Mlinzi

Hey all, this is my first post here as I searched for somewhere for help.

I have made 2 changes to my tank, 1 being that I added 2 male fancy guppies to the tank and the other was that I was completely unknowledged and did almost a 90% water change..... *groans..*

NOW, allll my beautiful fishies are dying! IS it ridiculous to cry over fish??

What happens is they are loosing all their color, even in their beautiful tails. I had 1 male that was PURPLE!! He's gone now......

So on top of loosing the color they are hanging out at the top of the tank. I see the other posts about oxygen and heat, so I made some adjustments, redid the filter since my hubby was the one who changed it, I'm not sure if he did it wrong, I just know it wasn't ME so I wanted to be sure it was done right.

I had adjusted the heater because at first they were hanging around the heater so I turned it up just a little bit.

The other difference was the lights that came with the canopy (flourescents) burnt out and I could only find regular type light bulbs for a replacement, these have a yellowish tinge to them instead of the bright crisp color they used to have.

Is there ANYTHING I can do for these little guys? I have only 1 male left (out of 7) and only 4 females (out of 10).

I should mention, a month ago, I got a plastic plant that is kinda like ground cover, it was an alternative to live plants for the babies to hide in. When I got that plant, I swear all the momma fish exploded at once and had 10,000 babies! I probably have 20 babies right now, and they seem to be doing OK, but the momma's and dad's are dying VERY fast. This morning I woke up and 4 were gone. It is VERY upsetting!!

Any advise is so very appreciated, any scolding is very much understood!!

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read my guppy woes!!

Chris123

90 percent water change sounds like alot its probaly causing your guppies to go into shock. Do you know what your water parameters are?

CB

domingo3

They could be in shock from a number of things. Do you have any test results from your water before and after the water change?
You said you turned up the heater. What was the temp before and after?

What kind of filter do you have and what did you do to "redo" it? If you completely change all the filter media, you could have lost a lot of your beneficial bacteria and made your tank cycle, too.

shellbell4ever

So sad to hear this don't Panic,let's try to figure out what happened...A few questions first....
1)Did you treat the new water with dechlorniator?
2)how much of a change in temp was there?
3) did you change all of your filter media?if so, as mentioned above, you probably crashed your cycle
Also just a tip...you should have more females to males (3-1) because the males will harass the females to death
I do hope you don't loss anymore

Mlinzi

Ugh, I'm starting to feel like I have no idea what I'm doing... maybe because that's the fact. I don't know what my water numbers are - do you think Wal-Mart carries tester kits?

The temp before was 76 and now it is 80. I turned it back down a bit and now it's 78.

When I read the other topics - 90% is a lot, I just couldn't believe how dirty the gravel was when I was vaccuming it, so I just vaccumed and vaccumed, and then there was only a bit of water left.

By "redoing" the filter I mean I took out the carbon pouch and put in a new one and rinsed off the sponge thing that goes in with it. I hope I'm making sense.

As far as the filter itself goes, it's just the regular 1 AquaClear I forget but the pet store people picked it out to go with the size of my tank.

Mlinzi

Hmmm... am I changing my filter wrong then? I always completely change everything in it, rinse it, wipe any algae stuff from it, everything. This is a no-no??

I didn't use anything in teh water when I changed it. You know, I think I need an aquariums for dummies or something...?

At least I know enough not to use soap!!

Mlinzi

1 more question - if it is "just" shock. Do you think there's a chance ANY of them will survive? They were all several months old now, except for the babies of course and the 2 fancy males that I got (they have split tails).

domingo3

Tap water has chorine (and sometimes chloramine) in it. Either of those will kill the beneficial bacteria and harm the fish. When you're doing a water change, you should have water ready to refill that's free of chlorine. You can either let it stand for a couple of days and the chlorine will off gas on its own (if you have choramine, you need to treat it to get rid of it). Chlorine/chloramine remover is cheap and a bottle lasts for a long time. You should heat up the water so it's not a temperature shock for your fish when you change it out.


Your local walmart may have test strips. You can buy a test kit from Walmart.com for less than 20 bucks that will last a long time and is more accurate.

Changing out the charcoal is fine. When you rinse out the sponge in the filter, you should rinse it in tank water that you just took out of the tank rather than tap water. Again, chlorine can kill the beneficial bacteria that live in it.

ppate1977

Hang in there! Did you rinse the filter in tank water or unconditioned tap water? Most likely you are just going into a mini-cycle. Just do a 20% daily water change (if this is the case, you really need to test the water). Get a liquid test kit, steer clear of the test strips. Good luck, I hope you don't lose any more fish. Don't give up.

shellbell4ever

Relax ,take a deep breath,and remember we were all new to this once too
First off you need to de-chlorinate the tap water to make it safe for fish, there are all types I use Prime and it is highly recommended
Secondly the temp increase was not to much for shock and around 78-80 is good for fancy guppies
Most of us do not throw away our filter media but just give it a swish around (like you did with the sponge part)in the old tank water during regular water changes (until it's practically falling apart which is also a good time to do your vacuuming tooyou just have to leave some of the yuck to keep your tank healthy
I do not know if you will lose anymore of your fish for that I am sorry,If you can get to a walmart or petshop they can test your water for you,but better yet if you can purchase a master test kit you will benefit from this greatly Most of us use API Master Test Kit Drops it is highly recommended as well
I do hope this wasn't to much for you

Mlinzi

Thank you for the fantastic advice Domingo. I will ask my husband if he just used cold water to fill the tank. I didn't even think to tell him to make sure it was warm... *sighs* Well, maybe if he used cold water I can guilt him into getting me more fish. These little guys are more than just some pretty decoration on the counter top...

Mlinzi

I will definitely be heading over to wal-mart in just a few minutes, I'll let you all know how it goes!!

Thanks again everyone!!

Mlinzi

Hi everyone!

I went and bought some water testing kits (the liquid kind) and my tank is actually OK. I did buy the water conditioner stuff though for tap water in preparation for the next time I do a "cleaning." All the fish are done dying.... lost all my males except 1 and only have 5 females left. However it seems like a majority of my babies survived and 1 of the female had more babies yesterday. She can't be doing too bad then! The color is slowly starting to restore in these fishies.

Thanks for the help and the advice - it was so very valuable having a fantastic "support team" to help me with my dilemma!!

Mlinzi

bought 2 males for the females that were left... and 1 died instantly... literally 5 minutes after being put in the tank... NOT impressed. I need to find a reputable fish store in Winnipeg I think. Petland is bombing out for me...

Shawnie

what test kit did you buy? between the dieing fish and the deformed babies, im almost wondering if your parimeters are off ....which if you cleaned everything out, you probably lost your beneficial bacteria...or you got a really bad shipment of fish.....are they all from the same petstore?