Dozy Guppy

[london_bug]

Hi all new to this fish lark and need advice from those in the know

Brought a 40L tank for the living room - got it all set up - left it a couple of
weeks to setle down and get the good bacteria going as per the shops instructions

took a sample of water back to the store for em to test "perfect" there words

brought home 5 male guppys (wife likes the colours)

now 4 of the guppys seem to love there new home - lots of movement around
the tank and general seem really happy

now the last one started well but seems to spend most of his time sat near the bottom of the tank not moving

as a newbie this just seems wrong when the other 4 seem so happy

any pointers ??

Thanks peeps

BUG

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hi there
You must go out and buy your own ammonia, nitrate and nitrite testing kits and test asap, the lack of activity in the guppy is most like down to water quality issues and you should test it yourself to make sure you get accurate results- can you post them to us when you get them done ?.

 

[Skylar]

Okay, there is a section near the top of the forum home page that is called FAQ topics or something like that. In there should be a few topics on cycling. Read those. Your LFS said the water was perfect. Yes, they were right. It is perfect, but as soon as you added your guppies, the quality went down quickly.

This is due to not cycling the tank. Right now, your tank is cycling, building up small bacteria that eat through the waste, making ammonia, which will eventually turn into nitrIte and then into nitrAte.

Basically:

fish waste->ammonia->nitrIte->nitrAte

All three of these are quite harmful. You can keep nitrAte down by doing water changes once or twice a week.

So, what you can do is immediately do a 15% water change with dechlorinated water and continue to do this daily until you notice the water is cycling (buy an ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte test kit, don't trust your LFS!).

Check the levels on your test kit every day. if they start to get super high, do a water change. Only feed your fish minimally until the tank cycles, don't feed at ALL if the ammonia is really high. Don't take out the filter pad, also.

HTH,
Skylar

 

[london_bug]

Cheers for the replies peeps

alas we lost dozy but the others are all fine

went to another LFS that do the complete range of tests in front of you and show you the result

and this showed (a week ago)we had slight nitrate we (LFS's suggestion) replaced the tiny
little filter for a decent one and also done a 15% / 20% change

tested today and PH = 7, nitrate = 0 & ammonia = 0

still running sh1tty filter along side new one and will do for a couple weeks more but the clarity of the water has improved no end since the new one went in

once we have the old filter out i will get some more to replace poor dozy