Guppies Are Dying But No Water Quality Issues?

[LicianDragon]

I have a 20 gallon tank that was set up about 3 months ago. I started it off with 10 feeder guppies. 3 survived cycling(and the fin rot they all had when I bought them). The tank currently has no issues with ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. I added male fancy guppies later. Currently in the tank right now are 2 male guppies, 5 female guppies(all feeder, 4 of which are surviving fry from another female), a male platy, a female molly, a peacock gudgeon, a neon blue goby, a male betta and 3 julii catfish. I've been having issues with my guppies dying. If it's not within a couple of days since I buy them, I find them randomly dead in the morning weeks afterwards.
One of my males suddenly lost weight, becoming extremely emaciated and spending all his time in the tank corner. He hung on for weeks and died this morning.
Just yesterday I found a female guppy with her mouth stuck in my filter intake tube(it's an aqueon filter). Her whole mouth was bloody and blood was coming out of her gills. She died soon after I got her out. I don't know how she got herself stuck in there....
The others have shown no signs of illness or stress beforehand and no injuries afterwards. My betta has no shown any aggression towards a live fish plus I was having these issues before I got him.
I have tested my water and my levels of ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite are all 0. I do twice weekly water changes of 2 gallons each. I also add just over 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of water.
Every other fish has been perfectly fine but I'm worried about my remaining guppies. Any ideas on what could be causing this?

 

[techen]

I have a 20 gallon tank that was set up about 3 months ago. I started it off with 10 feeder guppies. 3 survived cycling(and the fin rot they all had when I bought them). The tank currently has no issues with ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. I added male fancy guppies later. Currently in the tank right now are 2 male guppies, 5 female guppies(all feeder, 4 of which are surviving fry from another female), a male platy, a female molly, a peacock gudgeon, a neon blue goby, a male betta and 3 julii catfish. I've been having issues with my guppies dying. If it's not within a couple of days since I buy them, I find them randomly dead in the morning weeks afterwards.
One of my males suddenly lost weight, becoming extremely emaciated and spending all his time in the tank corner. He hung on for weeks and died this morning.
Just yesterday I found a female guppy with her mouth stuck in my filter intake tube(it's an aqueon filter). Her whole mouth was bloody and blood was coming out of her gills. She died soon after I got her out. I don't know how she got herself stuck in there....
The others have shown no signs of illness or stress beforehand and no injuries afterwards. My betta has no shown any aggression towards a live fish plus I was having these issues before I got him.
I have tested my water and my levels of ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite are all 0. I do twice weekly water changes of 2 gallons each. I also add just over 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of water.
Every other fish has been perfectly fine but I'm worried about my remaining guppies. Any ideas on what could be causing this?

What testing kit do you use to get 0.1?

 

[the_lock_man]

I have a 20 gallon tank that was set up about 3 months ago. I started it off with 10 feeder guppies. 3 survived cycling(and the fin rot they all had when I bought them). The tank currently has no issues with ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. I added male fancy guppies later. Currently in the tank right now are 2 male guppies, 5 female guppies(all feeder, 4 of which are surviving fry from another female), a male platy, a female molly, a peacock gudgeon, a neon blue goby, a male betta and 3 julii catfish. I've been having issues with my guppies dying. If it's not within a couple of days since I buy them, I find them randomly dead in the morning weeks afterwards.
One of my males suddenly lost weight, becoming extremely emaciated and spending all his time in the tank corner. He hung on for weeks and died this morning.
Just yesterday I found a female guppy with her mouth stuck in my filter intake tube(it's an aqueon filter). Her whole mouth was bloody and blood was coming out of her gills. She died soon after I got her out. I don't know how she got herself stuck in there....
The others have shown no signs of illness or stress beforehand and no injuries afterwards. My betta has no shown any aggression towards a live fish plus I was having these issues before I got him.
I have tested my water and my levels of ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite are all 0. I do twice weekly water changes of 2 gallons each. I also add just over 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of water.
Every other fish has been perfectly fine but I'm worried about my remaining guppies. Any ideas on what could be causing this?

What testing kit do you use to get 0.1?

LOL!

Read it again, mate!!

ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all 0 Full Stop New Sentence I do twice weekly water changes.

Lician, there are two things I am concerned with. The first, which is probably insignificant, is that you say you are showing 0 nitrate - what type and make of test are you using?

The second thing is the salt. Whilst I would have said it was the cories that reacted badly to salt in the water, it could be that the guppies are more intolerant of the salt than they are. These are all freshwater species - some people reckon the mollies prefer a slightly salty environment, but none of the other species you list do.

 

[techen]

OH, DERP. My bad, I love working overtime don't you

 

[LicianDragon]

Lician, there are two things I am concerned with. The first, which is probably insignificant, is that you say you are showing 0 nitrate - what type and make of test are you using?

The second thing is the salt. Whilst I would have said it was the cories that reacted badly to salt in the water, it could be that the guppies are more intolerant of the salt than they are. These are all freshwater species - some people reckon the mollies prefer a slightly salty environment, but none of the other species you list do.

I use API Aquarium Pharmaceuticals brand test strips. I've also taken a water sample to petco(we use a dif. test strip brand, can't remember it offhand) and everything was 0 then too. Why would 0 nitrate be an issue? The salt I use is aquarium salt for freshwater tanks(it even has a warning to use solely for freshwater tanks). We put salt in our own freshwater tanks at petco and I know Jack's aquarium does the same thing. The salt hasn't caused and issue with any of my fish. It actually helped me out a lot with the initial startup of the tank when the feeder guppies I got had finrot. I don't think the salt is causing the problem. My cories are perfectly healthy( and greedy little pigs XD).

 

[KrystaK]

"Just yesterday I found a female guppy with her mouth stuck in my filter intake tube(it's an aqueon filter). Her whole mouth was bloody and blood was coming out of her gills. She died soon after I got her out."
Sounds sort of like Enteric Red Mouth, which causes the mouth to bleed due to spleen or stomach hemorrhages. There's no known cause or cure.
I tried introducing guppies to my 30 gal tank a while ago, and no matter what I did they all seemed to die. Whether of fin rot, Dropsy or of unknown causes, I went through about six before I just gave up.


As far as why should there be some Nitrate in the tank, Nitrate is a byproduct of the later stage of the nitrogen cycle, and if the cycle is working properly there will always be some in the tank, not much, but a readable amount.

IMO salt really shouldn't be an issue in your tank, Your fish are all fresh water, and none are particularly opposed to salt, to the best of my knowledge (Though I've never kept Khili fish, Goby's or a Gudgeon (sp?))

It may be that there is some other chemical in your tank that your Guppies are opposed to. I have very hard water, it's very calcium and phosphate rich, which causes hard water stains on my tank. I use baking soda and vinegar to help remove the stains, (I only do it bimonthly), I haven't had any problems yet, but Vinegar and baking soda probably are't very good for a fish's health.
Sorry I can't offer more help

 

[LicianDragon]

"Just yesterday I found a female guppy with her mouth stuck in my filter intake tube(it's an aqueon filter). Her whole mouth was bloody and blood was coming out of her gills. She died soon after I got her out."
Sounds sort of like Enteric Red Mouth, which causes the mouth to bleed due to spleen or stomach hemorrhages. There's no known cause or cure.
I tried introducing guppies to my 30 gal tank a while ago, and no matter what I did they all seemed to die. Whether of fin rot, Dropsy or of unknown causes, I went through about six before I just gave up.


As far as why should there be some Nitrate in the tank, Nitrate is a byproduct of the later stage of the nitrogen cycle, and if the cycle is working properly there will always be some in the tank, not much, but a readable amount.

IMO salt really shouldn't be an issue in your tank, Your fish are all fresh water, and none are particularly opposed to salt, to the best of my knowledge (Though I've never kept Khili fish, Goby's or a Gudgeon (sp?))

It may be that there is some other chemical in your tank that your Guppies are opposed to. I have very hard water, it's very calcium and phosphate rich, which causes hard water stains on my tank. I use baking soda and vinegar to help remove the stains, (I only do it bimonthly), I haven't had any problems yet, but Vinegar and baking soda probably are't very good for a fish's health.
Sorry I can't offer more help

That makes sense. I was getting nitrate during the initial cycling. I do have frogbite in my tank(a floating plant) that is a good at getting rid of nitrate, along with various other live plants. Could that be why my nitate level doesn't show up?

 

[KrystaK]

Thats very possible. Live plants do tend to cycle the products that the filter can't handle. I have live plants in my tank and have very low nitrate levels and as I said, I lost half a dozen guppies, perhaps they require a little bit of a nitrate reading in their water.
If there's a way you want to go about upping the level and see if that helps it may work - but it may also adversely affect your other fish

Edit: Getting Nitrate and Nitrite mixed up dang that one letter difference.

 

[phoenixgsd]

but surely if your tank is cycled there should be some nitrate, even if you do have plants but as your using test strips its possible your readings are wrong, test strips are very inacurate

 

[LicianDragon]

but surely if your tank is cycled there should be some nitrate, even if you do have plants but as your using test strips its possible your readings are wrong, test strips are very inacurate

That's true. If I ever have the money for liquid drop tests I'l do that, but right now it's not an option. Still, I'd have to think that even if I do have levels of nitrate that were causing issues with my fish, it should be detectable to some level in the strips. It would also effect other fish, particularly my neon blue goby seeing as they are far more sensitive to water quality than fancy guppies. I don't think the nitrate(or lack thereof) is causing this issue. More of my fish would be showing signs of illness/stress if that were the case.
I wonder if the aquarium stores around here just have bad quality guppies. I've been keeping them for over 6 years now and have never had issues like this.