female guppy is turning black

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texaspride

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Jan 22, 2007
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Hi
What Would Make My Female Guppy Turn Black ? All my water readings are good . Tank Has Been Set up for 8 Months now. No new fish in Tank.
Any Ideas .


Thanks for the help
 

J double R

The Devil
Jan 13, 2007
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Jon
any pix? certainly dont want to insult your intelligence but are you sure its a female?
 

Coler

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Jan 30, 2007
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what are your readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, and what test kit are you using ?

how often do you do water changes ?

what size is the tank and what's in it.

I'm only asking because it will help people exclude lots of potential answers :)
 

texaspride

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Jan 22, 2007
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nitrite=0
nitrate =0
ammonia=0
I do bout 25% water changes weekly along with gravel vac
She is in 10 gal with male guppy
Thanks for the help :)
 

Coler

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Jan 30, 2007
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ok if your reading for nitrate is 0 that would make me doubt your test kit, unless your tank is very heavily planted. If the tank is up and running 8 months you should see some nitrates generally.

can you post a pic of the guppy ? would help people advise as to whether it looked like a bacterial/parasitic/poor water quality problem...or maybe (hopefully) just a natural touch of her colour.

does the fish seem out of sorts at all ?
 

magakitty

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Apr 5, 2007
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The API nitrate test is tricky. If you don't shake the 2nd bottle enough it will read really low or even 0. I usually give it a good shake (30+ seconds), set it aside while I am testing the ammonia and nitrite and then shake it good again, get the test set up with the water and the first chemical (bottle #1 - don't forget to shake this up some after you've added it to the water) and then shake bottle #2 again for 15-30 seconds. then you have to shake the test tube for several (30 +) seconds, and then set it aside for a little bit. You should see good color developing when you are shaking the tube after you add the second chemical. if you don't shake the holy snot out of bottle #2 you will not get accurate results. Period
 

Coler

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Jan 30, 2007
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correct - the instructions say shake bottle number 2 for 30 secs before adding to the test tube, and shake the test tube for 60 secs after adding bottle 2, then wait 5 mins for result
 
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