Help! One Guppy Dies Each Day!

hey guys, need a little help

So I have a 55 gallon planted aquarium with 4 (now 3) male guppies and 10 (now 9) female guppies, one yellow Gourami, about 12 cherry shrimp, and one High Fin Spotted Plecos.

Two days ago I turned on my lights at 4:00pm, and I noticed one of my male guppies was dead, so I pulled him out and saw his tail was almost completely gone. Then tonight I turn on my light and one female is dead! Same tail wound.

I checked my Ph levels and they were a little above average, and I got a 0 ppm on nitrates and nitrites, and ammonia.

Only thing I can think of... is my pleco attacking the guppies while they are resting on the bottom of the tank?

 

My Pleco only eats them after they die. How long have you had the guppies?

 

Unless you literally just changed all (or most) of the water in your tank shortly before testing, 0/0/0 for ammonia/nitrites/nitrates sounds very strange. You should probably have some ammonia if the tank is not cycled or nitrates if it is cycled well, but having all zeros is weird.
How old is your tank (when did you start it)?
What test are you using to measure the parameters?

 

Unless you literally just changed all (or most) of the water in your tank shortly before testing, 0/0/0 for ammonia/nitrites/nitrates sounds very strange. You should probably have some ammonia if the tank is not cycled or nitrates if it is cycled well, but having all zeros is weird.
How old is your tank (when did you start it)?
What test are you using to measure the parameters?

I mean when I tested everything and it was all the lowest on an API TEST KIT? The lowest colors are all 0-5 ppm

I could have read them wrong.
I’ve had my tank for like 8 months?

 

I mean when I tested everything and it was all the lowest on an API TEST KIT? The lowest colors are all 0-5 ppm
I’m a little baked I mean I could have read them wrong.
I’ve had my tank for like 8 months?

It should probably be cycled by now, unless you did something that crashed your cycle recently.

Were there any major changes / tank events lately?
New fish/plants/decorations introduced?
New equipment? (e.g. changing the whole filter instead of old broken one)
Any particular triggers for fish stress? (e.g. heater accidentally switched off for a long time, major rescaping etc.)

 

Your not cycled. 0 nitrates mean 99% of the time your not cycled. Rarely a heavily planted tank can have all zeroes. It sounds like your in a minI cycle. Are you dosing with prime daily. It will detoxify ammonia and nitrites under 1 ppm. That's adding both numbers together.

 

Depending on the plants it could be almost 0 nitrates. I have more stock and I get barely a nitrate reading. Are the guppies chasing each other a lot?

 

January- Purchased Hornwort, came with snails.
A week later I introduced 4 female guppies.
Two weeks later I noticed my shrimp multiplied by dead hornwort needles (planted in gravel, so bases of hornwort died, and shed, because I didn’t know better) the shrimp hid in the needles)

February- cleaned out dead needles, everything tested good except ammonia, which ran almost acceptable.
A week ago I added an amazon fern.

I don’t think that was anything drastic...

 

Just do a retest. You may not have shaken your nitrate solutions well enough if you're a little baked.

 

That's not heavily planted. I still think your in a minI cycle. What filter do you have and how do you clean your media. Do you use a dechlorinizer.

 

I have a hang on back 70 gallon filter, with two screens, cleaned them on February 2nd, just under warm water, just a rinse and squeeze, and I left my wheel alone.

I don’t use a dechlorinator, I’ve never had any problems with my house tap water, it’s on a house filter, doesn’t read high chlorine.

That's not heavily planted. I still think your in a minI cycle. What filter do you have and how do you clean your media. Do you use a dechlorinizer.

Oh yeah, I didn’t mention the OTHER **** I got in this tank. It’s moderately planted.

 

You should be swishing them in tank water. Not chlorinated tap water. If there is any bacteria on the screen it will be killed off. You probably still have bacteria on wheels inless chlorine from screen kills some off but I doubt it. Not familiar with filters with bio wheels. You need to use a dechlorinator if you have any chlorine. It will help kill your good bacteria and help to kill your fish.