "your females" are more sensitive to certain problems. But in general, female guppies are not different than male guppies when it comes to deseases. Even if you buy your guppies from different stores, doesn't mean that they didn't come from the same source (e.g. fish farms or wholesaler).
 

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