Guppies Dying

[senda_letter]

Hi,
I've been keeping guppies for a while now. I have 2 tanks, one has females and one has males. All the females except one are about a year old. Recently they seem to be dying at the rate of about one a week. I've had 4 go so far and I'm getting worried. I tested the water quality and the ammonia and nitrites were 0, the ph was about 7ish and the nitrates were a little high. I did a water change to try and get them lower and I will test again tomorrow. The only recent changes are that the tank has started growing bearded algae, I've removed the plants that were being affected and cleaned most of it off the filter. It hasnt taken over the tank or anything, at the moment it just looks a little unsightly. I have put some copper sulphate based algaecide into the tank to try and get rid of it. I also have a bristlenose plec to help with the algae.
Can anyone think of anything that could be causing this? The fish dont look ill or anything, just seem to be dying off one by one.

 

[HCpetraitis]

Well how big is your tank. If it is small enough I would suggest completely emtying the tank and "starting over." My other suggestion would be your substrate on the bottom. It could be holding some nasty bacteria. Also, try taking a REALLY close look at your guppies. Maybe you jest missed something on them.

 

[senda_letter]

The tank is 60 Litres. We have a gravel vac and use that the clean the tank and gravel at water change time.

We had another death this morning but I had looked at all the fish yesterday and hadn't spotted any looking at all ill.

I've add some drops in of a solution that claims to fight the main types of illness (dropsy, finrot, white spot, swim bladder etc)

I've also added 2 new plants today to try and help with the nitrates. Again they all look healthy I just cant figure out what is upsetting them. I dont want to just "start again" as I have some really pretty colourful females but I can't risk putting them in with the males in the bigger tank because I dont want to infect them as well.

Is there anything anyone can suggest that I havent already done?

 

[jackyb07s4]

hmm...odd.

I would put the femals with the males tbh. You say one fish a week, suggesting the disease takes a while to spread/take effect. If the trend carries on, you should move them sooner rather than later. Look at it this way, you'll end up with a tonne of guppy fry to make up for the dead females

 

[HCpetraitis]

Umm have you tried cleaning out your filter? What kind of filter do you have?

 

[senda_letter]

I cleaned the filter yesterday and did a small water change. Then again today I did a water change.

The tank is an elite fluval one with the "stingray" filter. We have had the tank for 7 months with fish in now. This is the first time we have had the problem.

We had one fish looking ill yesterday (as in just sitting at the bottom of the tank and not really swimming) so we put her in the tiny tank and she hasnt died yet. We had another death this evening. Its hard to tell what she looked like before because the snails and fish ate parts of her.

I realised I hadnt put before that there are 4 neon tetras in the tank also, they do not seem to have been affected by all this. Only the guppies have died.

I dont want to put them in my other tank because then I risk infecting all the other fish. The only thing I can think of that has changed recently is that we added King British Algaecide to the tank and we changed the type of water pre treatment we use, although I believe the water pre treatment was after the first one or two fish had died. This also happened to the bigger tank but with no ill effects.

 

[lil-x-me...x]

hmm, strange guppies arnt the most hardy fish, so maybe it may just be some unhealthy bunch...but maybe too coinsidental...

have you only ever kept guppies in your tanks? id go for some more hardy livebearers, or replace somke of the famles with some neons to add more colour

as for the reaosn why your females seem to be dying of, i havent got a clue. if your water stats are fine, and your fish are fine, then just keep what your doing atm. your trying your best, dont be too disapointed if you get some more losses, it will hapeen from time to time. hopefully not any more losses will come

let us now how you get on x

 

[HCpetraitis]

Well, I'd say you should get some medicine for the tank bacause its very likely that the tetras could be affected also.

 

[senda_letter]

I've kept guppies for quite few years now and never had anything this catastrophic. These have been pretty hardy. We had quite a few raised from fry and the ones I have given away are still fine, the males are also all fine.

I've now had 1 death per day for the last 2 weeks. With the exception of one day where 2 died. The fish all look fine, there was only one that looked unhealthy (by that I mean not very active) and it died 2 days later. I separated that one.

The neons all seem fine as does the oldest female, all of which are about 2 years old. The plec doesnt appear to be affected either. I doubt now that it is something toxic in the water because I've done regular water changes and the fish have not all died at the same time, I would have expected to see more at once. Which leads me to believe its some sort of disease that doesnt have any external signs. I've treated the water and that didn't seem to help. I guess now I just have to wait it out and see which ones (if any) survive. I have about 10 fish left now.

 

[HCpetraitis]

I'm sorry. Maybe you can post this in the Fish Emergencies secion.

 

[Shyartist]

Guppies for me seem pretty hardy also, there are two things I would add, one is to get a magnifiying glass and really get a close up of the fish, look at the gills, are the redder than usual? Also have you changed hand lotions or perfume lately that might be on your hands when you reach into the water? Sometime, the smallest thing can be the culprit.

 

[senda_letter]

I dont use hand lotion or anything like that. I had a good look at the gills and they look the same as they always have.
I've always found guppies to be pretty hardy in the past too.

Can a post be moved to a different section? If so, how?

 

[HCpetraitis]

Do you use cleaning products in your tank? What about your medicine? ...Water Conditioner? ...Fish Net?

 

[matt999]

Hi,
I've been keeping guppies for a while now. I have 2 tanks, one has females and one has males. All the females except one are about a year old. Recently they seem to be dying at the rate of about one a week. I've had 4 go so far and I'm getting worried. I tested the water quality and the ammonia and nitrites were 0, the ph was about 7ish and the nitrates were a little high. I did a water change to try and get them lower and I will test again tomorrow. The only recent changes are that the tank has started growing bearded algae, I've removed the plants that were being affected and cleaned most of it off the filter. It hasnt taken over the tank or anything, at the moment it just looks a little unsightly. I have put some copper sulphate based algaecide into the tank to try and get rid of it. I also have a bristlenose plec to help with the algae.
Can anyone think of anything that could be causing this? The fish dont look ill or anything, just seem to be dying off one by one.

I had the same sort of problem about six mounths ago. Iv got a 60ltr tank with both male and female guppies in. Iv had my tank with guppies in for over two years now. I have lost some guppies befor but intill six mounths ago nothing like this. The same thing started happening in my tank. Like you I tryed every thing. I asked at the shop were I have always got all my stuff and guppies we tryed lots of things but in the end the thing that seemed to do the trick was to add TETRA EASYBALANCE every week and every water change. Im not sure why it works but it seemed to work for me so maybe give that a go. good luck hope you sort it out.