Guppies Keep Dying

[Rajinder]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice. My guppies keep dying and I don't know what is causing their death. I have 5 neon tetras and 2 ghost shrimp and they are healthy but every time I put guppies in the tank they die within a few hours. I have tested my water and there is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate and 0 nitrite and my ph is 8.0. i have tried to use a product to bring my ph down but that clogged up my filter and made my water cloudy so stopped using it. What can be causing their death? I also had two honey gourami's and they died too after a few days.

 

[Fishy friend2]

Can you please fill this out


Tank size:
pH:
ammonia:
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
tank temp:

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

Volume and Frequency of water changes:

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Tank inhabitants:

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):

Exposure to chemicals:

Digital photo (include if possible):

 

[Rajinder]

Hi,

Tank size is 10gallons
ph = 8.0 (blue)
ammonia = 0
Nitrate = 0
Nitrite = 0

I don't know what KH and GH is.
Tank Temperature = 25 degrees

when I put the guppies in they were swimming really fast and chasing my neon tetras and then they kept swimming at the top of tank and kept going round and round the tank. they stayed at the top. I put in 4 guppies and then they all died one at a time. after a few days i bought 2 honey gouramis and 2 guppies. the guppies showed the same behaviour as the first 4 i had bought and died after a few hours (overnight). One honey gourami died after a day and the other died 4 days later. the honey gourami's were swimming slowly, hiding behind the plants and then would shoot straight to the top of the tank and then go back down. They didn't eat any food.

the chemicals i put in my tank were nutrofin cycle but i have recently changed to prime since i think it works much better. I also have 3 plants in my tank not sure what kind of plants they are.

 

[Rajinder]

the colour of the guppies were, blue and silver, orange and 2 yellow tailed guppies. I don't know why the other fish are not surviving when my neon tetras and shrimp seem fine.

 

[Rummynose]

Did you acclimate your fish before you added them to your tank? Either by floating the bag in the aquarium and removing some of their water and replacing it with some of your tank water every 10 to 15 minutes? Or the drip method, where you empty the water and fish from the bag into a bucket and with small tubing you allow water to drip from your tank into the bucket.

Just so it has been said, I want to mention that it is best to place new fish into a quarantine tank for about 4 weeks, where you have enough time to observe if the new fish have any diseases or parasites before you add them to your established tank and infect all your fish!

What kind of test are you using to test the water parameters of your tank? A cycled tank will have 0 Ammonia, 0 NitrIte, but readings of NitrAte. Your numbers suggest that your tank is not yet cycled, where there are enough beneficial bacteria colonies in your filter to convert your fish's waste into the more harmless Nitrates.

Test strips are quite unreliable. Better to use one of those liquid test kits, like API or Nutrafin! If you are using one of those liquid test kits you will have to shake those bottles real well, especially for the NitrAte test, the #2 bottle of the API test kit! You best shake it like there is no tomorrow for at least 3 minutes, otherwise you will get inaccurate readings!

Are you changing the water every week, and how much? Do you use a gravel vac to pick up uneaten food and fish waste? Do you have chlorine or chloramine in your tap water and are you adding enough dechlorinator when you add fresh water?

 

[Rajinder]

Hi
Yes I use nutrafin test kit for my water. Yesterday there were some nitrate readings but very low. I did a 30% water change today and it went down to 0. There is only a tiny bit of pink but it is mostly clear. When I introduced the fish I floated the bag in my tank for 5mins and then emptied the fish and the water that it came with into my tank. I have only had my tank for 1 month so it might be that it's not cycled. The first week of my tank had really high nitrite and nitrate readings but it went down by the second week and that's when I got my fish. Right now the readings are light yellow for ammonia, and clear for nitrite and clear for nitrate.

I don't have a vac for uneaten food and waste.

 

[Rummynose]

So, the first two weeks you just had the filter running with no fish in the tank! Did you add food or any ammonia to the tank to start cycling the tank?

You may want to test your tap water to see if there is Nitrite or Nitrate present.

Slight yellow in your Ammonia test indicates that the filter is not having any/enough bacteria. Whenever you have Ammonia present in your tank it has the potential to burn your fish's gills, and make them more susceptible to diseases. It is very important that you keep those levels as close to 0 as you can by doing lots of water changes, daily and sometimes even more than once daily if needed. Do not allow the Ammonia to go above .25! Prolongued exposure to such levels can cause organ damage and death! It is best if you read about doing a fish-in cycle, so you know what to expect and what you need to do to give your fish the best chance to survive this.

Always add dechlorinator to the fresh water since chlorine and chloramine will kill the bacteria in your filter and you will have to start the cycle all over. Chlorine and chloramine are also toxic for your fish at prolongued exposure.

Never allow water from the bag the new fish come in to spill into your tank. The water in the bag becomes dirty and toxic very quickly, and the water can also carry prasites from the store into your tank.

It would be a good idea to find out what kind of plants you have in your tank. Sometimes you can be sold plants from the aquatic section even though the plants should rather be in a planter at the window. Plants can carry pest snail eggs or be treated with pesticides so before you plant them in your tank it is best to also quarantine them and/or to give them a good rinse before adding them!

 

[Rajinder]

Hi thank you,
Yes I had no fish for the first 2 weeks and I was adding food into the tank. The ammonia level was light green at the start but I had problems with the nitrite and nitrate they were very dark pink but after using nutrafin cycle and prime it went down.
So what should I do add more declorinater? Or prime? It says on the prime bottle that it romoves chlorine, chloramine, ammonia, detoxifies nitrite and nitrate and provides slime coat.

How do I know if my water is ok? What colour should the ammonia test be? I thought light yellow was ok. Yellow isn't even on the test card that comes with the kit.

 

[Rummynose]

Add the amount of prime or other dechlorinator as indicated for the amount of water that you are changing. You can add a little more, it won't harm your tank, but don't add less!!!!

I have the Nutrafin ammonia test also, but mine is clear for a 0 reading, pale yellow for a reading of .6, next level is 1.2 (where the colour goes more into orange tinge), then 2.4....so getting a yellow tinge would be bad news and orange would be extremely toxic!

You want to see Nitrates. As soon as you see Nitrates but no more Ammonia or Nitrites then your tank (filter) is cycled. Plants love to have Nitrates in the water, it is their food. That may be another reason why your nitrate readings are low!

 

[Rajinder]

Do you think I should wait before I buy any more Guppies? My ammonia test is a lime/yellow green for 0, lime green for 0.1 and then keeps getting a little darker shade of green and blue is most toxic 6.1.

 

[Rummynose]

I wouldn't really recommend to add new fish to a tank where a number of fish have died for unknown reasons.

Could you ask your LFS to test your tank water to compare it with your readings? If both tests are the same the new fish must have died because they could not acclimate to your water. Your ph is 8, ask the LFS what ph their tanks have. Fish don`t handle large ph differences very well!

It is not a good idea to adjust the ph chemically, the fluctuation in ph is harder on the fish than to get used to the ph of your water. Adding some drift wood does have the benefit of lowering the ph a little bit, so if you like the look of drift wood you could add that to your tank. It will darken the water for a few months because of the tanins in the wood, but in time it will diminish.

If you want to try adding new fish again I would recommend giving the fish a lot more time to acclimate. The drip method is really gentle, just make sure you use a bucket that has not been used with any soap. The floating bag method lets them adjust better to the temperature in your tank. Just make sure that you take out some water from the bag and add some water from your tank to the bag in 10 to 15 minute intervals. Do that for about an hour, drain the water into a bucket over a net catching the fish in the net, submerge the net in your tank and gently let them swim out into the tank.