Guppy Problems

[Gilli]

Well once again I was tempted against my better judgement by some beautiful fan tailed male guppies and bought x 6. Next day 5 of them were dead. This has happened every time I have tried guppies and let me hasten to say each time they were bought from different shops and my tank is a mature 3 year old 250L with perfect water stats. I did everything right in aclimatizing them etc. I have only ever had luck with x 2 surviving which lived happily in my tank for 2 years.

I know its nothing to do with the other community fish either, so I guess im either just really unlucky or guppies are so very weak. Either way I wont be going down that road again.

 

[BeckyJay]

That's a real shame. The same sort of thing happened to me with kuhli loaches - bought 6, 5 died within 3 days for no apparent reason, still got the last though. Sorry about you guppies.

 

[fish48]

Well once again I was tempted against my better judgement by some beautiful fan tailed male guppies and bought x 6. Next day 5 of them were dead. This has happened every time I have tried guppies and let me hasten to say each time they were bought from different shops and my tank is a mature 3 year old 250L with perfect water stats. I did everything right in aclimatizing them etc. I have only ever had luck with x 2 surviving which lived happily in my tank for 2 years.

I know its nothing to do with the other community fish either, so I guess im either just really unlucky or guppies are so very weak. Either way I wont be going down that road again.

you must be unlucky guppies are are not so very weak it's a myth

 

[fishman102]

I think that some people are just not meant for guppies, i've known two people before you that had the same thing happen, while guppies live FOREVER for some.

 

[Lyra0727]

Male guppies will fight to be the dominate male in any size tank if they spot eachother. If you had around 2-3 female guppies per male that might have been the better road to go down. Females tend to keep the males distracted from eachother.

 

[fish48]

Lyra0727 Gilli bought 6. male guppies 5 of them were dead the Next day there deaths has very little to do with them fighting

 

[Lyra0727]

Lyra0727 Gilli bought 6. male guppies 5 of them were dead the Next day there deaths has very little to do with them fighting

I know, I'm just saying for future reference that they would have eventually faught. I never said that was the problem this time.

 

[helterskelter]

Buying just males is not a problem. If there was 1-2 females their may be, but just males tends to stop them fighting 90% of the time as they have nothing to display over.
You say you have perfect water stats, but what are the reading's, do u test your own water to trust the shop's?

 

[roadmaster]

I believe it is breeder's who use salt for their tanks that is possible problem with guppie's nowdays.
Is much easier to acclimate freshwater fish, fishes bred and raised in freshwater,, to slightly brackish conditions, than it is to acclimate possibly fishes bred and raised in slightly brackish water to freshwater.
Just my thoughts,Lot's of breeder's possibly fish farms using salt. Might pay to try a little marine salt mix at perhaps half dose especially if water hardness which these fish enjoy ,is low.

 

[Lyra0727]

Interesting, when I had all males they always faught so I had to give them away to different homes. Hmm.. maybe I just had really aggressive ones.

I never thought about using salt for guppies.

Gilli my friend said she had a similiar issue (she didnt have all males though). She had 8 guppies(in a 10 gallon) and the next day 5 were dead. Then one after another the remainder died. She said she found out that her ph lvls and amonia lvls were very high. Test your water and see. That may have been the problem.

 

[OldMan47]

Gilli, please toss out the idea of being unlucky with guppies.
What are your water parameters? Is your water nice and soft as shops so often suggest? Do you have the 6.5 to 7.0 pH as is so often recommended?
My own experience may prove of some value to you. Guppies are tough as nails fish in my tanks. I have never yet seen a guppy that looked worse after I had owned it for a week or even a month. I am no magician and have no particular talent when it comes to maintaining guppies, so what is different between you and I. My water is hard as rocks and has a pH of 7.8. It also has a mineral content of around 300 ppm of TDS which corresponds to around 12 degrees of GH and KH. If you go by typical new fish keeper fish book advice my water is far too hard and to high in pH for most fish. Let us take a new look at guppies, Poecilia reticulata. The P reticulata come from naturally high pH, hard water. They do not come from the Amazon basin where water matches the typical numbers in a "for dummies" tropical fish care book. Instead they come from areas of Mexico where the water is anything but pristine. Guppies have a need for water much like the other common livebearers.
A pH of >7.5 and a hardness of >6 degrees GH and KH suits them just fine. I can remove 15 adult guppies from my tiny 10 gallon guppy tank every 3 months and never see a decline in the total numbers in the tank. In fact I do just that. I am headed to an auction tomorrow and will remove almost all of my adult guppies to sell them at the auction. What will remain is my juvenile guppies and lots of fry. In 2 months I will have as many or more adult guppies as I have today. Guppies are tough little fish. They are also known as "millions" fish where they are native because they are that abundant in the native waters.

 

[DeadFish666]

Gilli, please toss out the idea of being unlucky with guppies.
What are your water parameters? Is your water nice and soft as shops so often suggest? Do you have the 6.5 to 7.0 pH as is so often recommended?
My own experience may prove of some value to you. Guppies are tough as nails fish in my tanks. I have never yet seen a guppy that looked worse after I had owned it for a week or even a month. I am no magician and have no particular talent when it comes to maintaining guppies, so what is different between you and I. My water is hard as rocks and has a pH of 7.8. It also has a mineral content of around 300 ppm of TDS which corresponds to around 12 degrees of GH and KH. If you go by typical new fish keeper fish book advice my water is far too hard and to high in pH for most fish. Let us take a new look at guppies, Poecilia reticulata. The P reticulata come from naturally high pH, hard water. They do not come from the Amazon basin where water matches the typical numbers in a "for dummies" tropical fish care book. Instead they come from areas of Mexico where the water is anything but pristine. Guppies have a need for water much like the other common livebearers.
A pH of >7.5 and a hardness of >6 degrees GH and KH suits them just fine. I can remove 15 adult guppies from my tiny 10 gallon guppy tank every 3 months and never see a decline in the total numbers in the tank. In fact I do just that. I am headed to an auction tomorrow and will remove almost all of my adult guppies to sell them at the auction. What will remain is my juvenile guppies and lots of fry. In 2 months I will have as many or more adult guppies as I have today. Guppies are tough little fish. They are also known as "millions" fish where they are native because they are that abundant in the native waters.

You definitely want your water to be as close as where they came from as possible. I happen to live in the desert and water out of the tap is 8.2. I got my first guppies from someone who's water was just like mine and my guppies are fine.