New Guppies Hiding And Sitting Still On The Substrate, Breathing Fast.

[ZoddyZod]

Morning!

I got my wife six guppies yesterday and two of them went straight into hiding. They took up seperate positions in the tank and just stay there breathing heavily. The remaining 4 seem fine and are happily swimming about in the filter current.

Firstly I thought they might be in a little shock due to the tankmates. I have zebra danios and they pestered them for a few minutes but gradually started to ignore them.

I phoned the lfs and asked what pH they were kept at - around 8ish (they just use tap water for the guppy tanks). My tank is 7.8 - 8.0 so not much difference there.

ammonia and nitrite are 0, nitrate is 10ppm

I acclimatised them all in the same bag over 1hr, ading about 25% of tank water every 15mins.

I'm not sure if it is a coincidence, but I got 2 each of 3 different colours, and the two that are struggling are the same colour (red with dark purple).

Anyone seen this behavior before? Are they on their way out?

 

[M.R Otter]

I never seen such behavior from a guppy before..... maybe they are just shocked or stressed..... they should be okay. they need some time to gain thier confidence back.

 

[helterskelter]

I would suspect it's just shock these fish will be highly stresses over the last 2-3 weeks being shipped around the world and thrown into a bare tank and now taken home.

Your doing the right things and they should sellt in but i would suspect that you may lose1 or both over the next few days if they do not look to be recovering.

 

[ZoddyZod]

Your doing the right things and they should sellt in but i would suspect that you may lose1 or both over the next few days if they do not look to be recovering.

I hope they do but it's been 36hrs now since they were first intorduced and I cant even see them now. The other 4 are still happily swimming at the top of the tank........fingers crossed.

 

[ZoddyZod]

No sign of them this morning, not looking good. Have left the light off for the last 48hrs so it's difficult to see them.

The other four inhabit an area of about 10 square centimeters at the surface. Thought they would be a bit more active around the tank. Scared of their tankmates???

 

[Harlequins]

Perhaps you should put the lights back on to see if you can see the 2 guppies,because if they have sadly passed away this will affect your water readings and may cause a spike,
Or they could be quite happy hiding somewhere,but best to make sure