guppies dying after introducing new elements to the tank

[mako30-1]

Hello everyone i'm new here, i have had a guppy tank for years now probably for a decade and reading the forums for a solution to my problem i realized that i have been a pretty bad guppy owner and that's finally showing off anyways here is what has been happening during the last 6 days, i decided it was a good idea to introduce new guppy couples to my tank since well after years of not doing so i felt like i had to renew the dna in order to avoid genetical problems so i bought 2 couples and 2 different species of plant along with more gravel to also renew the apparience of my tank, i had some plants before but they were eaten in about a week so this was the first time in years, in order to introduce this new elements i made a full water change (i usually do it this way since it worked out everytime i did) i got the new couples in a tank i fill when i do the water change and i started to put my old guppies there that went well, then i cleaned the tank (without soap of course), i filled the bottom of the tank with gravel, planted the new plants and the old plastic ones i have then filled with water i poured anti-chlorine and then Methylene blue (i also did this for the tank i filled to put the guppies while i was cleaning the main one). After all the process my guppies looked so happy but 3 days after they started to act in odd ways they started to hide in the plants i noticed they started to give birth (they usually do it in the main tank as i only use a different one when i change the water) everything seemed to be fine but a few hours later i found one of the new guppies dead that's when they all began to die (the newborns seem to be fine along with the remaining new ones). I noticed that most of the dead guppies had the same signs (with the exeption of one) they all had their tails in triangle form like if it was consumed somehow they also first start to swim like if they were weak swimming sideways by that time they start to swim towards the plants to hide and die there really worried tonight i had to remove at least 10 dead guppies what should i do to save the newborns and they ones that don't seem to be affected yet? i know i have to extract the babies from that tank but can you describe the proper way to do it?

I have a 40 liter tank i don't remember the brand of my filter (but i know it uses carbon pellets, i had to use a different presentation of carbon this time since i didn't find pellets) as mentioned before i have plastic plants and natural plants and as of now i have around 100 guppies, quite a lot, the new gravel i mentioned it's natural.

What i mean by being a bad owner is that reading i have found my information that i wasn't aware of like water testers for example, this was a project i started with my dad when i was just a kid and both of us knew nothing about tanks i will really appreciate any tips and info you can provide to help me take care of my beloved guppies.
Also i apologize for my grammar mistakes but i'm tired of removing dead fishes from my tank and english is not my first languaje.

 

[Tifftastic]

First off, hi M mako30-1 and welcome to AC!

In reading your description of your issues, I had a few questions.

1) If I'm reading correctly, you took the old water out of the tank and put it into a different one? Then you put the current guppies and the new ones into the old tank water?
2) How long were the guppies in this old water?
3) How often do you do water changes?
4) When you change the water do you usually change all the water or part of it?
5) When you refilled the tank after rinsing the gravel did you also rinse all the filter media?

I have a couple of suggestions, but I'd like to wait until I'm clear on the situation.

 

[mako30-1]

First off, hi M mako30-1 and welcome to AC!

In reading your description of your issues, I had a few questions.

1) If I'm reading correctly, you took the old water out of the tank and put it into a different one? Then you put the current guppies and the new ones into the old tank water?
2) How long were the guppies in this old water?
3) How often do you do water changes?
4) When you change the water do you usually change all the water or part of it?
5) When you refilled the tank after rinsing the gravel did you also rinse all the filter media?

I have a couple of suggestions, but I'd like to wait until I'm clear on the situation.

hello thx for answering, for the first questions, nope i didn't took the old water i only the fishes out to put them in a different and clean tank to completly wash the the main one, and after that i replace the wate, i did wash the filtes to
The guppies usually stay around 2 or 3 weeks in the same water this time they were there for 3 weeks.
And something i missed in my post was that there was also bits of fish skin in the water

 

[Tifftastic]

Ok thanks for clearing that up!

So, have you read about the nitrogen cycle? If not, there's a little over view here https://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

Essentially, what I think was the main cause of what you saw happen was a spike in ammonia. When you clean everything, gravel and filters, you essentially wipe out all the beneficial bacteria. This is the bacteria that makes the ammonia produced by fish waste, osmoregulation, and excess food into safer biproducts (nitrates). Ammonia is really toxic and at even low levels can cause burning of skin and soft tissues and ultimately death.

The second thing, for the older guppies, is that if you are regularly changing the water in this same fashion you are stressing them each time by catching them and moving them. Its better to remove a part of the water each time, rather than to change the whole thing and wash the tank. I would recommend once a week taking half of the water out of the tank and replacing it with fresh, dechlorinated water. Twice a month vacuum your gravel. You don't want to wash your filter ever. You can dip it in old tank water to gently remove the algae that may build up and excess detritus, but when you wash it, even with just tap water, you remove the bacteria present.

This doesn't sound like a disease to me, it sounds like toxicity from ammonia. I would recommend doing two things immediately:
1) change 75% of your water
2) get a liquid test kit and test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate

Following this, I would recommend changing the water as often as it takes to keep the ammonia at zero. At first this will be a lot, then it will get to be less. Once it gets stable, start doing once a week 50% changes.

I hope this helps.

 

[mako30-1]

thank you very much! i read something while scrolling down the forum but didn't get much info, good thing i just bought the pump to remove water i will keep you updated thanks again

 

[mako30-1]

i have another question i hope you can answer, the roots of my plants are showing should replant them?

 

[SnakeIce]

Depends on what the plants are, some should not be planted, and some need to be roots buried, and some will grow roots in the water and it isn't an issue except for how it looks. But all of that depends on what the plants are.

 

[mako30-1]

things seem to normal now after a few partial water changes which i very calming although i can't test the water right now since i don't have enough for a tester at the moment however i will take a sample of my water to the pet store to see if they can test it, i decided to take the affected guppies to a different tank and they are looking somewhat better.
Thanks again that quote really helped me to take thing with more calm.

 

[Tifftastic]

If you can't get a test kit right now, taking a sample to a pet store is the next best thing. It won't be as accurate, but it will at least give you an idea.