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My Guppies Personally Hate Me

3K views 40 replies 19 participants last post by  JJVanier 
#1 ·
I bought 1 female and 2 male guppies. I was worried about a reverse trio, so I went back and got another female and another male. The female died within 12 hours, so I had a reverse quadruplet of guppies. I finally went back and got another female which looked pregnant but had dropsy. She died a few days ago from dropsy.

I was left with one female and three males and they were doing great. I usually feed with a turkey baster because it is so easy. Yesterday I was about to feed and noticed the water level was too high, so I stuck the siphon into the tank. Little did I know, they had all gathered in their pecking order (biggest to smallest) to get food. The remaining female guppy was the biggest. Within a few seconds of starting the siphon, she was sucked in. She turned red and her eyes popped out.

These aren't pure guppies, they're guppy-endler hybrids. It's the "black tiger" kind which is yellow with black stripes. Luckily she had a large drop a few days ago and I have at least 10 babies that are thriving and now swimming around the outer boundaries of the many plants.

Today I came home and went to feed my fishing. I made the blood worms ready and started feeding with my turkey baster. All 9 neons ate. Both dwarf puffers ate hardily. I saw the guppy fry swimming about the plants freely... Yet none of the 3 male endlers were out.

All three were in the back corner swimming around. I couldn't get them to even come out for food. They're all in perfect health.

This makes me feel even worse about brutally, slowly and painfully murdering my most important fish. The three males swim away when I get near the tank. It's like they remember I murdered their only female 24 hours ago. Is it even possible for fish to possess such emotions? :icon_roll
 
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#7 ·
Were they more friendly before the turkey baste incident? If so, then they are probably shy because their group got smaller. I've noticed that they are more outgoing when in larger groups. Give them a few days and they'll probably be begging.
I doubt guppies have the brain power to remember a death more than a few hours.
 
#14 ·
Update on the saga:

This morning I woke up to find one of the males dead midwater. Still brightly colored without that "dead" look -- like he was petrified.

The other two males are still hiding in the plants. They appear to be cowering... It's not the swimming slowly in corner thing. I know the traditional sick fish thing. They look like they're shaking and they dart when things come near them.

All of the babies are still alive. This may be turned into a dwarf puffer species tank with neons. They seem much more emotionally stable and intelligent.
 
#16 ·
Yeah, they're doing great.

I think the males are afraid of me or something... There's literally no reason for them to be dying. The day I murdered the female, they were all perfect and swimming around to eat. The next day they were like this. Today they're worse.

On the bright side I'll have like 10 in a few months. On the dark side I could have had an entire tank full in the same time if I hadn't had murdered my fish. :icon_neut
 
#26 ·
Sorry to hear about your luck with female guppies. Feel comfort in that fact that you are not alone. I bought 1 male and 2 female. The female died the next day. I bought 3 more females thinking that the male was harassing the last female to death. Another female died the next day. :( But come to find out, I had an ick outbreak. I couldn't tell at first but I noticed spots on the tail of a very light colored guppy. It wasn't noticeable on any of the dark guppies.

All I did was increased my temp up to 82 degrees and added some salt to the aquarium. No more deaths and all females are prego.

I have 2 pea puffers in the tank with them at first but caught one of the puffers bite the face off a betta fry... so I had to move the puffers to another tank. No more deaths and all the fish are getting along swimmingly :)

The pea puffers like to nip a the tails of the other fish, normally scaring them to death. You should sneak up on them at night and see what is happening... That's how I caught my puffers snacking on their tank mates.
 
#27 ·
Within a few seconds of starting the siphon, she was sucked in. She turned red and her eyes popped out.
Oh god, I would feel horrible if that happened to me (or rather: one of my fish), I'm sorry!


It's like they remember I murdered their only female 24 hours ago. Is it even possible for fish to possess such emotions?
Fish aren't as stupid as many people or urban legends would like us to think. Just think about how koi are able to recognise certain people (the ones who feed them) and other instances where fish learn new ability (getting to know a food source over time; at first it might be ignored and then when one of them starts eating it, over time all may start to do the same).

I would assume that just like with positive experiences, they can learn from negative ones too. But all in all, that situation happened so fast and not to one of them "personally". So I would rather tend to think that there is something else going on. Maybe they are still stressed out or a little sick since they are rather new to the tank. My endler hybrids do for example change their behaviour when the CO2 level in the tank is too high for them.


I'm amazed that the males are dying but the babies are not since guppies babies are more fragile in my experience. Are the babies eating and acting normal? If so, then it looks like you're going to have guppies.
I don't find that too strange. A friend of mine just had an incident with her CO2 system and almost all the adults died but the younger ones survived. It's also much too common to lose adult guppies because they are not able to adjust to new water conditions. When one is lucky enough that they have fry before dying, then the younger generation is born in the new water conditions and can adapt to it without problems.
 
#28 ·
Sorry your lost some of your fish,

fish are just fickle animals, they're great one minute and the next they're cowering in a corner for no apparent reason. Sometimes they just need some time to re adjust and some times they just don't make it. And often we have no clue why, just so many factors that can change things so fast. And often the ones that don't make it were our favorite fish and it just makes things worst. So again, sorry you lost some of your fish.

On another note, you need to find out what is going on, and eyeballing your fish is not enough to say they are fine, sometimes you're just not going to see what is going on with a fish. Like Discus, one minute they're fine, beautiful colors, swimming gracefully around. And the next they're gasping for air, color flushed and not swimming at all. And most of the time it's the simplest things that make them go down hill. A change in temp, bad water, frozen fish food (high in nitrates) that they're not used too. Some times it's other fish, tail pickers and bullies. So many factors that can just wreck havoc in a tank.

So where to begin, what has happened in your tank lately, other than the mishap with the female guppy. Have you recently changed anything, including your water, is the temp the same? What is the temp and can you raise it say 3 degrees to combat anything that might be going on, sometimes that works. Also, what are you putting in the water, any salt, any fish treatments? And ick doesn't have to be seen to be ick. There's a lot of factors. I kind of agree with one of the replies, the babies seem to be fine but the other fish (guppies) are affected, sounds like a water problem, What about the other fish, any thing, how are they doing? I'm looking at some things right now about Guppies, like you I read a lot about fish and maintaining them. I'll post somethings I've found out that may help you out. In any event, you'll make it and things will return to normal soon.

Be right back

Rev
 
#29 ·
So where to begin, what has happened in your tank lately, other than the mishap with the female guppy. Have you recently changed anything, including your water, is the temp the same? What is the temp and can you raise it say 3 degrees to combat anything that might be going on, sometimes that works. Also, what are you putting in the water, any salt, any fish treatments? And ick doesn't have to be seen to be ick. There's a lot of factors. I kind of agree with one of the replies, the babies seem to be fine but the other fish (guppies) are affected, sounds like a water problem, What about the other fish, any thing, how are they doing? I'm looking at some things right now about Guppies, like you I read a lot about fish and maintaining them. I'll post somethings I've found out that may help you out. In any event, you'll make it and things will return to normal soon.

Be right back

Rev
Water and temperature are the same... It's like 77F. I'm adding Flourish Comprehensive to the water but I haven't added it in a week. All of my other fish are fine but my neons are fighting with each other because I originally had 5 and then I added 4 more.

I like how I could throw 20 guppies from Petco into a 29 gallon tank full of plastic and pebbles when I was in 3rd grade without a single loss and tons of babies, yet when I actually make an effort to set up a planted tank, every guppy I get decides to die or be killed.
 
#30 ·
UPDATE:

Good news... The lights came on this morning and I found both of the females together in the back corner with some males and babies. The females are not dead. However, none of the guppies will come out to the front of the tank and I don't know why. How do I make them come out?

The babies are doing great and even starting to venture far out of the plants. I saw a few in the front of the tank swimming just centimeters from the largest dwarf puffer. The dwarf puffers seem to get along wonderfully with all of my fish.
 
#31 ·
Honestly 5Guppies, If your other fish are doing fine, but you keep getting burnt on guppies from this particular store, spawn, their shipment, whatever, I would be very hesitant about just dropping and plopping more guppies from there. It would lead me to believe something is up.

Guppies are very social, forgiving, and not the brightest bulb in the aquarium light fixture set. It's not like them to hide. If they are-they are sick, environment conditions are off somewhere, or they are intimidated by your puffers. (Though you don't want to hear that. I just re homed an Angel for eating a female betta last month. The other female bettas were not afraid of it, even after witnessing their mate being dinner. They lived in peace together a year prior and the bettas would even "rest" or sleep against the Angel.)

Be patient, get your QT functioning, concentrate on getting your remaining fish and tank conditions healthy. It's not going to happen overnight. Adding new is just going to make more complications for you.

I see you are very dedicated, spend a lot of time, and are enamored of them, GuppyGuppyGuppyGuppyGuppy :)


I don't know where you are in the US, but when you got everything in order, I can help you in the guppy dept.
-Stef*
 
#32 ·
Have you been slowly acclimating the new fish to YOUR tank water? Maybe the LFS water parameters are so different than yours they just aren't able to adjust. Maybe they need to be acclimated slower and/or longer. ??? You didn't really mention how you acclimated them.

As to how long before they get less shy and will come out when you feed them .. your new fish was just added a day or 2 ago. I would think it would take a little time before they get over being chased around/netted from one tank, put into a bag, transported in a vehicle & then added to unfamiliar tank & different surroundings with other fish they don't know whether are friend or foe. Plus they have a different feeding person & schedule. It's possible they came from a very scary environment before they got to your LFS & are very dis-trustful of people in which case it might take even longer.

But then again my Black Skirt Tetras which I've had for more than a year & more than 6 months in current tank still won't come to front of tank when I feed them much less any other time. I almost wish I hadn't gotten them. But they do look good from a distance. LOL I just have to sit across the room on the couch to watch them swim & play.

All my other fish/tanks, which have native fish, are WAY more friendly. Though it took months & months for 2 of them to get that way and even still can get a bit skittish when the lights are on. They're a bottom fish & used to darker surroundings.
 
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