First Loss...

[pixelpefekt]

Lost my first fish at the weekend.

We had planned on being away from Friday night till Sunday evening. I fed the fish before leaving and figured that Saturday could be their fast day and I'd feed them on my return. Our return was delayed till Monday evening and on inspecting the tank, it was noted that one Guppy was missing. Found it in a shell dead. First thing was to remove the fish and test the water. Water seemed fine!

Thing is, I am unsure how it died as it could have been a few different things....

1 - Attack? When I found it, it had no tail. All gone but for a tiny stub. My first thought were that maybe the Danios had attacked it but my other Guppy is 100% fine. No marks, nothing.

2 - PH change? A week ago I added a large fancy shell to the tank (about 10") and I had since learned that this can raise the PH in the water. I tested the water and it was up from 7.2 to 7.8 so I removed the shell and changed the water.

3 - Starvation? I guess it's the obvious one.. would the better part of 2 days be enough to starve the fish. I hope not. I'd hate for it to be that.

 

[martyn413]

When fish die, other fish will eat them. If you look at the ingredients of fish food, it will list fish.

As the other fish seem fine, i would put the death down to a weak fish.

Martyn

NB - i use to leave my lemon tetras and neon teras from Sat until Mon without food. They were a little slow probably due to the darkness.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

1 - Attack? When I found it, it had no tail. All gone but for a tiny stub. My first thought were that maybe the Danios had attacked it but my other Guppy is 100% fine. No marks, nothing.

wouldn't worry about that, it's most likley that the other fish had a nibble on him once he'd passed on. Bit horrible I know but they all do it.

2 - PH change? A week ago I added a large fancy shell to the tank (about 10") and I had since learned that this can raise the PH in the water. I tested the water and it was up from 7.2 to 7.8 so I removed the shell and changed the water.

possible but shouldn't affect the fish too badly, in the wild when there's a heavy rain this can change the pH so fish aren't all that sensitive to pH swings.

3 - Starvation? I guess it's the obvious one.. would the better part of 2 days be enough to starve the fish. I hope not. I'd hate for it to be that.

nope, not in 2 days

guppies aren't the strongest of fish anyway nowadays, they're inbred to make the fancy colour strains and the weak gene pool means the fish are often very weak.

if no other fish look unwell I'd say it's probably just a weak fish, keep a v close eye on the tank and it's inhabitants over the next few days