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Guppy Tank: Fish dying, and dying young

7K views 14 replies 11 participants last post by  Fish Ed 
#1 ·
So I have a planted tank (10 gallon). Some marimo balls, java fern, and an amazon sword. After cycling and making sure all my levels were good, I acquired some fish. Four "fancy" guppies, and three amano shrimp. All was going will until in the last month or so some of my fish started dying off. The one female had babies and five of the fry survived. The female was the first to die, and attributed that to the stress of giving birth and that the fish may have been old when I purchased. Then two of the other original guppies died (started to get worried). Today I noticed that one of the five surviving fry had died. I check my chemical levels regularly and all seem to be in satisfactory range. Water temp and pH is just right for guppies, and yet I have no idea why they're dying. The fry that died seemed to always swim at the waters surface, so I wondered for a bit if there was enough oxygen in the tank, which there definitely was because my plants are always bubbling off O2.

I'm wondering if an algae problem I'm having is the culprit here. The growth isn't "out of control," in fact it makes the tank look nice, and is also providing visible O2. There is an issue with my amazon sword which seems to have this "scraggly" hair algae which I cannot control. I've turned down my photo time significantly since first starting the tank, and its now getting about 8 hours of UV light.

Is the algae the problem here or can it potentially be something else? The surviving fish (1 of the original 4, and 4 fry) seem to be perfectly happy but now I'm worried that they're just going to croak, one by one. There don't seem to be any signs of infection among the fish, but being a "real" first time fish owner I'm not sure what signs I should be looking for. They don't seem to be stressed, are not breathing rapidly, and are swimming around the tank normally.

any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated...Thanks!
 
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#3 ·
What equipment are you running and how long has the tank been setup?
 
#4 ·
Fancy guppies don't seem to fare very at all in low pH. What is your pH ?
If it's under 7.0, particularly in the low to mid 6's, that could be the cause of them dieing off. If your pH is low, try adding a small bag of crushed coral to your tank to bring the pH up and maintain it above 7.0
 
#5 ·
Tank has been set up since mid August. Tank is a 12 (10) gallon NanoCube DX. pH is 7.6 upon my last check. Ran DIY CO2 for a little while but got rid of it when I refilled it and it began just gushing CO2 into the tank uncontrollably. Have crushed coral in the tank.
 
#6 ·
I've always had bad luck with guppies too. One day they're doing just fine, then one day one will become lethargic, and by the next day they'll be dead. A few weeks later, I watch the same scenario repeat with a different guppy. No signs of illness that I can discern.
 
#8 ·
Iv had that same thing happen with LFS guppies, especially with the bigger stores. I dont know if its the shipping/packaging (to the store) or what but every store bought guppy Iv had has met this same fate. Fine for a while then just gone. Their offspring are all fine and live long lives, but the store bought parents just don't. Iv also never had this happen with guppies Iv gotten off aquabid / swap&shop, so I'm inclined to believe it has to be something with the way these guys are handled & kept before the get to the store.

I don't really know if pH has that much of a effect on them, I keep all of my breeders in CO2 enriched tanks with pH's around 6.5-6.8ish and dont have any issues. Now soft water may be a different story since my tanks are in the 380-400 TDS range (about 300ish out of tap), so even with a low pH they are still in hard water.
 
#10 ·
Iv had that same thing happen with LFS guppies, especially with the bigger stores. I dont know if its the shipping/packaging (to the store) or what but every store bought guppy Iv had has met this same fate. Fine for a while then just gone. Their offspring are all fine and live long lives, but the store bought parents just don't. Iv also never had this happen with guppies Iv gotten off aquabid / swap&shop, so I'm inclined to believe it has to be something with the way these guys are handled & kept before the get to the store.

I don't really know if pH has that much of a effect on them, I keep all of my breeders in CO2 enriched tanks with pH's around 6.5-6.8ish and dont have any issues. Now soft water may be a different story since my tanks are in the 380-400 TDS range (about 300ish out of tap), so even with a low pH they are still in hard water.
You have a point there - I should have clarified to mention the softness of the water - not just low pH - but also low TDS's. It could well be that fancy guppies are not that tolerant of very soft water.
 
#9 ·
I just bought two unusually good looking guppies from petco. I am honestly hoping they stay alive long enough to get a good gene pool started. In the past I have also had trouble keeping store bought Guppies alive longer than a couple months. That was early in my days of this hobby though. Fry live for a while though. I think the stress of moving so much is rough on them. Some things that will help reduce mortality in my experience are...

Slightly basic water: ph higher than 7.0
Well cycled established tank: mine stopped dying after my tanks were up for over a year
Stable conditions. Regular small water changes and stable temperature

I havent tried aquarium salt though. I'm afraid it would negatively effect my other flora and fauna.

Best of luck!
 
#11 ·
I have my own theory as to possible cause of some death's among fancy guppies.
Some who farm these fish in large facilities, pond's, realize(d ) the beneifit's of slightly brackish water with respect to health of fancy guppies, and they thus raise and breed them in such condition's (slightly brackish).
It is when we try to introduce fish raised in brackish water to fresh water that they have trouble.
Much easier to get freshwater fishes accustomed to slightly brackish water, than it is to get fish raised in such condition's(brackish) accustomed to fresh water.
This along with fancy strains being bred primarily for finnage/coloration ,rather than to improve the strain, takes a toll on large number's in my opinion.
 
#12 ·
I have my own theory as to possible cause of some death's among fancy guppies.
Some who farm these fish in large facilities, pond's, realize(d ) the beneifit's of slightly brackish water with respect to health of fancy guppies, and they thus raise and breed them in such condition's (slightly brackish).
It is when we try to introduce fish raised in brackish water to fresh water that they have trouble.
Much easier to get freshwater fishes accustomed to slightly brackish water, than it is to get fish raised in such condition's(brackish) accustomed to fresh water.
I actually threw some into my low end brackish tank. They did OK, but seemed stressed most of the time and not as happy as in my freshwater (with a touch of marine salt) tanks. And still died the same as those in my other tank (Where my platys and juvenile mollies thrive) at a rate of about 1 every 3-4 weeks.

I'm guessing it might be internal parasites. I know they're pretty common with guppies, to the point where Florida Guppies sells their own anti-parasite food. I'm think it might just be the "low man on the totem poll" gets picked on/stressed, which lets the parasites which were already there, but kept in check, take over and kill the individual fish.
 
#13 ·
I'll continue to keep an eye on the situation....if it keeps happening i'll see how trying a little marine salt goes and add a tiny bit with my mater changes. ... remaining fish and shrimp seem to be just fine but like i said, everything seemed fine just before everyone started dying.
 
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