Help My Guppies Are Dying

[veeja111]

I have a 45 gal tank of females only, about two dead a day, had my two for today and 2 more are floating on back then taking off them back to back, I changed 1/4 again today, they seem to just die no symptoms, all sizes, help what can I do. little one is being caught on intake acreen I get him loose he swims away, only to be back there in 10 min. I could move my favorites to my male tank but I don't want to risk spreading something contagious, so far no platties have died only guppies. they all seem to be hanging near the top even my bristlenose pleco is heading for the top of tank, need help fast please

 

[MegaZerino]

I have a 45 gal tank of females only, about two dead a day, had my two for today and 2 more are floating on back then taking off them back to back, I changed 1/4 again today, they seem to just die no symptoms, all sizes, help what can I do. little one is being caught on intake acreen I get him loose he swims away, only to be back there in 10 min. I could move my favorites to my male tank but I don't want to risk spreading something contagious, so far no platties have died only guppies. they all seem to be hanging near the top even my bristlenose pleco is heading for the top of tank, need help fast please

it sounds like theyre suffocating, if they are all near the surface then the tank oesnt have enough oxygen in the water. what kind of filtration are you using?? and you could put an airstone in their

 

[veeja111]

They have been in this tank for at least 6 mo , I have a top fin 60 double filter and an air stone, 1 lil one has been stuck to filter twice, upside down in a couple of different plants various times, but keeps taking off again, meanwhile 1 more larger one died, I took out water and added fresh twice, no more seem to be dying at the moment other than the small yellow one. thankyou but must be something else

 

[Rummynose]

It is good that you are doing those water changes, but have you tested the water? Is it possible that you could have lost your bacteria in your filter and now you have an uncycled tank?

Have you added anything new to the tank lately that could have introduced any toxins, or diseases? Decorations, plants, fish?

Did you check your ph?

 

[TyriquePlanty]

Um its not good he doing a lot of water changes because thats whats killing them because you can do them everyday or every 2 days you have to wait for like 7 -9 days for another one because if you do one every now and day they wont get used to the water and plus it has to cycle every time u do a water change it has to cycle around and it takes a few days to and if you keep changing the water it will restart to cycle and make sure when u do change you water your only taking out 20-25 percent of the water. make sure you put the conditioner in after you change the water and make sure you have your air bubbles on

 

[Rummynose]

Um its not good he doing a lot of water changes because thats whats killing them because you can do them everyday or every 2 days you have to wait for like 7 -9 days for another one because if you do one every now and day they wont get used to the water and plus it has to cycle every time u do a water change it has to cycle around and it takes a few days to and if you keep changing the water it will restart to cycle and make sure when u do change you water your only taking out 20-25 percent of the water. make sure you put the conditioner in after you change the water and make sure you have your air bubbles on

What makes you think that adding fresh water would kill the fish?

What do you mean by the water needs to cycle? I'm not sure if you mean the beneficial bacteria in the filter, but if the OP dechlorinates the tap water it won't harm the bacteria.

A build up of toxins in the water on the other hand can kill the fish. If there is too much Ammonia in the water it may even be necessary to change the water 2 - 3 times a day to keep the levels as close to 0 as possible!!!

Sometimes you need to even perform a 90% water change if you want to save your fish from high levels of toxins!!!

I think you may have misunderstood something or been misinformed!

 

[veeja111]

just doing a couple of 1/3 changes today because fish were dying. I didn't change the filter media so bacteria should be good. thankyou, trying to figure out why they started dying

 

[Rummynose]

just doing a couple of 1/3 changes today because fish were dying. I didn't change the filter media so bacteria should be good. thankyou, trying to figure out why they started dying

If you were to check your levels of Ammonia and Nitrite you would know whether your filter is still cycled.

Even a ph crash can kill your fish, so if your tap water's ph differed greatly from the ph in your tank this too can kill your fish!

 

[veeja111]

saved 1 small one, they still actin weird, will test water ty

 

[veeja111]

Tested water ph is at 6 tapwater is 7 so is 55 gal tank of males, should I keep doing water changes or ??? ty for your help

 

[gregswimm]

A build up of toxins in the water on the other hand can kill the fish. If there is too much Ammonia in the water it may even be necessary to change the water 2 - 3 times a day to keep the levels as close to 0 as possible!!!

Sometimes you need to even perform a 90% water change if you want to save your fish from high levels of toxins!!!

I think you may have misunderstood something or been misinformed!

Changing to water often is not good. If you have high levels of ammonia, then you need to let the bacteria in your filter, grow ad catch up. Its a catch 22, do change the water daily to keep the ammonia levels down, or do you let them ammonia-rich water stay in the tank and feed the bacteria colony. I say you leave the ammonia in the tank don't let it get above 3ppm, you might loose some fish, but your filter is going to be properly cycled. If you don't feed your colony they will shrink in size, becoming less effective, which means more water changes and more dead fish.

OP, get yourself some test kits. Kits for Ammonia and nitrites are most important, nitrate is nice to have but it's not necessary.

Edit: I added some fish to my tank over the weekend, the ammonia jumped to 1ppm sunday and now it is coming back down, .30 ppm at the moment.

Also how many of each fish do you have?

 

[Rummynose]

A build up of toxins in the water on the other hand can kill the fish. If there is too much Ammonia in the water it may even be necessary to change the water 2 - 3 times a day to keep the levels as close to 0 as possible!!!

Sometimes you need to even perform a 90% water change if you want to save your fish from high levels of toxins!!!

I think you may have misunderstood something or been misinformed!

Changing to water often is not good. If you have high levels of ammonia, then you need to let the bacteria in your filter, grow ad catch up. Its a catch 22, do change the water daily to keep the ammonia levels down, or do you let them ammonia-rich water stay in the tank and feed the bacteria colony. I say you leave the ammonia in the tank don't let it get above 3ppm, you might loose some fish, but your filter is going to be properly cycled. If you don't feed your colony they will shrink in size, becoming less effective, which means more water changes and more dead fish.

OP, get yourself some test kits. Kits for Ammonia and nitrites are most important, nitrate is nice to have but it's not necessary.

Edit: I added some fish to my tank over the weekend, the ammonia jumped to 1ppm sunday and now it is coming back down, .30 ppm at the moment.

Also how many of each fish do you have?

The levels you are suggesting are quite alright if the OP were to do a fishless cycling or her tank, but to suggest someone to risk the health and life of their fish when it is not necessary in my opinion is just wrong! The bacteria will estsblish itself to the amount of fish in the tank even with low levels of ammonia, but the fish will suffer permanent damage or even die if levels are allowed to be high (anything over .25). Even longterm low levels of ammonia around .25 can cause permanent damage to their organs!

The ph difference is quite high, that could be caused by low water hardness. Water hardness is the amount of dissolved minerals in the water. This buffers your ph and keeps the ph stable. If you are using R/O water you will need to replenish it with minerals or if it is like that from the tap you can add a handful of crushed coral to your filter. Ph also crashes when there is too much organic waste in the tank, it's important to do good gravel vacs and rinse your filter about once a month in used tank water or dechlorinated water.

 

[gregswimm]

The levels you are suggesting are quite alright if the OP were to do a fishless cycling or her tank, but to suggest someone to risk the health and life of their fish when it is not necessary in my opinion is just wrong! The bacteria will estsblish itself to the amount of fish in the tank even with low levels of ammonia, but the fish will suffer permanent damage or even die if levels are allowed to be high (anything over .25). Even longterm low levels of ammonia around .25 can cause permanent damage to their organs!

The ph difference is quite high, that could be caused by low water hardness. Water hardness is the amount of dissolved minerals in the water. This buffers your ph and keeps the ph stable. If you are using R/O water you will need to replenish it with minerals or if it is like that from the tap you can add a handful of crushed coral to your filter. Ph also crashes when there is too much organic waste in the tank, it's important to do good gravel vacs and rinse your filter about once a month in used tank water or dechlorinated water.

Yes, but what he is currently doing isn't working (he is still loosing fish), so he might as well try something new. He might loose some more fish, but it is for the good of the tank as a whole.

 

[MegaZerino]

maybe its the tank, maybe there is something in there decomposing, like the silicone on the tank or a dead fish or mouldy food. if i were you i would just do a total restart and scrub the tank and filter system clean, its better to risk the fish dying of low bacteria than them keep dying from some kind of unkown toxin

 

[Rummynose]

It would be important to know the readings of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, to see if the fish are or are not dying because of those.

The ph has me worried though, and I saw fish dying in one of my tanks because my tapwater's ph is around 6.5 but both my tanks had a ph of around 5! You need to slowly raise the ph in your tank. Hopefully this will prevent any more of your fish dying!