Woke Up To A Dead Guppy.

[Ny82]

Hi all, one of the guppies I got yesterday (the smallest baby) was dead upside down on the gravel today with a platy "sitting" on it
I don't know what happened, I cannot for the life of me find my test strips so i'm going back to pets at home, I've reserved the strips and the separate ammonia tester and I will take a sample of my water for them to test too. The other guppies are swimming around the top of the tank-not gasping but still concerns me. I will let you know the results when I get back.

 

[TropicalLad21]

Sound's like a water problem, i'd do an immediate water change.... once you've got your water results posted we'll be able to help more, sorry for your loss btw.

 

[Ny82]

Sound's like a water problem, i'd do an immediate water change.... once you've got your water results posted we'll be able to help more, sorry for your loss btw.

Hi i'm just back in, It was the littlest one of all i'm so disappointed. The ammonia in the waters too high. I do a 25% change on a monday then again on a wednesday then a full tank change on a sunday - fish out, plants out gravel out. The woman at pets at home says that could be the issue. Because I do a full water change im basically starting from scratch.
I will need to catch the fish and put them in my bowl, do I take the water out from the tank and put it in, then transfer the fish then the heater?
I am about to start the water change the now.

 

[TropicalLad21]

You should post your full water readings here as well as current stocking, so we can help you more.

When you do water changes you don't take all the gravel and such out, the basic idea of it is to remove a percentage of the water, if your doing a large water change which will include maybe a gravel vac which will save you taking it all out... make sure you leave enough water in for your fish to stay upright - that way you aint needing to take your fish out either, which also doesn't stress them out as much.

Don't take the fish out now... leave them in with the gravel ornaments & such - be sure to turn the heater,filter & such off whilst performing a w/c.... just perform a large water change & refill your tank with fresh treated water. Be sure to keep an eye on your water parameteres and perform regular w/c's till things get back on track.

Remember in future you do not need to remove everything from the tank to clean your tank, it really isn't necessary & just makes work harder for you.

Good luck...

 

[the_lock_man]

Sound's like a water problem, i'd do an immediate water change.... once you've got your water results posted we'll be able to help more, sorry for your loss btw.

Hi i'm just back in, It was the littlest one of all i'm so disappointed. The ammonia in the waters too high. I do a 25% change on a monday then again on a wednesday then a full tank change on a sunday - fish out, plants out gravel out. The woman at pets at home says that could be the issue. Because I do a full water change im basically starting from scratch.
I will need to catch the fish and put them in my bowl, do I take the water out from the tank and put it in, then transfer the fish then the heater?
I am about to start the water change the now.

If the ammonia in the water is too high, then I would suggest doing daily water changes, and the percentage change should be determined by a daily water test. Change enough of the water to reduce the ammonia down to about 0.1ppm. This gives you some leeway to let the ammonia and nitrite levels rise again until you are available to do another water change.

When doing water changes, I personally wouldn't change 100% of the water, because the act of removing the fish to a bowl and back again is rather stressful for them. It is ok to take out water such that they've only got just got enough water to swim upright in, which would equate to about 90-95%. The more you take out, the closer you need to temperature-match the new water with the old.

It sounds like it was ammonia poisoning that accounted for your fry.

 

[Ny82]

You should post your full water readings here as well as current stocking, so we can help you more.

When you do water changes you don't take all the gravel and such out, the basic idea of it is to remove a percentage of the water, if your doing a large water change which will include maybe a gravel vac which will save you taking it all out... make sure you leave enough water in for your fish to stay upright - that way you aint needing to take your fish out either, which also doesn't stress them out as much.

Don't take the fish out now... leave them in with the gravel ornaments & such - be sure to turn the heater,filter & such off whilst performing a w/c.... just perform a large water change & refill your tank with fresh treated water. Be sure to keep an eye on your water parameteres and perform regular w/c's till things get back on track.

Remember in future you do not need to remove everything from the tank to clean your tank, it really isn't necessary & just makes work harder for you.

Good luck...

Oh no I better put them back in. The other colours were fine apart from the ammonia which was a light green.
I only have one bucket so I will :
Put the fish back in
Turn the heater off-the filters off
Do the vac over the gravel enough to fill the bucket and this should leave a few inches of water in the tank for the fish to still swim
Empty the water down the drain, fill the bucket with new water, treat it with the tap safe and carifier let it sit for a few minutes then pour it carefully back in.
Sound good?

 

[This Old Spouse]

Oh no I better put them back in. The other colours were fine apart from the ammonia which was a light green.
I only have one bucket so I will :
Put the fish back in
Turn the heater off-the filters off
Do the vac over the gravel enough to fill the bucket and this should leave a few inches of water in the tank for the fish to still swim
Empty the water down the drain, fill the bucket with new water, treat it with the tap safe and carifier let it sit for a few minutes then pour it carefully back in.
Sound good?

When you do a gravel vac you should be plunging the vac into the gravel and sucking up any waste that settles in it. You should see it being sucked up the pipe when you do. Probably not bad now since you just set things up not long ago.

You don't need to let the Tap Safe sit at all. It works immediately. But please get yourself some Seachem Prime or StressCoat+ which will take care of trace elements as well, including ammonia (it won't eliminate it completely but will control what comes out of the tap). What clarifier are you using? Shouldn't need any if you get the Prime or StressCoat.

Also be sure to temperature match the water as closely as you can to the tank water.

Last bit of advice ... always post any questions you have on the forum. You really shouldn't heed what the LFS staff has to offer because their main motivation is to sell you things to make money. Our main motivation is to help you and your fish.

 

[Ny82]

Oh no I better put them back in. The other colours were fine apart from the ammonia which was a light green.
I only have one bucket so I will :
Put the fish back in
Turn the heater off-the filters off
Do the vac over the gravel enough to fill the bucket and this should leave a few inches of water in the tank for the fish to still swim
Empty the water down the drain, fill the bucket with new water, treat it with the tap safe and carifier let it sit for a few minutes then pour it carefully back in.
Sound good?

When you do a gravel vac you should be plunging the vac into the gravel and sucking up any waste that settles in it. You should see it being sucked up the pipe when you do. Probably not bad now since you just set things up not long ago.

You don't need to let the Tap Safe sit at all. It works immediately. But please get yourself some Seachem Prime or StressCoat+ which will take care of trace elements as well, including ammonia (it won't eliminate it completely but will control what comes out of the tap). What clarifier are you using? Shouldn't need any if you get the Prime or StressCoat.

Also be sure to temperature match the water as closely as you can to the tank water.

Last bit of advice ... always post any questions you have on the forum. You really shouldn't heed what the LFS staff has to offer because their main motivation is to sell you things to make money. Our main motivation is to help you and your fish.

Thankyou for the advice. I will always come to you guys first now in my blind panic I bundled my little girl into the car and off we went lol.
I have reserved some stress coat I have stress zyme I think what was that for?
I have filled 2 n a half buckets with that vac so i'm going to put the water back in now. Lukewarm so it matches the temp hopefully.

Let me tell you, it's given me some workout using that glass cleaning brush, you really need to put your back into it lol

 

[Ny82]

So just done the water change about 20 mins ago, I like the way the plants are sitting now, I moved things around to get behind the plants with the vac.
The guppies are all swimming around the top again, under the current of the filter. The platy are sitting on the gravel. It will be too early to test the ammonia wont it as I just changed the water?
Here is how it looks now.

Thanks for all your help everyone. I shall do another water change tomorrow-should I do another 90-95% or smaller?

 

[Ny82]

Sound's like a water problem, i'd do an immediate water change.... once you've got your water results posted we'll be able to help more, sorry for your loss btw.

Hi i'm just back in, It was the littlest one of all i'm so disappointed. The ammonia in the waters too high. I do a 25% change on a monday then again on a wednesday then a full tank change on a sunday - fish out, plants out gravel out. The woman at pets at home says that could be the issue. Because I do a full water change im basically starting from scratch.
I will need to catch the fish and put them in my bowl, do I take the water out from the tank and put it in, then transfer the fish then the heater?
I am about to start the water change the now.

If the ammonia in the water is too high, then I would suggest doing daily water changes, and the percentage change should be determined by a daily water test. Change enough of the water to reduce the ammonia down to about 0.1ppm. This gives you some leeway to let the ammonia and nitrite levels rise again until you are available to do another water change.

When doing water changes, I personally wouldn't change 100% of the water, because the act of removing the fish to a bowl and back again is rather stressful for them. It is ok to take out water such that they've only got just got enough water to swim upright in, which would equate to about 90-95%. The more you take out, the closer you need to temperature-match the new water with the old.

It sounds like it was ammonia poisoning that accounted for your fry.

I'm sorry I didn't see your reply. So I can test the water daily? I shall do an ammonia test just now. I had the tetra 6 in 1 strips but I lost the #41#### things I can't find them anywhere. They were out of stock in pets at home and so were the "pondlife" ones that are new.

 

[This Old Spouse]

You need to get a liquid test kit to get accurate results, such as Nutrafin, API Master Test kit and there are others. The strips are worthless for the most part.

StressCoat and Stress Zyme are two completely different things. To dechlorinate your water you'll need StressCoat+ or Seachem Prime.

 

[the_lock_man]

Sound's like a water problem, i'd do an immediate water change.... once you've got your water results posted we'll be able to help more, sorry for your loss btw.

Hi i'm just back in, It was the littlest one of all i'm so disappointed. The ammonia in the waters too high. I do a 25% change on a monday then again on a wednesday then a full tank change on a sunday - fish out, plants out gravel out. The woman at pets at home says that could be the issue. Because I do a full water change im basically starting from scratch.
I will need to catch the fish and put them in my bowl, do I take the water out from the tank and put it in, then transfer the fish then the heater?
I am about to start the water change the now.

If the ammonia in the water is too high, then I would suggest doing daily water changes, and the percentage change should be determined by a daily water test. Change enough of the water to reduce the ammonia down to about 0.1ppm. This gives you some leeway to let the ammonia and nitrite levels rise again until you are available to do another water change.

When doing water changes, I personally wouldn't change 100% of the water, because the act of removing the fish to a bowl and back again is rather stressful for them. It is ok to take out water such that they've only got just got enough water to swim upright in, which would equate to about 90-95%. The more you take out, the closer you need to temperature-match the new water with the old.

It sounds like it was ammonia poisoning that accounted for your fry.

I'm sorry I didn't see your reply. So I can test the water daily? I shall do an ammonia test just now. I had the tetra 6 in 1 strips but I lost the #41#### things I can't find them anywhere. They were out of stock in pets at home and so were the "pondlife" ones that are new.

Thank Gawd for that, the test strips are ok for a mature tank, where any ammonia is an alarm signal. (In a mature tank, there's little difference between 0.5ppm and 1ppm, in terms of what you need to do about it).

In your situation, where you need to be changing water everyday, you need a more accurate measurement, so that you know how much water to remove. If you have 0.5ppm, you need to do an 80% change, to get to 0.1ppm. If you have 1ppm, you need to do a 90% change. If you have 1.5ppm, then you need to do a 90%, then another 40%ish change. I don't believe that the test strips are reliable enough in that situation.

Like Spouse says, you really need a liquid-based kit.

 

[Ny82]

Here is the result of the ammonia test.

Still very high. I think it's about 2. I had to put a drop on the card as it went lighter or darker depending on the light. Why is it so high? What shall I do now? change the water again or wait until tomorrow? I also will be picking up the stress coat tomorrow I reserved this one is this it?
http/www.petsathome.com/shop/stress-coat-water-conditioner-118ml-by-api-31871
Should I also get ammo lock?
Can someone link me to what test kit I need please as there are so many. Do I need a separate kit for everything?
Thanks

 

[IanL]

Interpet do an "ammonia removal" water treatment... Probaly the water changes are better,but may be a "fast fix" solution..I've got some and it claims to work in two hours....

 

[Ny82]

Interpet do an "ammonia removal" water treatment... Probaly the water changes are better,but may be a "fast fix" solution..I've got some and it claims to work in two hours....

She didn't let me buy it at pets at home today I picked it up and asked what it was and she said it's a last resort. I am so stressed that my fish are going to die. I will march down there tomorrow and buy it. I will do a water change in the morning first though. Just to make sure.
My male with the big tail is swimming around now, the baby one and the other big male are trying to swim into the filter stream and the platy haven't moved from the gravel.
Thanks