Ive Lost A Guppy :-(

[bubble87]

when i got up this morning i noticed there was something wrong with my guppy.he was sat at the bottom of the tank,then i realised the temp was at 21 degrees.he seemed to slim down and he has now died .i have got the tank back up to 26 degrees and my 3 other guppys seem fine
i have replaced the heater and ive just done a water test.
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
but nitrate is 10 ppm

whats the best thing to do now?

 

[bricko]

Hi bubble,

Sorry for your loss,

I doubt that the temp 21c would have killed your guppy unless it was a sudden drop and then shock could be a factor.

How old is your guppy? I used to have them years ago when first keeping fish, bred like rabbits and myteriously dropped dead on occasion.

Nitrate @ 10ppm is fine really, my tap water is around that, amonia and / or a nitrite spike may have caused shock to the fish.

Is your filter working ok?

Nothing more you can do really unless you spot something obvious, just keep up with water cahnges etc.

Hope this helps,

Bricko

 

[bubble87]

well heres the full story.

i had 5 guppys in total no other fish then after 4 days of having them i noticed i had some guppy fry.when i brought them from my lfs i thought they were all male.i now know how to sex id them and noticed i had 1 female and 4 males.
2 days after i noticed the guppy fry 1 of the guppys which i believe to be the female just sat at the water surface not gasping for air it was just hoovering there,then it started to lose colour and stay at the bottom of the tank.the next morning i found it dead.i tested the water and everything was fine then i done a water change.my tank is a biorb life 60 litre the filter is working fine and has been cycled and been set up for just over 3 months.im not sure how old the guppy was.and today i wake up and the fish i lost today which was male started to act the same way as the other fish i lost. i noticed the temp drop and done a water test.then he died,im really not sure whats going on.

 

[bricko]

I would keep an eye on your water stats just to make sure all is well.

Maybe just one of those things, guppies are very weak fish due to the amount of inbreeding in this species. I kept pristine water conditions and still lost them on quite a frequent basis.

your female probably died due to the stress of 4 males constantly harrasing her, guppies pretty much think about breeding constantly, you should probably have a ratio of 3/4 females per male really.

Not really sure what other value I can add to your situation, hopefully some good tank maintenance will keep things in check. How often do you clean the water and how much? Suggest once a week 25% minimum really. Have you changed the carbon filter pad in the biorb lately? They require changing every month or so to maintain removal of unwanted chemicals etc in the water.

Cheers,

Bricko

 

[bubble87]

i change 25% every week.i do not have the carbon in the filter as i feel its only useful if using meds.my water has been fine since it cycled so i dont think its that.a few ppl suggested that they could have had an internal parasite due to there loss of colour and extreme weightloss.well my 3 guppys that are left seem to be doing fine atm.fingers crossed.

 

[guppy love]

Good luck with your other guppies, hope they'll be ok.
Bricko is right, guppies (from lfs) these days are so weak and seem to keel over if you so much as look at them the wrong way. My user name isn't really that appropriate any more, I used to keep guppies for years but over the past year I've been so sick of losing guppies for no apparent reason that I've decided not to have any more. If they're strong and healthy they are brilliant little fish though.

 

[bubble87]

are platies better to keep?

 

[guppy love]

Possibly, I've never kept them myself. Could try asking in the livebearer forum.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Most livebearers have been overly inbred nowerdays (not just livebearers either, convicts and other easy to breed fish too) and this brings to light genetic anomalies, and problems you might not see in fish with a wider gene pool.

Guppies as they are now, in capitivty are often mated with brothers/sisters/parents from the same brood, and this is bad genetics.. It can lead to some lovely combinations of nice features, but increases the chances of other potientally damaging recessive alleles pairing up and creating unwanted problems.

Best thing you can do with guppies to increase quality is to buy from a reputable breeder. The livebearers section will probably be able to let you know where to buy from if you are really concerned about mortality rates/longevity.

 

[fish481]

platies are as easy as Guppies to keep
when a guppy dies it dies for a reason, it's such a poor exuse when People can only come up with is its to much inbreeding .

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

platies are as easy as Guppies to keep
when a guppy dies it dies for a reason, it's such a poor exuse when People can only come up with is its to much inbreeding .

What a bizarre, uninformed comment?!

With unexplained deaths its possible (infact likely with inbred livebearers!)there was a deformity or genetic issue that causes the death..

Do you know anything about genetics, and the effects of limited gene pools over many generations?

 

[fish481]

With some unexplained deaths it my be possible that its genetic.
there are many reasons why they die and no way is all of the unexplained deaths to do with
genetics. i have 4 types of Guppies and all from different shops i dont get any problems
with them.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

With some unexplained deaths it my be possible that its genetic.
there are many reasons why they die and no way is all of the unexplained deaths to do with
genetics. i have 4 types of Guppies and all from different shops i dont get any problems
with them.

You might not have had any "problems", but I guarentee the mortality rate of shop bought guppies today is significantly higher (under controlled conditions) that similar wild caught, or first generation captive bred guppies. The first generation captive bred fish will also be hardier and healthier across the range.

Why do you think its illegal/taboo to marry family? When you reduce the gene pool of a population by indreeding, you impare its development and if done for long enough this significantly reduces the average intelligence, longevity and health of individuals.

The fact that you have had "4 types of Guppies from different shops" does not even scratch the surface of the thousands of generations of individuals that have been studied across hundreds of combined years of research by many thousands of scientists...

I shall summarise by saying this...

Inbred guppies are significantly more likely suffer from deaths caused by genetic abnormalities than guppies from wild caught parents.

Do you disagree with this statement? If you do, well, quite simply you are a simpleton.

 

[bubble87]

well ive been doing some reserch and from the symptoms the guppys had they had an internal parasite.my 3 other guppys are doing well tho.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

well ive been doing some reserch and from the symptoms the guppys had they had an internal parasite.my 3 other guppys are doing well tho.

It may be that the others are a bit hardier than the lost fish. Still, it might be worth treating the tank anyway if you are sure thats what it was!