40+ deaths in less then two weeks, please help

[davexstumpe]

Im thinking that your tank couold have suffered old tank syndrome being that your load is so high and your no3 probably went through the roof. So the fish got used to higher no3 and then when you started doing a lot of WCs they werent able to cope with the cleaner water.

This is all speculation of course without no3 readings before and after the WCs

 

[Gracecat]

Holy cow!!! And here I am feeling somewhat guilty for failing to do my complete homework on my (2)clown loach purchases for my 150g.



The old addage one inch per 1.5g of water I think is generally a good idea here to start with.

Get the loaches out of there double quick and find somewhere to put those snails. Better yet, get all the dime sized snails out of there, over half of the guppies and leave the loaches for a couple days. Don't feed them pellets. They'll take care of your baby snail outbreak.. Then get rid of them humanely.

 

[jm1212]

the one inch per gallon rule doesnt work. at all.

you need to get rid of 80% of your guppies. ASAP. otherwise, they are just going to keep dieing off.

 

[Gracecat]

Well, if he had over 100, and got rid of 80%+, he'd have a little over 20 fish in a 30 gallon.... That's roughly one fish per one and half gallons.

In this case, considering the fish I think it's a good rule. Obviously you can't do it with all fish in all cases. Surface area and oxygen factors into it as well and you can't possibly even remotely use the addage or old wives tale in a hexagonal tank. As I said, here it's probably appropriate to start with.

Assuming he keeps the shrimp and the pleco, 20 guppies.... It may not work even half the time. It just seems to work out in this set-up.

Edit to add:
You know... JM is right. I should say that now. You can't do it with fish which will grow much larger than an inch. I should have specified in my opinion you can only use this guideline with guppies, neons and other such small fish. Period. It won't work on anything else imo.

I gave it as a guideline to know where to cut off your stocking if you continue to keep guppies. I probably should have just left the "rule" out and suggested one guppy per gallon and half, no more. Keeps things from going off into a debate

 

[Rbishop]

I wish folks would not repeat that "guideline". The least little bit of acceptance for it just re-inforces it for another wave of hobbyists to set them selves up for failure, not to mention the fish deaths.

There are so many factors involved, any attempt to make it generic and easy, just makes things worse.

It is not just the fish length...it is also height and mass, along with gender, territorial issues, tank space/volume/surface area, decor, diet, coloration, temp, and untold spawning and personality issues.

For the OP I would suggest losing a large number of the guppies and do some serious tank maintenance. Establish some longterm stability. Then consider QT of anything new.

You are not doing the clowns any favor by keeping them.

 

[Reefscape]

Any chance of a photograph of this tank please???

 

[bellazeus]

Wow I have a 36 gallon and cant even imagine that!
Is it even physically possible to fit that many fish plus plants and decor in a tank.

 

[TMDragon]

Let this be a lesson to all potential guppy owners, NEVER put male and female guppies in one tank unless you are planning to get rid of them as fast as they breed. Even if Leo was get get rid of 90% of his guppies, he would end up back where he started in a few months.

Here's my 2 cents.
Get rid of all your guppies except for your 10-15 best looking males that you wanna keep. Get rid of the clown loaches for the same reason everyone else stated. Start off with 30% percent water changes every other day, then move to 50% until your water chemistry stabalizes. Sounds to me like you haven't been keeping up with those water changes seeing as how your PH steadily dropped over the last few months.

Hopefully all goes well with your tank and I too would like to see some pics. Good Luck.

 

[kimmisc]

If the ph is dropping, it's because your high nitrates are causing the tank to crash. It's wildly overstocked. I can't believe you thought it was okay to have that many creatures in that tank. I mean no offense. I just can't think of anything more accurate to say. You have to get rid of most of those guppies and mystery snails.

How do your plants get any light in the shadows of all those guppies?

 

[Dwarf Puffers]

I'd have to agree with most of the posts above. That tank is horribly OS. I would agree with taking out all of the females and keeping some of the prettier males. Also, take out the clowns. They should have a 150g minimum (which is 5 times the size of their current home).

Do you have the nitrate readings on your tank? When you say mystery snails, do you mean pond snails, ramshorns, malaysian trumpet snails, or actual apple snails (the big ones)? If you mean any of the first three, I would suggest that after you take out most of the fish, you should place some blanched cucumber where they like to gather. It's a good way to get rid of them. If they're mystery snails, return about 93% of them, although I don't think it's physically possible to have 100+ adult guppies, 8 clown loaches, a BN pleco, and 100 mystery snails in a 30g.