Dying Guppies

[garsyboy]

Anyone have any ideas as to why my guppies start sitting at the bottom of the tank and hiding in corners and then their gills are pumping fast along with their mouths, then they will start to lay on their sides swim around like normal and then back to their sides then after appx 3-4 days they have passed on to fishy heaven.

What could be causing this?

I had 4 guppies for 6 weeks and then over the last week 1 died like this.
I then bought another 3 on Saturday from my LFS and I lost one yesterday and another one this morning? one of which was from my original remaining 3 and one of the new ones. Which means I am back to 4 again, 2 original 2 new.

I tested the water last night after one died and again this morning when the other one went.

Nitrate - 10
Nitrite - 0
Ammonia - 0

The get fed Tropical Fish Flakes, temp of water is 30 degrees.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

 

[bradmarsh]

30 degrees is pretty hot. Not sure if it would kill them but about 26 would be better for them. maybe they were old guppies? could be loads of things including bad luck. Guppies only live a couple of yrs so could have picked some OAP's? look up the symptoms of things like Ich (white spot) ind internal bacteria etc and see if they have any symptoms. just to rule them out really. Also how do you airate your water? with a high temp the oxygen in the water will be reduced. make sure your filter causes movement at the surface of the water or add an air pump and stone. ultimately i would reduce the temp.

let us know.....

brad

 

[WILDER]

Bacterial to parasite, has the fish bloated up or darkened in colour.

 

[garsyboy]

Bacterial to parasite, has the fish bloated up or darkened in colour.

No the fish haven't got any bigger and if anything I would say lightened in colour.

I also checked the water again last night :

Nitrate : 10
Nitrite : 0
Ammonia : 0
PH : 8

The heater in the tank is set to 24 but the thermometer in the tank reads 31 when I touch the water it doesn't feel that hot?

 

[hogan53]

hello
i think your heater needs replacing ideal temp would be 25-26 degree. Also could be lack of Qxygen due to high temperture your filter could be suffering also.
cheers good luck.

 

[WILDER]

Correct your temp and see how they go.
Good luck.

 

[vinylman]

The worst thing you can do is to keep buying fish when you don't know what's wrong in your tank. Also, Guppies are nowhere near as hardy as they used to be.

 

[djceri_g]

Could the Ph: 8 be the problem? seens a bit high for gyppies?

 

[WILDER]

The ph should be fine.

 

[vinylman]

As long as you acclimatise any fish added to your tank slowly, I can't see a problem. When you buy your fish, ask for an extra bag of water from the same tank. When you get home, empty both bags into a bucket, then start adding a cup of tankwater to the bucket every 5-10 minutes, but do it over an hour. Since I started taking longer to acclimatise fish, I've had no problems at all.

 

[garsyboy]

I have since turned the heater down slightly over a couple of days and that has brought the temp down to around 27-28. It could also have been with the light on as well it kept the temp rather hot.

So far the remaining 4 Guppies are doing well. I always make sure the bag is floated for about 30 mins and that the water from the tanks are mixed before they are actually placed in their new home as I have heard other people have had problems when they haven't done this.

I have also got an airstone in there now to get more oxygen in the tank.

Thanks for all the advice.