Guppies Dying

[mike83]

Hi

Ive now tried attempt after attempt and my guppies always seem to die ill wake up every morning to find 1 or 2 dead.

The watter temp is around 27 Ph level is in the 7's. I did a half water change to try and stop them from dying even tried to add some aquarium salt I herd that helps but still no luck they still keep dying its begging to be abit expensive always purchasing guppies to try and breed them and have them die all the time.

Has anyone had these problems with guppies ? And know whats the best way to keep them alive.

Thank you

 

[cosmicwolf4]

Have you tried an anti fungal remedy? I had a problem with dying guppies when I had my tank and fungus was the cause.
Maybe this answer on Yahoo will help too
Please help! Guppies dying... somethings wrong... need serious help! Please try to answer for 2 points!? - Yahoo! Answers

 

[ChrisZhang]

did you cycle the water before putting the fish in?
also the temp is a bit to high
guppies can survive in water temp at 23 c
check petlink for bulk buy guppies instead of buying from LFS
cheers

 

[Brettix]

Hey mike,if you only keep guppies do a full water change it wont hurt them.
Fill it back up keep the temp 26-27 add some water ager and that's it.Don't even muck around with Ph or salt.
Changing ph level too much at a time can stress out fish,a big killer in fish is caused by stress.
Guppies are very hard to kill unless u have parasites or fungal ,sound like your killing them with kindness.

cheers

 

[mike83]

I havent tried that yet. So what i need to get is Melafix does pet barn sell that ?

 

[mike83]

So far ive tried water temps at around 23 and they died now its at around 27 woke up this morning found another 1 dead.

 

[JAS101]

i have guppies and sword tails , my tanks are at 28c , i have never bothered with PH or any crap like that .
mine breed like anything . and if one duz die the yabbies eats it [ saves them trying to catch a live fish]

 

[kupper]

i used to take care of the livebearers when i worked at aquarium industries

your ph should be kept alot higher than that if it is a purely guppy tank , try 7.4

put a tablespoon of marine salt per 40 litres and your genral hardness should be about 200ppm

your tanks filter should be cleaned in a bucket of dirty tank water and your water changers should be done every week @ a rate of 10-20% you should make a decent effort to make sure the wtare replaced is the same temp as the tank water

try keeping your guppies @ 28 and see what happens you will notice there lifecyle will spead up a bit you will get quicker gestation periods and faster growing fry

 

[everlong526]

I suspect you may have high ammonia and nitrite levels, its very common in new setups or from overfeeding, you can buy test kits to check the levels from most aquarium shops.

Keep the temp around 25, dont mess around with any meds or salt yet, unless you are 100% sure you have a fungal problem. Try doing a 25% water change every 2 or 3 days for the next week or 2, make sure you add the water conditioner after each water change.

 

[kupper]

hmm over looked that get a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar this will get your filters good bacteria mutliplying helping to break down the ammonia and nitrite

if you are using prime and have done so since set up stop using it , stop feeding and leave the tank for a week as this means your tanks filter is not capable of supporting life atm

when in doubt all affected fish that look dodgey knock them on the head and start the tank up again
buy a dozen founder fish and let them fill the tank for you

some tank dimensions and filter specs would be usefull also

 

[coz666]

hey , dam those guppies. such a small seemingly easy fish to cater for. u would think.
i find alot of people use to strong filtration. so they swim their little utts off to try and get around and they wear out and basically drown (seems weird but true)
also food size can be a prob if it is pellet and 2 big.
try spialina flakes as food and turn your filter on for only a few hours a day. get yourself a very small filter or even a air operated filter. dont worry too much about your water , they live in the creeks around here and i dont know how anything could live in there.

 

[ChrisZhang]

put some live plants in, they will help cycle the water and you wont have to water change much,
how big is the tank? is the filtration strong? what are you feeding them?
or buy an oscar or some other american cichlids, much hardier easier fish to keep.

 

[mike83]

Hey guys just got back from pet barn I brough some melafix, water ager,stress zyme have added the amounts recomended on the bottles I have a 2ft tank

 

[Kitah]

To be honest, with my tank I just had a internal power filter (swapped the carbon for bits of broken ceramic rings for bio media), gravel, plastic plants and lots of guppies, and never had any adults die (may have had bubs die, they're hard to keep track of). They're extremely hardy fish; I never worried about salt, kept them at 25degrees, didn't worry about pH or hardness

If I were you I wouldn't use medications yet.

Questions; are there any obvious lesions/wounds, marks, strange coloured etc. on your fish? How are they behaving, are they lethargic? what are you feeding them, how much and how often? Do you have any filtration? Have you tested teh water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? How often do you do water changes, and how much water do you change (% wise)? when you do change water, do you make sure its the same temperature as the initial water? have you been using a water ager/dechlorinator in the tank.

At the moment I'm suspecting its ammonia buildup which is toxic, as you only recently set this tank up didn't you? If it is this, you can't cure it with medications etc, you need to get a colony of friendly bacteria growing on your biomedia; until the tank is cycled, more frequent water changes are required to keep the ammonia down.

 

[mike83]

To be honest, with my tank I just had a internal power filter (swapped the carbon for bits of broken ceramic rings for bio media), gravel, plastic plants and lots of guppies, and never had any adults die (may have had bubs die, they're hard to keep track of). They're extremely hardy fish; I never worried about salt, kept them at 25degrees, didn't worry about pH or hardness

If I were you I wouldn't use medications yet.

Questions; are there any obvious lesions/wounds, marks, strange coloured etc. on your fish? How are they behaving, are they lethargic? what are you feeding them, how much and how often? Do you have any filtration? Have you tested teh water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? How often do you do water changes, and how much water do you change (% wise)? when you do change water, do you make sure its the same temperature as the initial water? have you been using a water ager/dechlorinator in the tank.

At the moment I'm suspecting its ammonia buildup which is toxic, as you only recently set this tank up didn't you? If it is this, you can't cure it with medications etc, you need to get a colony of friendly bacteria growing on your biomedia; until the tank is cycled, more frequent water changes are required to keep the ammonia down.

I'm feeding them wardley total tropical flake blend i feed a small amount once a day
No obvious lesions/wounds, marks, strange colored that i can notice.
i have a aqua one hang on filter 200l/hr

I'm not to sure how to test the water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates i have a test kit that I'm sure has all that stuff to test with I think sorry I'm not that great with testing stuff kind of a noob really

I did a water change afew days ago and did about 30% water change I have water that already had tap water conditioner added to it and left for over a week use it to top up the water in my other tank with turtles in it.

Haven't used water ager before only just got it now and no when doing water changes i don't have a heater to heat that water before adding it into the tank.

Yeah only just started the set up recently and haven't had much luck with the guppies serving a friend gave me some baby guppie fry they have been ok and haven't died yet its mostly the female guppies that keep dying in the tank

 

[kupper]

how long did you wait until putting fish in there mate?

 

[mike83]

I waited afew days and at first i only had some fry in there then around maybe 2 weeks later when the fry got abit bigger i decided to get some more guppies and they have just been dying on me always the female ones that die

 

[JAS101]

have they got areally dark/black gravid spot ?

 

[kupper]

do you have a syphon with a gravel vacuum?

 

[mike83]

No dark/black gravid spot yet.

Yeah I have a syphon with a gravel vacuum.