pregnant guppies

[sarah-j]

Hi, my female guppy appeared to be ready to give birth, so i put her in the breeding trap and yellow coloured eggs or what appeared to be eggs came out of her. However she has just dies in the last five minutes. I have lost three pregnant guppies now, could this be a disease that has killed them. My ammonia level went up aswell quite quickly.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The guppys sound like they aborted, the breeding net must have been too much stress for them, either that or the ammonia- what are the levels of ammonia? how long were the guppys in the net for?

 

[sarah-j]

A few hours, it wasn't a net though, it was a floating breeding trap. The ammonia was at zero about two days ago and all of a sudden it jumped right up to about 0.25ppm and then up again. I have done two water changes and it has decreased slightly but it is still counting ammonia. I am using ammo chips in my filter.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

How long has the tank been set up and how many fish do you have and what types? What are nitrite levels? What size is the tank/how many gals does it hold?

 

[sarah-j]

the tanks is about 2 weeks old. as I took the ammonia reading and all other reading to be ok according to my LFS I added some fish which are tetra neons which all seem really happy. My current nitrite levels are at 0 ppm. But my ammonia is sitting at 0.25 + ppm. I have 8 tetra neons, 1 siamese male fighting fish, 3 guppies, 3 platy's, 1 swordtail (1 died), 2 albino catfish, 1 pimledella angelicus.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

How many gallons does the tank hold though? Your tank is still cycling and i doubt the neons will survive unless you are very lucky as they are very fragile fish...The cycle of the tank is what probably killed your pregnant guppys as the ammonia most caused them to abort.

 

[sarah-j]

its a 14 gallon tank. 68 litres

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You have too many fish for a cycling tank of that size, i suggest you rehome the neons as they will suffer from the cycling and the siamese fighter as they don't mix well with guppys or community tanks. I've never heard of a pimeldella angelicus though...are you sure the name is correct?
Avoid buying anymore fish and just keep it to the guppys and platys and albino cory at most, you will have alot less casualtys and cycle much better that way.
I suggest you do a 40% water change too and look up cycling on the beginners section of the forum .

 

[sarah-j]

thanks for your help. Im going to try and do my best. My father in law has a matured well set up tank. I may try to rehome them there until I'm sorted.