dwarfgourami
Fish Connoisseur
But I take it you do, at least, have test kits for ammonia and nitrites?
The reason I asked for ph/hardness is that guppies do not always do well in soft, acid water. If yours is very much on the soft side, this might explain your problems. I tried to keep mollies in my young days, up in the Scandinavian woods, and they all caught ich. I just didn't realise that the problem was not with them, but with my tank.
A test kit really is one of those investment that pays for itself. All right, I did pay 17.99 pounds for the full works when I started up my current tanks. But I have not had to buy a single replacement fish in the year they've been running- so it's pretty well paid for itself.
You might be able to get your lfs to do a test for you, but make sure you write down the actual readings, as they have a tendency to say "fine" when things really aren't.
As for the tank looking bare- well, try to remember it is meant to be a piece of nature, not a group photograph. I find a sparsely populated tank actually looks more interesting because there is room for more natural behaviour in the fish. And you can plant and decorate and make it a real landscape.
