How Do I Do It Without Killing Them

[mamie]

How do I keep guppies, for some unknown reason, I keep killing them. Now I've had my tank for a while now, a little over a year. I was only able to keep gold fish, everything else, I would kill. Now the gold fish are all dead, I cleaned 1/2 my tank, and have been listening to the petstore as to what to do and not do. I got 4 fish I think they are called black tetra??? I think anyhow. then the following week, I got a pleco. well 3 weeks has gone by, everyone is still in good shape. now I've been checking the ph everyday as they told me to do. ( when I got the water checked, it was so low that it didn't show on the chart). the past couple of days my ph is too high as in about 7.0 anyhow they told me yesterday when I got it rechecked that my nitrate were too high?? what do I do I really want to have guppies I love their color, their daintiness and most of all their fry.
I attached a pic of the fish I have hopefully you can see it

 

[fishdawg]

its a black skirt tetra

ph is not to high... mines 8.0 and iv had guppies for months and lots of fry. do you no about cycling a tank? resarch cycling a tropical tank on here and follow the instructions. maby your lfs is just selling you old guppies. they only live for 2 years.

 

[mamie]

its a black skirt tetra

ph is not to high... mines 8.0 and iv had guppies for months and lots of fry. do you no about cycling a tank? resarch cycling a tropical tank on here and follow the instructions. maby your lfs is just selling you old guppies. they only live for 2 years.

When I did have guppies, it was a few years ago so my ph is ok man oh man and here I am trying like crazy to bring it down.
As far as cycling a tank, I read one post that talked about it and really didn't know what the heck they were talking about what I got was: you need good bacteria in your tank and unfortunatly the only way to get good bacteria is to use fish. so far??? that's about all I got in cycling a tank. I'm really really new at it all I have a sister that kept goldfish for over 10 years in a bowl, neglected them, droped them on their head in the sink when she was cleaning the bowl and here I am with all the good stuff and can't even keep a goldfish more than a year. that's sad.

 

[fishdawg]

here you go read this.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861

 

[mamie]

here you go read this.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861

ok I read the article but...I already have fish, I just want to be successful call me dense but I don't understand. I'm sorry!!

 

[catxx]

black skirt tetras and a pleco aren't the best cycling fish. you'll need to do daily 20% water changes.

do you have a test kit? if so, let us know the nitrate, nitrite and ammonia readings.

how large is your tank and what species of plec do you have?

 

[dwarfgourami]

black skirt tetras and a pleco aren't the best cycling fish. you'll need to do daily 20% water changes.

I agree about the pleco- but black skirt tetras (aka black widow tetras) are among the three fish usually recommended for cycling (the other two being platies and danios)

 

[MHunt]

I cycled with male guppies and they were fine, until a separate problem killed most of them. I've had none of the experiences most people seem to have with guppies. Now platies!

It could just be you're getting a weak batch. Many of the fish sold today are genetically weak through inbreeding. Try getting them from another shop or see if there's livebearer club nearby that might have stronger stock.

 

[omen666]

When I lived in America I kept guppies for years and never had any problems. Then I moved to the UK into an area where Lime in the water was just awful. Not even fit to drink. My guppies would not live no matter what I did to the tank, now i have moved again to another village and my guppies are once again thriving.


Maybe the lime in your water is too much? Just a thought because in america we do not have this problem so I only experienced it when I came here.

 

[fishdawg]

i cycled my tank with black skirt tetras. (6) and they were fine.