No luck with guppies

[littleme1969]

I am really begining to wonder what am I doing wrong, or maybe its just really bad luck . I bought 3 guppies before and due to one turning out to be a Gambusia Minow they both died of stress/finrot . The gambusia is still alive by the way
I just bought another 4.. 3 females 1 male from the same place. gets them home to find one already has a case of dropsy (that was dead the next day) And now I have just had to put another one down due to finrot It seemed OK when I bought It and put it in the tank. Next day it has a small nip out of its tail then today its on its last legs so I put it to sleep. Both the other male and female seem OK at this stage and she is pregnant, so I'm hoping that I can get some fry off her then breed her back to the male in the hope of a better gene pool.

Is there soemthing I'm doing wrong with Guppies? When adding to my tank i'm always very carefull . All my water checks are 0 and all my other types of fish/snails are doing great with no deaths at all. Its just the guppies .
I have read that due to so much in breeding, guppys now have very low immune systems and are prone to finrot etc is this true?

If I can't have breeding guppies then what other fish would people recomend that don't grow too large, to have as breeders. Whats the best out of swordailts/mollies/platies/

 

[cation]

What's your pH? Are your nitrAtes consistantly at zero too?

 

[littleme1969]

PH is about 8.5... a little high its just the area we live in ver hard water. And I was told is better not to mess with the PH . And nitrate is 0 and has been constant for the last month or so .. tank has been running about 3 months.

 

[cation]

The fact that your nitrate level is 0 indicates that your tank is not finished maturing yet. A properly cycled tank will have Ammonia = 0, NitrItes = 0, and NitrAtes low, but > 0. I try to keep mine around 10. The fact that you don't have any registering concerns me.


Tha pH is a big issue. Is 8.5 what the tap water tests at? You're right, it is much better to not adjust the pH of your water - however, with a pH that high, you probably should give up on the idea of keeping guppies. Tolerable pH for guppies is usually considered 6.8 - 7.6. Remembering that each 0.1 increase in pH makes the water 10x as alkaline as it was before the increase - pH is logarithmic! Your best bet would be to figure out why you have no nitrates, and while you're doing that, start researching what fish are able to tolerate the pH level in your tank. If I have a little time later, I'll see if I can come up with a few suggestions for you!


Oh yeah - If you have any shells in your tank, take them out asap. They can cause the pH to rise even more!

 

[shrks1fan]

Sounds to me like you're just getting horrible stock. If one was already sick when you were bringing it home, chances are the whole tank at the fish shop was about to be sick. I would find a better LFS or a breeder and get some stock from them. Did you return the one that died the next day? You should be able to get a refund, and if the shop doesn't do that, then yet another reason to find a new shop, as all fish should have guarantee for at least a couple days.

Linda

 

[cation]

That's true, linda, but the pH will end up causing problems even if the stock is good. In my opinion, it's simply too high for poor little guppies.

 

[littleme1969]

Hi and thanks for the info.. The reason for nitrate is I always check the night before a water change.. and usually get about 10-15 nitrate..... water change of about 20% (mainly due to new plants that are bedding in and small amount dies off so vacum gravel to remove rubbish) then nitrate back down to zero.

I did wonder about the high PH. and the hardness of the water being a problem but assumed as they were keeping them at the shop and breeding them in the same water conditions that it wouldn't be a problem.

The male and female are still alive so I'll see how they go and if they don't make it I won't get anymore. Nothing worse than watching an animal suffer!

I did a little research myself just now.. and some say upto 8.5 for guppies and medium hard to very hard water. From my symptoms and the info found on other web sites.. sounds more like PH shock than anything. So I will get onto the shop and find out what his PH is. Plus I get the impression these fish are being put out for sale almost as soon as they come in. Meaning they are having alot of stress in a short space of time. This is also backed up by the fact I got all my other from another shop who quarantine for 2 weeks before putting out to sell, and interestingly enough they don't keep any guppies/platties/mollies as they say they are to easily stressed and they lost too many.

Also it seems all the live bearers fall into the same cat. as the guppies.. i.e. PH hardness etc. so my hopes of breeding may be out the window