My Guppies Keep Dying

[musical2one]

They keep swimming up and then falling down and eventually they just die, and they swim funny and face straight up and just kind of hover. How can I fix this?

 

[KittyKat]

What size is the tank?

What is the stocking? (how many of what)

Is the filter cycled?

What are your water readings? (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, temperature)

When did you get the fish?

 

[musical2one]

The tank is 20 gallons, we have a good filter. Water got checked the other day, it's perfect. Just put some Ammo Lock in. Ive had the fantail guppies for about 3 days. This is the longest they've kept alive. They keep dying of the swim bladder problem. It's so weird. There's only about 10 in there, if not less now

 

[KittyKat]

Why have you put Ammo Lock in? If the reading are perfect and the filter is a good one which is cycled, then there should be no ammonia present in the tank so Ammo Lock would actually work against the bacteria in your filter and use up free ammonia before they can get to it, which would starve the bacteria. Is your filter cycled/matured? If not, you must say so because that would be what is killing your fish.

It sounds as if you keep buying new guppies and then they all die. Is this correct? If it is, then please stop buying any new ones until you sort out the problem. For future reference, when buying more fish, do not buy more then 2-3 at a time as your filter might not be able to cope with any more then that.

When did you set up the tank?

 

[musical2one]

It's been set up for a while now, he rest of the guppies are doing a lot better. Hopefully these will live alittle bit longer then a week and a half. They've been living for less then one now, and we only had one die so far. The rest seem completely healthy. But thanks for the tip about the ammo-lock. I never thought of it killing needed bacteria. I didn't put alot in when i did. Like 4 drops in a 20 gal tank.

 

[OldMan47]

If you keep replacing the dead guppies each week, you will eventually have a cycled tank where the fish can live in health without dying. I find that approach worse than just primitive with our present level of knowledge about fish and ammonia. The other answers that you have received have been a bit too gentle in my mind. Killing fish until the tank finally is really ready to support them is cruel and unnecessary.

Please get a proper liquid type test kit to be able to actually know the values of ammonia and nitrites in your water. Its all OK with a fine filter is total BS, it is not true unless you actually know the numbers, no matter what your local fish shop tells you. Ammo lock is intended to deal with adverse ammonia levels and is not needed in a properly cycled tank. If your water is "just a little high in ammonia but this will make it alright", you have an uncycled tank and need to stop buying fish completely. Once you have the test kit, please post the real numbers and we can help you help the remaining fish survive. A fish-in cycle, which is likely where you found yourself after following poor LFS advice, can be done with good success and minimal damage to your fish if you will work with us.

As an emergency measure, because you don't have that test kit yet, do a 50% water change using a dechlorinator and see if the fish you still have alive don't immediately look better. If you do that water change daily until you get the test kit, your fish have a decent chance of surviving until then.

 

[Anna Robinson]

Ammo Lock would actually work against the bacteria in your filter and use up free ammonia before they can get to it, which would starve the bacteria.

Ammonia treated with Ammo-lock is still available to the filter bacteria, so it won't starve them.

However, as the others have said, Ammo-lock isn't the answer here. Ammo-lock is an emergency measure to detoxify ammonia in the water - if the tank water is perfect you don't need it (unless you are using it as a dechlorinator, which is fine), or if ammonia is present then your filter is not coping with the fish's waste, and you need to get to the bottom of why this is.

 

[musical2one]

Okay! Umm...here's the deal, my fish had babies. Well they are in their own little tank and the ammonia level was terrible, like 4.0. They were living perfectly fine, I still have just as many babies as I started out with. Well the fish in the community tank had been around for 2 weeks and they did okay, and the ammonia wasn't too bad, but they still died. The water was dechlorinated, and clean. Nitrates and Nitrites were at 0. Ammonia was about 1.0.
It's so weird how the babies are doing better in terrible ammonia water. They were in it for 3 weeks. I just now cleaned the babies water, and it's clearer and cleaner. But all the babies are still alive. It's so weird. My adult guppies I have now, have officially lived for almost a week as opposed to last time where I had to constantly replace them. I don't know whats so different about the water now. The guy at the pet store said that they may have messed up their swim bladders while mating or fighting, but I've literally lost like 10 guppies this way. Im really sad, cause they were all so gorgeous, and I named them, which means attachment.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

How much are you feeding them after moving them to the community tank?

 

[musical2one]

The babies are still in their own tank. But in the community tank they get fed in the morning and before bed time. babies get fed in the morning and night as well. I feed them liquid food, that turns into food when it hits the water, it's really cool, and they love it.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

The babies are still in their own tank. But in the community tank they get fed in the morning and before bed time. babies get fed in the morning and night as well. I feed them liquid food, that turns into food when it hits the water, it's really cool, and they love it.

Try cutting back on the feedings. In reading about Bettas, all the books I've read say that with swim bladder issues, overfeeding is part of the problem. With Guppies, it's probably a similar situation. It won't harm them if you have them fast for one day. May do them good.

 

[OldMan47]

Ammonia at 1.0 ppm is way too high. You need at least a 75% water change on that tank to bring it down to 0.25 ppm. The fry container needs an almost total water change and may need another right after that. If you are lucky, very lucky, you have a low enough pH in the fry tank to avoid killing everything in it from ammonia. That does not mean that the fish will survive the long term but that right now they are fairly safe from the ammonia. If the pH is that low, you need to reduce the ammonia to less than 0.25 ppm while also returning the pH to nearer to 7.0 or more for livebearers. Newborn fry are amazing at what they can survive for a day or two but they won't go very long with ammonia in the toxic range and won't grow up healthy in a pH where the 4.0 ppm is not toxic.
If you take care of your water, the fish will almost take care of themselves. It is a truth that many experienced fish keepers have learned the hard way. Chemical additives are never the answer to healthy water but frequent water changes help loads.