Guppy blues...

[Courtney]

Help, I'm killing the guppies!

Some time last year our tank of about 20 guppies that sits in the biology room started to all go wrong, by the first few weeks of this year we'd lost all of them. I don't know what I'm doing wrong or what is happening to them. Twice a day I feed them livebearer tropical fish food (as much as they can eat in 2 min). The tank is at about 25C and pH is around 7.5. Once a week I do about a 10% water change, treating the new water with something to get the chlorine etc out and adding guppy salt. During the water change I use one of those tube things to clean the gravel. Once a month I do about a 30-40% water change and clean the tank. At this point I gently wash the foam filters in the fish tank water I have taken out. The tank has a light and a few plants, the light is on for approximately 7 hours a day except for weekends.

Recently (about 4 or 5 weeks ago) I tried again, bought 2 males with went okay for about 2 weeks (in the school holidays as I don't get holidays in term breaks like the teachers apart from my annual 5 weeks). Then I got 4 females. The next day one had died, the next day another. I called the pet shop where I had gotten them and they said there had been a problem with that batch, possibly with the breeding, theirs had been dieing too. But then the males started to die. Never has there been any sign of fungal disease. I walked in today to find my last male dead, I now have one female left who does not look very energetic at all.

I just don't know what else to do, I've had the water tested before for the works and everything was fine.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[Sassi]

Firstly, I would recommend you only feeding the fish once a day, it is more than enough, just to avoid overfeeding them and polluting the water. Can you see any white spots on them? They usuall get white spot, around the gills, fins and sometimes on the body... Looks different to fugal diseases. If you do you can get a natural treatment, I think it is called melafix and it smells a bit like eucalyptus oil, if it is widespread you can get more nasty stuff containing formalin, usually called whitespot treatment or something like that. Just remember to leave it in for a few days then do a 50% water change. Also be careful when adding water treatments (to remove chlorine) and guppy salt (actually never heard of) not to overdose, follow instruction on the package carefully. If still no luck, well guppies are not the hardiest fish and sometimes they just die. Leave the tank empty and treat the water with melafix for a few weeks and then do a few 50% water changes beofre you get new fishes, to get ridd of any potential disease that may have been in the water. Then restock, and i would suggest getting as many guppies you want, in the one go, and then you will see straight away if the get sick, treat them with melafix. If you introduce a few at a later time, they may be caring diseae which quickly spreads to the rest of the tank. I personally have a quarantine tank where I put all new fish for at least a week before i introduce them to my main tank.

Anyways good Luck,

Sassi

[Courtney]

Thanks for that, I've been feeding them once a day now and have abbandoned the guppy salt. My one remaining fish is still alive thus far. No white spots but it seems to be "bent" a little and tends to favour one corner of the tank. Doesn't seem very hungry either.

[Slartibartfast]

Be very careful with the amount of water ager your adding. With only a 10% water change it should only be about a teaspoon for 150-200 litre tank. Too much can give them serious balance/perception problems.

Do at least a 50% water change then for a week add NO ager what soever and see if this improves the fish activity. Too little food is always better than even remotely too much for all aquatic life. Give them only what they'll eat in 1-2 minutes. Everything else is excessive.

Do a gravel clean once a term not every water change as this stresses fish and especially guppies a lot. Pop a yabbie or two in there, a freshwater mussel and/or snails they'll clean it for you! Cleaned oyster shells housed within the filter or amongst your gravel is also very good for water quality.

[Ocker]

I don't believe in putting any chemicals in tank only plenty of fresh clean water.
To eliminate chlorine I add water on fine spray with such vast surface area the water gives off all it's chlorine