I Really Need Help! Two Dead Guppies And A Betta

[petitelupin]

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Tank size: 10 Gallon
pH: idk im getting a kit in like an hour
ammonia: idk
nitrite: idk
kH: idk
gH: idk
tank temp: 75

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): one guppy female died two nights ago after being attacked whilst giving birth. this morning my male randomly died..and my female betta was hanging around at the top, struggling to swim with abnormally pale whiteness just on her mouth and head..it was like she broke her neck and couldnt move it?? she just died twenty minutes ago

Volume and Frequency of water changes: tank was only 5 days old. i let it cycled and moved fish in 3 days ago

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Tank inhabitants: 4 neons, sunset gourami (baby), female betta, female guppy..and then the other three died

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): its new..

Exposure to chemicals: im not sure...

Digital photo (include if possible):

 

[Super Dude]

i think you stocked up your tank too much, to quickly. mine cycled for 3 weeks, then i added 3 small fish and gave them the full 10 gallons to themselves for another 6 weeks, then i got all my fish in there(7 more)

 

[helterskelter]

Sadly a tank dose not cycle in 2 days and you have added far to many fish to start off with for a 10 gallon tank.

All tanks take around 4 week to fully cycle
Even when adding materials to speed it up, it still takes 10-14 days befor ading fish, and then you should only add a couple at a time to allow the good bacteris to grow with the biomass of fish.

So what you have done is basically poison the fish with ammonia, I'm sorry to say.
All you can to is give the tank 50% water change every day.

Do not use carbon or zeolite, as u need some ammonia to allow the bacteria to grow. if you do just use a small ammount and replace it every couple of days

 

[petitelupin]

Sadly a tank dose not cycle in 2 days and you have added far to many fish to start off with for a 10 gallon tank.

All tanks take around 4 week to fully cycle
Even when adding materials to speed it up, it still takes 10-14 days befor ading fish, and then you should only add a couple at a time to allow the good bacteris to grow with the biomass of fish.

So what you have done is basically poison the fish with ammonia, I'm sorry to say.
All you can to is give the tank 50% water change every day.

Do not use carbon or zeolite, as u need some ammonia to allow the bacteria to grow. if you do just use a small ammount and replace it every couple of days

i just went to the store and bought a ph regulator and parasitic treatment, also quICK cure because i suspect my remaining guppy had a parasite. im gonna hope that the neons and gourami make it..and no more fish for a few weeks!
im baffeled as to why only the guppies died though, well besides the betta...any ideas on this? are they more sensitive?

 

[Athena]

Can you clarify something for me please - when you added all your fish to the tank, were there TWO female bettas in the tank? Or am I misunderstanding your info above?

Athena

 

[bronzecat]

Hi

You really need a test kit to monitor Ammonia, NitrItes and NitrAtes. Like already been said, the tank couldn't have cycled in such a short space of time

Its gonna be hard work to keep the water quality good, whilst cycling the filter with fish in. Is there anyone who could give you some mature filter material from their filter? If so, you can pop it in your filter and it would help tremendously. You still need the tests to monitor though.

 

[Athena]

Just read your duplicate thread about this problem, over on another of the topic boards. I can see from that post that you do/did have more than one female betta in the tank.

Aside from the fact that the fish will be going through a fish-in cycle and possibly end up sick from ammonia/nitrite poisoning - having two female bettas in a tank is not a good idea.

You can have three or more together if added at the same time or one on its own but two is a bit of a no no really. They will fight! The way that Bettas fight their opponent, apart from flaring and the usual barging and fin-nipping/shredding is that they clamp their mouth over the other Bettas mouth and drag them down, preventing them from surfacing for air. In effect they are trying to drown their opponent.

Bettas also do not live well alongside guppies - especially if they are already in an aggressive mood from being in the same tank as a opponent - they can attack guppies.

Seeing as you mentioned that your first guppy was attacked/killed and then the male guppy was found dead - and the fact that one of the females had strange white patches around her mouth and couldn't move her head... it could well be that the other dominant betta was the culprit. They may have been fighting at some point.

Bad water quality also brings out aggression in fish - so really, it's been a bad combination of things to be honest.

Oh well - I know you are down to one betta now. Don't put any more guppies in there with her though. Some females are more placid than others and will not bother guppies but in this case I'd be very wary...

Regards - Athena

 

[petitelupin]

hmm...thats strange..but makes alot of sense i suppose. thats how chiclids are anyways, you have to have a few of them or they kill eachother...i didnt know female bettas were like that though, everywhere i read says they can be kept together. Either way, i have no guppies left at present but when i do..in a while, i'll remove the betta..whom i've named Pearl, and put her on her own. So im down to a couple neons, and a gourami..plus pearl..everything seems fine now, my boyfriend who bought me the tank is a chem major so he said he can get me litmus paper to check ph..as for the ammonia kit, walmart is out right now...i removed the carbon on my filter...when should i put it back on? And im sorry to appear so novice at this..i guess i kinda am, im used to african chiclids and a much bigger tank (i had a 30 gal at home...no room in college dorm )
i do suspect though that my last guppy had a parasite..she was pooping long red strings...so i put 5 drops of quICK in as to not upset the neons. I also got something to kill internal parasites. any other suggestions??