Dead guppy, any ideas

PuppyFluffer

PuppyFluffer

AC Members
Jan 9, 2008
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east coast USA
I am getting a bit discouraged here.

I got a 5 gallon tank for my 5 year old, thinking she'd enjoy watching fish. I finally got the tank cycled and ready to go (after a bad start by following the advice of a lfs employee to use Bio-Spira and stock with 4 neons and an ADF. I lost the neons through the cycle when the Bio-Spira didn't work. I got thru the cycle with the ADF none the worse for wear).

Water is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, .125 nitrates on the day I got guppies. I did a 10% water change that morning as it was tiem for my weekly change.

We went to a fish store to get 2-3 platies but daughter really wanted guppies....so, we came home with 5 guppies. I acclimated them following the fish store owner's advice and placed them in the tank. They were a bit shy for a day then really seemed to settle in. We didn't feed them for 24 hours. First feeding was flake food which they gobbled up. Second feeding (yesterday) was tiny bit of flake and frozen bloodworms - again, they gobbled up.

This morning I have a dead guppy. What gives? They have been in the tank for 3.5 days. The remaining 4 seem fine.

The dead one looked just fine in body and habit.

Any ideas or is this just a thing that happens?
 
especially with little fish, you can just lose one out of a bunch following purchase due to the stress of the move. if the tank reads ok for water (0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, low nitrates with a good test kit) and the others are good, its probably just one of those things, unless you can see signs of disease/injury on him/her.
 
Thanks for the feedback. Everything is pefect in this tank!!! I've spent a month worrying with it after the neon loss! I was **** determined not to put a fish in there until it was fully cycled! Also, since it's such a small tank, I'm using bottled spring water. I have well water but got a lot of green algae growth when i used it in the betta tank, so I've stuck to spring water.

The bad thing is that my daughter named them all the first night! You know how 5 year olds are. "Orangie" was the one that died. We still have Petunia, Black Beauty, Wave and Rainbow.....let's see if we can keep them! The tank will be fine with 4. I don't feel the need to go out and replace this one.

It's just so weird because they all look so good and had such great appetites yesterday!
 
Well, the second guppy died today. He was swimming around with flaired gills last night which I didn't think was a good sign.

I just talked to the fish store and they will replace the 2 dead ones with 2 glow light tetras. She said they are hardier than guppies.

I'm really getting frustrated. The conflicting information is just amazing. I bought the guppies from the owner who said they were hardy fish. The employee I talked to today said they are not that hardy and neither are platies. Her suggestion was the glow light tetra.

The pH of the fish store water is 7.2 she told me.

I just checked the pH of the bottled water right out of the gallon and it's about 6.4.

The tank water is measuring 7.4. Last PWC was on Friday mid morning, I added fish about 6pm.

My tap water (well water) is 7.2.

I am using the Wardley Senior Delux pH Test Kit for Freshwater Aquariums.

Why would the tank pH be so different from the bottled water I am using?
 
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Gupiies and platies arent hardy but I wouldnt say that they are the most delicate fish...any fish can die from stress, just some more than others.

So many different things in your tank can contribute to a different pH it is hard to determine without more specific info. And I am not too familiar with that test kit...is it liquid or strip? Dont use bottled water anymore, its a waste of money IMO, especially if your tanks pH is that close to your LFS. No need to add any unnecessary stress in the acclimation process and the pH of your tap is perfectly fine. However, I am only assuming that your well water is safe. If you have had it tested and determined that it is not safe for aquariums than ignore this.
 
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