Guppy blues...
Posted: 27 Jun 2008, 08:46
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?
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?