dead guppy, but what killed him

HI all,

thanks for the great advice before My 'brown' tank problem has now all but gone, and I have nice clean sand, and a very happy pleccy gobbling up any more browness.

Anyhow, as the tank has now been running for some 3 months, and the 4 'survivors' seem very happy, this weekend I went to the LFS to get them some more playmates.

So, original tank set up was, 190 Gall tank, 2 zebra danios, 2 neon tetras. All seemed fine and water levels all checekd out. Been doing regulary 30% water changes, and the brown algae was receeding.

So, on saturday I bought, 5 zebra danios, 7 guppies, 1 brislenose pleco.

Put them in the tank, let them adjust to the water etc, and they all seemed fine.

Then last night, one of the male guppies started hiding under the bottom of my corner filter, almost lying on the sand, and breathing, but not happy.
All other fish seem fine and adjusted to new home.

This morning, the 'sick' guppy was still under the filter, but ventured out once or twicem, but couldnt even swim agaisnt the water flow from th pump, and he wwent back down under the fliter.. Now this afternoon he's died

I've fished him out, but can't see anything physically wrong with him.. What can I look at to see what killed him ?
Could it just be the shock of the move ?

The second male guppy is now also hanging around the bottom of the tank, and hiding in the weeds, so I'm a little worried about him too.. althought the other 4 guppies are all happily diviing around the tank and looking happy..

all the other fish seem fine to, the exisitng fish seem quite happy to have new friends, and the pleco just loves it !

my water readings as of now are;

amonia 0.25 ppm
nitrite 0 ppm
nitrate 10ppm


any ideas anyone ?

 

I would think tI would be the stress of the move, but now that the other one is doing the same. You seem to have a lot of zebra danios, tetras are fast, but not as much as guppys. Are the danios picking on the one last guppy at all. It could also be the temp. is not right for them, or just where they came from wasn't that good.

 

First of all, ANY ammonia (and nitrite) can kill a fish very fast. So ammonia may be the reason your fish appear sick and/or are dying.

Secondly, you could have bought a sick fish.

Thirdly, if you have not acclimatized the fish properly before putting it in your tank, it could have gotten sick (and died) because of that as well.

If I were you, I'd perform 50% daily water changes until ammonia = 0 (and nitrite is at 0 as well). This is if you want to increase the changes of your fish surviving and not dying from ammonia poisoning.

 

He said his tank has been running for three months so wouldnt any nitrates he had be gone by now? I don't know though ???

 

thanks for the advice guys

the second male seems better today, he was out of the corner and swimming around a bit this morning, tho still looks 'weak'.

I did a 30% change the day before the new arrivals and all my 'levels' seemed fine..
I'm guessing the nitrate and ammonia have risen as a result of adding 13 new fish to a tank that only had 4 before,and its taking the filter a time to build up ?

Definitely do a change tonight when I get in from work tho..

The danios seem fairly well behaved, and mostly playing with each other rather than bothering the other fish, tho I guess it could have added to the dead fishes stress

When I added the fish, I did the 15 minutes of the bag in the water, then 15 minutes with some tank water added to the bag, before letting them loose, and I didnt feed or have the lights on for 24 hours..

well, hopefully the little fella will make it thro the day and I will check the levels tonight and do a water change tonight if they aren't back around 0...

fingers crossed...

 

well... got home and tonight the 'sick' guppy is out from under his rock, and swimming in the main tank area with the other fish..

so fingers crossed, he's alright

now... 2 of my new guppies are obviously heavyily pregnant, so I brought a breeding box today to try and protect the fry.. but.. I can't catch the guppies !

I've got a pretty big tank, 190 gal, but I just can't even get close to catching them.. any ideas or techniques ?

I don't want to chase them to much as it will stress them out, but I'd really like to get them in the breeding box before they give birth !!