Beginner Guppy Breeder Questions

[OldMan47]

As long as your hornwort does well, keep using it. It makes an excellent cover when it is healthy. I went to java moss because I could not count on my hornwort staying healthy.

 

[Lyra0727]

As long as your hornwort does well, keep using it. It makes an excellent cover when it is healthy. I went to java moss because I could not count on my hornwort staying healthy.

I tried it and it was just like you described. A dieing christmas tree. Worse part is that it clogged my filter and I never knew so who knows how long thats been going on! My tank is really cloudy now and water levels are all messed up.. Back to square 1! I've lost 2 females from I'm thinking a bacterial infection.. so I'm trying to figure out if I should treat the tank for that now even though they all look healthy. Females (the 3 that are left) are still pregnant and I have some fake plants at the top for the fry.

But I rather lose the fry and have them get pregnant again after being treated if that means risking them getting sick and dieing like the others. It really just havent been a good fish week for me. :\

 

[OldMan47]

Do a good cleaning of your filter to get the flow back where it belongs and do a huge water change. Medications are almost never the answer. The problem is simple to state and to understand. If I add a biological agent to my tank that is designed to kill off fish bacteria, it will most likely kill all bacteria present. Unfortunately, some of the bacteria present are keeping my fish healthy, they are the beneficial bacteria in my filter. It is easier to get a good water change to remove most of the offensive chemicals from the tank and let the fish fight off infection than it is to deal with the chemical contaminants that come from killing off your biological filter.
All that we do in the hobby ends up being a balancing act. Fish tank water is not fit for human consumption but is the best we can provide for our fish. If I leave the chemicals in the water that make it safe for me to drink that water, it, the chlorine, will kill the fish. If I prevent any control of micro-organisms in the water, the fish will need to deal with them using their own natural resistances. If I can remove much of the contaminants with a water change and leave behind a healthy water system that gives my fish the best chance of survival. In most situations, now that I know better, I avoid using any medications and simply do my best to maintain a good water condition using water changes. My fish are seldom ever unhealthy and they recover quickly from many common problems. I do not believe that I am especially talented at fish medicines but my fish tend to thrive at all times.
In almost any case, your best bet for an ailing fish is a large, don't mess around with tiny 50% changes, water change. A fish that receives a 90%+ water change almost always looks better right away and seldom has much further in the way of troubles. This is a low tech approach but I find it especially useful for most situations. If a water change does not cause a rapid "cure", try a salt treatment. Salt causes most disease organisms to die at lower concentrations than ones that will harm the fish. That means that you can ignore almost any of the common medications if you dose your fish near their tolerance levels with salt and hold that concentration for a few days before reducing it with a water change. The end result will be fish stressed by the salt but alive, with the disease organism dead. As much as I admire the "miracle cures" of modern medicine, the simple salt treatment is still my treatment of choice in almost all cases.

 

[Lyra0727]

Well the ones that are currently in the tank are healthy, they only seem to get sick and die if they get scratched.. thats when it kicks in and all hell breaks lose I've done a 75% water change 2 days ago and a 25% one this morning and the water is still very cloudy. But I've cleaned the filter and made sure it was running properly.

Should I do a complete tank cleaning? I would really hate doing that because it would be starting a completely new cycle (again) but I dont want to lose anymore fish.. and the water doesnt seem to be clearing up.

 

[This Old Spouse]

So I have a 20g that I have some black skirted longfin tetra in recuperating from fin rot (thanks to an LFS) and I've been treating the water with Mela-fix which is melaleuca. Do you think this will kill off the filter bacteria as well? I would like to keep these fish and I'm curious about the best approach. Do 90% water changes? Add salt?

 

[Lyra0727]

I recently lost my betta due to fin rot (cuz of lfs leaving him in a cup with dirty water)and thinking the bacterial infection that was in my tank. The melafix didnt do anything for him. I had him in a completely different tank and treated him but had only gotten worse. I would do the water change and salt that oldman47 suggested. I've read that fin rot occurs because of bad water quality so it would probably help.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Thanks for the input. I really didn't mean to hijack this thread and I reposted my question under a new topic, thinking I had deleted it off here.

 

[Lyra0727]

It's fine, my thread has been up for a while so I dont mind.

 

[OldMan47]

You are doing fine Lyra. If you do a water change every time there is a hint of water quality problems, the fish are resilient and will recover in almost every case. I have not bought any medications whatsoever in the last 9 years since I got back into the hobby and I seldom lose a fish, except to old age. My fish demand a high price at local auctions although they are fed mostly high quality flake food and are kept in tanks that many would consider crowded. What has made a difference, at least I think so, is that I do not tolerate any water quality problems in my tanks. At the first sign that something may be wrong, I do not hesitate to do a 90% or larger water change. You might be amazed at how much better your fish look right after such a change, if you started with ailing fish in less than ideal water conditions.

I am presently acclimating several new fish to my water because I was successful at a local club auction today and have 6 bags of fish to introduce to a new home at my home. One required me to move a fish out of a tank to make room for the new species. Even that fish was drip acclimated to the water in another of my tanks before being moved. Water is the thing a successful fish keeper learns to care for. If the water quality is always good, the fish will thrive and grow beautiful for you regardless of most other factors such as food ingredients. The only caveat for foods is that no single food should ever be used for any fish. We in the hobby simply do not know enough about the fish's nutritional needs to ever decide to rely on a single food. Every fish food maker knows only what the present research shows, which is never enough to completely rely on the results. If you have a meat eater, add in some live foods. If you have a vegetarian type, like mollies for example, add in some vegetable based flake.

 

[Lyra0727]

I'm glad to know I did something right at least. Although the water never cleared up.. I went to another lfs by me. Same company but different area and turns out a lot of people had the same issues with the filter. So I replaced it, but I got my water tested and everything was perfect so I just hope it stays that way! I've lost 3 fish from that tank now I really dont want to lose more..

Also I was thinking, since I wont be able to replace the female guppies I lost should I maybe put the females in a different tank when they are maybe a week from dropping? That way they wont be bothered by the males? It would be a 10 gallon tank so they wouldnt be stressed. (I cant use breeder traps.. I feel bad for them seeing them in a small little box)

 

[This Old Spouse]

I just did a huge water change today to try to clear up my cloudy water, and it worked. I've not had a problem with my 2 10g tanks with female guppies in one and males in the other. And I did what you were suggesting, putting the females in a separate tank so the males wouldn't pester them so much. That worked just fine. At this point I have so many guppies I'm not as concerned about the fry anymore. I just leave the females in the big tank with all the other females, and when the fry drop nearly all of them survive. When they get big enough to sex I separate them. Unless you're going to breed them for sale this should work well.

 

[Lyra0727]

I am trying to breed them and its exciting because one should drop any day! I wont be able to safly put her in the other 10 gallon since it wouldnt be cycled yet so I'm hopping the fry should be ok since I have a patch of plastic plants in there for them to stay in at the top.

But now one female guppy is not eating and is always staying low to the ground. She is no where near ready to drop still tiny but is pregnant. I can see her gravid patch and its a very creamy orange. No dots or anything. She'll dart for the food but change her mind.

Where as my other two are HUGE and are eating like pigs.. I'm getting paranoid again! I had a bad fish week last week due to loseing a few in a short amount of time I'm scared something is wrong again because she isnt acting normal..

 

[This Old Spouse]

Can't you use some filter media from one of your established tanks to use in the 10g to get it up and running right away?
I guess all I can do is share my experiences.

I lost Big Momma last week for unknown reasons. She just started acting lethargic and then stopped eating, so I put her in my Q tank and within a couple of hours she was upside down so I chose to euthanize her. I don't have a clue what got to her. She'd been acting strangely off and on for a couple of weeks. She produced some wonderful offspring so I was sad to see her go. I hope your girl is okay.

 

[Lyra0727]

Actually now that I think about it I did just replace the filter in the tank she is in so I still have the old filter and everything.. But I also have a female that needs to escape two pesky males that are non-stop ganging up on her. She should be dropping any day now considering her size and how square she has become the past few days..

The guppy that isnt eating is hidding a lot now. If she wasnt so tiny I would think that she would be getitng ready to drop! Shes acting exactly the way people describe a guppy right before dropping. Last week I had a sick guppy that was having a hole formed in her head, so I was thinking maybe that was it but shes not showing signs of that either. I don't understand what is wrong Maybe I should do another water change just in case..

Do you think it would be safe to put my mama guppy in the 10 gallon with her if I used the old filter I had in the origional 10 gallon tank?

Btw really sorry to hear about your mama guppy its so sad when you hear they pass away..