New Guppies Now Found Dead, Zebra Danio Has Died As Well

[ZoddyZod]

Morning all,

*UPDATE IN LATEST REPLY*


I started THIS thread yesterday as I thought it may just be normal guppy behaviour but I'm getting more concerned.

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?

 

[WILDER]

Danio's and guppys don't mix as the danio's will nip there fins.

How are the fish now.
What do there gills look like. Do they look pale with excess mucas or red and inflamed.
Do the guppys look thin or bloated.
Any symtoms to go on.
It could be stress due to a new tank and surroundings.

 

[ZoddyZod]

Danio's and guppys don't mix as the danio's will nip there fins.

the danios chased them for the first 5mins then stopped. Have not seen anymore signs of chasing/nipping. Thought the danios would be fine as not considered a 'nipper'?

I last saw the two strugglers yesterday, and there was no physical sign of disease/injury.....just the rapid breathing.

Will turn the lights back on this evening and check again.

 

[WILDER]

I would do a thread about keeping guppys with danio. As i'm sure they don't mix.

Let me know if there still laboured breathing.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

Danio's and guppys don't mix as the danio's will nip there fins.

the danios chased them for the first 5mins then stopped. Have not seen anymore signs of chasing/nipping. Thought the danios would be fine as not considered a 'nipper'?

I last saw the two strugglers yesterday, and there was no physical sign of disease/injury.....just the rapid breathing.

Will turn the lights back on this evening and check again.

They're rapid breathing under the water at the substrate? I would take them back because they sound extremely stressed and will be more likely to become sick.

Not sure about danios and guppies as I haven't mixed them.

 

[ZoddyZod]

Moved the tank decorations and sadly found them both dead. Colour was completely washed out and no fins left (which I guess were eaten after they died).

Worse news is that I also found one of the danios dead. All 11 were definately alive on Saturday as I did a count. Had not seen any slow moving ones over the last two days. Rest of fish have no outside signs of illness, but to be fair this is new to me and apart from obvious signs of change to their appearance I dont really know what I'm looking for.

Danio that died was one of the 9 smaller ones of the 11, so it wasn't old age!

Checked tank stats and found:

Amonia - 0.25 (was 0 on saturday so will attribute that to the decaying fish)
Nitirite - 0
Nitrate - 40.....which seems to have shot up since Wednesday when it was 10ppm

Performed 33% water change and will retest in the morning to see if the there is still an ammonia reading.

Here's a pic of each side of the danio. There are two circular pink marks on the 'belly', I'm guessing that these are nibbles from dwarf gourami after death? Can anyone spot anything that would signal a disease?

Guppies looked very much like stress related (were very still even in the bag when being acclimatised), but the danio is puzzling.

 

[WILDER]

How are the other fish acting.
Any signs of darting, flicking and rubbing, excess mucas, laboured breathing.
Just anything to go on.
Bless them.
R.I.P.

 

[ZoddyZod]

How are the other fish acting.
Any signs of darting, flicking and rubbing, excess mucas, laboured breathing.
Just anything to go on.
Bless them.
R.I.P.

thanks for the quick reply!

All the danios do is dart so if that's a symptom, they've had it! Would they be constantly going up and down the tank?
Nobody seems to be flicking (is that a side to side movement?)
Would the mucas be around the mouth/gills? If so I dont see any. Would it be cloudy, clear...etc?
None of them are showing the hyperventilation that the two guppies were suffering from.

 

[WILDER]

Swimming up and down the side of the tank can be a sign of stress.

Darting can mean stray voltage, ph shock, toxins, overdose of med, parasites, bad water quality.

The fish can get excess mucas on body, gills, fins.
Cloudy looking body can be parasites, bad water quaity, etc.


I would keep a look out for signs of the fish rubbing themselves on things in the tank. Like something is irratating them.
For excess slime or mucas on the fish.
Flicking and rubbing.
Darting, erratic swimming.
Laboured breathing or gasping.
Tiny white spots.
Greyish film on fish or a bluish film on fish.
Yellow golden spots, dusting of velvet. or a rusty coloured varnish on fish.
Sores or red pin prick marks on fish.
If gills look pale with excess slime, or look red inflamed, or gills look like there bleeding.
Turn tank lights out and shine a torch on the fish to see what you can see.

Never kept danio's so don't know much about there behavour.

 

[ZoddyZod]

Cheers, I'll keep a note of all those symptoms and watch for them over the next few days.

No more casualties this morning and no apparent abnormal behavior (looked like the danios were spawning again).

Ammonia has returned to 0

 

[Spishkey]

the danio in the pic looks very bloated/swollen? do any of the other fish show this sign

 

[ZoddyZod]

the danio in the pic looks very bloated/swollen? do any of the other fish show this sign

No but the females do get fatter before spawning. I've seen them swell like this several times before and then they return to normal. They are very frequent spawners in my tank.

 

[WILDER]

Ok.
Good Luck.

 

[ZoddyZod]

Over the last two days I have seen two of the danios have short burst of flicking/rubbing. They will charge up to an object and then violently turn so that they brush against it.

The 1st fish to do this did it for about 10 seconds, then I have not seem it do it again.

The next day another one did this. I watched the tank for a solid 15mins and caught him doing it once for about 5-10 seconds, then once more when I came back to the tank an hour later. I didnt see the 1st fish doing this anymore.

This morning it was hard to tell as morning = spawning/chasing, but didn't spot any obvious sign of it.

If they are infected with something, would they not be doing this almost constantly? Or are these infrequent 'displays' tell-tale signs that something is starting to affect them?

I did have a rescape on Saturday morning which included a good gravel vac and cleaning of the ornaments. This threw up a lot of debris and I'm wondering if this contained any potential bacteria/nasties as I've read that some can thrive in the substrate???

Ammonia: - 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10 - 15

I'm also going to post in the cypranids section to see if this is 'normal' behaviour......although I've not noticed it before.

 

[WILDER]

Any small bits of debris floating in the tank water.
Do you run filter floss or matting in the filter.
Is the water crystal clear.

Noticed any more symtoms of parasites I left.