Guppies Dropping Like Flies

[Crazycat lady]

hi guys

In the last 2 days I have lost 3 adult guppies, 2 female and 1 male.

I had one male acting strangely doing a headstand, just sat between an ornament and side of glass with it's tail completely vertical. but that one is fine now.

the 2 females were pregnant they didn't show any strange behaviour at all. fins are fine, swimming and eating normally. just suddenly looked and they were dead.

ammonia and nitrite are 0
nitrate minimal

been doing water changes just in case.

i have a 60l

9 gupps (3male)
1 dalmation molly
1 l134 pleco (he's tiny)

2 filters running fluval u2 and 2 plus, 2 live plants, 2 ornaments and a few hidey holes for captain jack (pleco)

good maintenance regime and tank been cycled for ages! no ammonia spikes to speak of and i test every couple of days

i've had the guppies that died for abt 6 months, all from same stockist and were all fully grown when i got them. i'm wondering old age?

another thing is that i stopped adding aquarium salt during changes because someone told me it was useless??
any ideas?

thanx guys

 

[blesser13]

Hello

Did you test your ph, and also water temp? and what the frequency of your water change? You don't need salt, do you use an water conditioner during the water changes?

 

[Crazycat lady]

Ph is the one test kit I don't have, will get one in morning when shops open. Temp is 79 and yes always use conditioner. Water changes are 20% 3 times a week(temp matched with dechlorinator). Curious abt ph now as a few weeks ago I added some bogwood for my pleco!

My filters are set with one on the bottom jet, the other on top blowing bubbles so plenty of airation.

 

[comocrayfish5]

hi,

when you put fish in was the water aged?
when setting up a tropical tank, you should age the water and
keep everything running.
you could get away with aging/running everything for a month but the longer
the better (like 3 months)

hope i helped!!

 

[Crazycat lady]

hi,

when you put fish in was the water aged?
when setting up a tropical tank, you should age the water and
keep everything running.
you could get away with aging/running everything for a month but the longer
the better (like 3 months)

hope i helped!!

tank has been running for a year and a half x

 

[chrisso]

i had guppies for a little over 6 months in my tank that now houses my 2 oscars.

definatly check ph levels as gupps preffer alkaline water 7.2-7.6 is ideal.

Adding driftwood/bogwood to a tank can affect ph levels bringing it down to acid wich is bad news for these fish. thats the only thing i can think of apart from some bizarre things like a broken heater thats electricuting the fish or light etc but i highly highly doubt that.

So best bet is to check your ph, I hope my input was usefull and goodluck!

 

[Crazycat lady]

2 hours till shops open. If it is the ph then how do I correct it? X

 

[Crazycat lady]

ok so PH was 8ish so very alkaline, got some ph down. tested my tap water and that is very alkaline around 8.5 which worries me a bit. put some more bogwood in last nt and now the tank has gone a greenish colour overnight. also lost another guppy yesterday!

this is horrible!!!!

 

[Crazycat lady]

can anyone suggest anything else i could do?

 

[colleen0309]

The change in the color of your water is probably the tannis leaching out of the wood. It won't hurt the fish. I don't like to use the ph up or down. In my opinion, it causes big ph swings that aren't good for the fish. My ph is always at 7.8. This is too high for my angelfish to breed successfully, but since they are acclimated to it, it doesn't cause any problems. I've heard putting dry hardwood leaves in the tank works, but I haven't tried it yet. How about using some peat in your filter? That would bring the ph down.

 

[nehpets81]

This sounds really horrible, I hope you find out what's wrong soon. I would have thought a ph of 8 would be fine for the guppies though so I can't see this killing them.
Have you had any new additions to the tank recently? Fish, plants etc? What are the guppies being fed on? Is the male that was doing headstands still alive and have any of the dead guppies been displaying any unusual signs? Any swellings or obvious things on their bodies? I take it they were definitely pregnant and not just swollen?
I must say I'm no expert but I have been researching guppy ailments after mine started flicking on the sand.

 

[Crazycat lady]

This sounds really horrible, I hope you find out what's wrong soon. I would have thought a ph of 8 would be fine for the guppies though so I can't see this killing them.
Have you had any new additions to the tank recently? Fish, plants etc? What are the guppies being fed on? Is the male that was doing headstands still alive and have any of the dead guppies been displaying any unusual signs? Any swellings or obvious things on their bodies? I take it they were definitely pregnant and not just swollen?
I must say I'm no expert but I have been researching guppy ailments after mine started flicking on the sand.

This has been the worst fish experience of my life. Lost 5 guppies in total including the headstand one. No new additions at all and they get fed on flakes,frozen brine shrimp and a few weeks ago my friend gave me some frozen bloodworm to give them (could that be it?
The ones which died looked perfectly normal (appart from being dead). Although my loach looked a bit sluggish last week but has regained his viggour now.

Really don't wanna jinx it but haven't lost any in a while but my other fry tank is havin serious bacterial bloom and low ph! Dunno what's goin on? I'm always on top of maintenance!

Crashed my car the other day, broke my glass table and fell over in the shower so maybe fate hates me right now!

 

[nehpets81]

Well, frozen foods I think are generally radiation treated to remove any potential paracites so the bloodworm should be fine.
I'm sorry, this one remains a bit of a mystery - sounds like you have had your share of bad luck recently.

 

[Crazycat lady]

Well they say karma has to balance things out. I haven't done anything bad to anyone so hopefully something really good will happen to me soon!

Best put the lottery on!

 

[tatuny]

omg female gupppys i knew that female guppys can even be used to cycle new tanks...So they should be really hardy..I have 2 male guppys and 2 females and 5 fry and i never had anything rong with my guppys...And i dont change the water like you do,i change it once a week 40%..Maybe to many water changes and stress to the fish because of that..Did you guppies have any fry till now?If not either they aborted because of stress or they got eaten..