New Life For Old - What Happening?

[mrlewis1978]

Hi guys

In my kitchen I have a guppy/shrimp tank. It has been running for 2 months. It is a 65 litre 2 foot tank. It is cycled, all levels are normal. There are (were) about 7 male/10 female guppy, 8 armano shrimp and a 1 inch longfin juvenile bristlenose in there. Yesterday I had my first batch of fry, at the moment I think I saved 3 who are sat in a nursery tank (with some rili shrimp fry). If there are more, they will go in too. It seems like a trade off of life though, as this morning I had to get rid of one dead guppy. I thought it was just a random coincidence, but when I got home from work there were a further 3 dead guppies.

None of the guppies show any signs of disease, I have checked the water and levels are normal, all the shrimp are alive, the fry are alive (shrimp and guppy).

Is this a random coincidence? Any siggestions or ideas?

Cheers

 

[mrlewis1978]

3 more dead this morning - any ideas people? Going to do a massive water change after work but besides that?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

17 Guppies and 8 Amano Shrimp are a lot of critters for a 65l, before even considering the fry and the "poop machine" BN Catfish (which really is too big for this setup, 125l minimum, even then with regular 50% or more weekly water changes).

Even if you have no ammonia or nitrite (using a liquid test kit rather than "chocolate teapot" test strips), the nitrates being created in this tank setup will soar, which will eventually exceed the commonly toxic 300mg/l threshold even with 50% weekly water changes.

In the short term, I would net all the fish out and put them in a fish safe bucket quarter-filled with their existing water; empty the tank of the remaining tank water; refill the tank with similar temp dechlorinatesd water; acclimitise the fish to the new water as if you had just brough them home from a fish store (ideally the 4 drips/second airline "drip method", failing that upto 10ml added every 10 minutes, until the bucket is almost completely full); net the fish back into the tank; top up the tank with fresh dechlorinated water.

In the longer term past this emergency, you either need a tank of at least twice the volume ASAP, or you need to rehome some fish (I'd suggest leaving just 6 Guppies [your choice if you kjeep a mixed sex group that will produce fry galore], plus the shrimp) i.e. rehoming 11 Guppies and the BN Catfish.

While trying to rehome if that is the decision you make, I would suggest ~50% water changes every 2 days, to keep nitrates in check and to try and keep the water in excellent condition (keeping other things we do not test for at lower levels).

 

[mrlewis1978]

Thanks for your help - ill get going right away.

Thanks for your help - ill get going right away.