My Guppies Are Dying

[bevs34]

Started up a tank cycled it for 2 weeks had the water tested it was fine,put 10 neon tetras in 3 have disappeared mystery to me checked everywhere plants,filter everywhere they just vanished,I then added 5 tetras forgot what there called orange heads and black and white tail they are fine.On thursday added 5 guppies 3rd one died today all other fish are fine and the water test was ok,dont now what i did wrong.

 

[PerryClem0842]

Started up a tank cycled it for 2 weeks had the water tested it was fine,put 10 neon tetras in 3 have disappeared mystery to me checked everywhere plants,filter everywhere they just vanished,I then added 5 tetras forgot what there called orange heads and black and white tail they are fine.On thursday added 5 guppies 3rd one died today all other fish are fine and the water test was ok,dont now what i did wrong.

It sound as if you have had added too many fish in a short period of time, and your filter could not cope with the waste that the fish were making, so inevitably, they died.
Sorry to hear about the deaths but try not to add any for another week or so until your filter has had a chance to catch up.

 

[bevs34]

ok thanks i added 10 neons ,then a week later added the other tetras then the guppies the following week.

 

[fluttermoth]

How did you cycle your tank, and what are the actual numbers from your tests, OP?

 

[FishBlast]

Started up a tank cycled it for 2 weeks had the water tested it was fine,put 10 neon tetras in 3 have disappeared mystery to me checked everywhere plants,filter everywhere they just vanished,I then added 5 tetras forgot what there called orange heads and black and white tail they are fine.On thursday added 5 guppies 3rd one died today all other fish are fine and the water test was ok,dont now what i did wrong.

Note that cycling without fish is done while adding ammonia from a bottle.
It does not mean just letting a filter run in a tank for 2 weeks and then plopping in fish.

 

[bevs34]

i added tetra aqua start,i had the water tested in my local aquatic shop he did not tell me the readings and i did not just plop them in i have had the water tested regular for 2 weeks.

 

[FishBlast]

i added tetra aqua start,i had the water tested in my local aquatic shop he did not tell me the readings and i did not just plop them in i have had the water tested regular for 2 weeks.

For 2 weeks WITH fish in?
Because obviously water stats will be ZERO when no fish are in it. You need to monitor stats while fish are in and they need to stay zero.
Aqua start only works if you feed the things and even then not sure if it works for sure.

Basically you only notice the stats rise when you have the fish in.
Your water will usually be at 0 when you have no fish in there. It's when you add the fish that the cycle starts (and kills them if you do not do daily water changes).
Alternative: do fishless cycle by following these instructions.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Hi Bevs

Welcome to the forum.

Unfortunatley you have a thing called "new tank syndrome" which basicly means that your filter is not yet "mature" enough to deal with all the fish poo & wee that your stock is producing. This means that as the fish urinate & deficate the harmefull Ammonia that waste is made of is not dissapearing. It is instead building up to toxic levels & killing your fish.

The mistake you made was thinking that to cycle a tank you just had to fill it up & turn everything on for a week. Dont worry you are not alone, many of us, myself included fell into this trap when we first started.

We have a great section called beginners-resource-center. Take some time to read up everything on "Cycling" its the top section.

Dont panic, its not the end of the world & we are here to help.


Tom

 

[bevs34]

Thanks for the welcome Tom.

 

[4seasons]

i added tetra aqua start,i had the water tested in my local aquatic shop he did not tell me the readings and i did not just plop them in i have had the water tested regular for 2 weeks.

Chances are if you took water to a LFS and he just said everything is fine, all he did was dip a test strip in your sample water. Test strips are useless and most of the info you get at your LFS is too. You need your own liquid test kit like the API master kit that most of us use. You will have to start checking the water yourself every day or maybe even twice a day for the next few months and doing large water changes daily or you will have more dead fish.

 

[bevs34]

I have bought the nutrafin test kits it comes in 3 boxes and i match the colours to the chart,all the other fish are fine including the other 2 guppies.

 

[bevs34]

i added tetra aqua start,i had the water tested in my local aquatic shop he did not tell me the readings and i did not just plop them in i have had the water tested regular for 2 weeks.

For 2 weeks WITH fish in?
Because obviously water stats will be ZERO when no fish are in it. You need to monitor stats while fish are in and they need to stay zero.
Aqua start only works if you feed the things and even then not sure if it works for sure.

Basically you only notice the stats rise when you have the fish in.
Your water will usually be at 0 when you have no fish in there. It's when you add the fish that the cycle starts (and kills them if you do not do daily water changes).
Alternative: do fishless cycle by following these instructions.

i done a fishless cycle

 

[FishBlast]

i done a fishless cycle

So you did pour ammonia in it? (Not that substance they gave you).
Because 2 weeks sounds... pretty fast for a fishless cycle.

 

[bevs34]

i done a fishless cycle

So you did pour ammonia in it? (Not that substance they gave you).
Because 2 weeks sounds... pretty fast for a fishless cycle.

YES

 

[FishBlast]

i done a fishless cycle

So you did pour ammonia in it? (Not that substance they gave you).
Because 2 weeks sounds... pretty fast for a fishless cycle.

YES

Then what are the results of the test now? Probably as someone has mentioned, there were too many fish put in at a time for the bacteria to catch up.