Fish Keep Dying

justintoxicated

justintoxicated

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Dec 19, 2005
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So I started with 6 guppies in a 10 gallon.

First a femal died, for no aparent reason, was swinning then just died. This was a few days after I first got the fish, so i did not think too much of it.

Then suddenly a male started swimming funny and resting at the top alot, the next day he lost a fin, by the end of that day, he was floating at the top with no fins.

Now sudddenly another male is dying, he was acting funny for a few days but I could not see anything wrong with him. looked fine this morning but when I got home his fins were turning white as well as his gills. He is still eating but is there anything I can do to save him? I isolated him in a seperate tank, don't know if he will be alive tomarrow morning, but he is still eating and swimming around at this point.

The other 3 fish seem happy, 2 of the females are pregnant and one of them has already had fry, which I also seperated.

Water reads,
0 Amonia
0 Nitrite
~ 5 ppm nitrate
6.5 PH
Temp around 76 deg.

Could this disease have stressed my other fish and killed them before it was noticable?

Is there any hope for my poor dying guppy or should I feed him his last meal?
 
Is there some meds I can put in that will not kill my Plants Snails and Shrimp?
 
The tank was cycled when you added the fish? Anything else in there? What kind of test kit are you using?
 
I'm just a beginner myself, but is it possbile that the fish were old when you got them? I read that Guppies don't live that long. I think it said between 12-18 months.
 
Using a Master Test Kit from Petsmart, it uses drops and test tubes..

I dunno what is killing the but the one struggeling has some kinda white stuff all over his fins and it is spreading FAST.

Can I save his life or is it already too late?

if not I have 7 Fry waiting to take the dead guppies place, only room for so many in that tank, and I don't think the other want to go into the toad/ newt tank becase they will likely get eaten in there.
 
due to the nature of how guppies are bred maintained and kept in stores i wouldnt be suprised if they were on their way to the grave before you stepped in.
 
Ok I kept the blue guppy isolated, and my LFS suggested PimaFix. I put some in the main 10 gallon tank, and I put like a drop in the small seperater tank. I don't know if I need to continue treating hte main tank or not, non of the other fish are sick but I don't want them to become sick :(

The directions said to remove charcoal from the tank but I did not want to do this because I have a whisper filter and if you remove the charcoal then you also remove all those good bacteria right?

In fact I don't understand when your even supposed to change this filter, because from the sound of it it would start my cycle over every time I change my filter?


Am I doing this correctly? Should I medicate the tank? I think maybe I will put the sick guppy back in the 10 gal tomarrow and continue the treatments?

I'm going to do a 50% water change this weekend too.

Can anyone give me some advice?
 
justintoxicated said:
Ok I kept the blue guppy isolated, and my LFS suggested PimaFix. I put some in the main 10 gallon tank, and I put like a drop in the small seperater tank. I don't know if I need to continue treating hte main tank or not, non of the other fish are sick but I don't want them to become sick :(

The directions said to remove charcoal from the tank but I did not want to do this because I have a whisper filter and if you remove the charcoal then you also remove all those good bacteria right?

In fact I don't understand when your even supposed to change this filter, because from the sound of it it would start my cycle over every time I change my filter?


Am I doing this correctly? Should I medicate the tank? I think maybe I will put the sick guppy back in the 10 gal tomarrow and continue the treatments?

I'm going to do a 50% water change this weekend too.

Can anyone give me some advice?
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You have to take out the charcoal whenever you use a medication, otherwise the the medication won't work!! The charcoal removes medicine. You don't have to remove the bio bag in order to remove charcoal. Just open up the Bio Bag and empty out the charcoal. You'll need to add charcoal again once the treatment is final. The directions will tell you how long that is.
Removing the charcoal won't effect the beneficial bacteria. Also, you don't have to change the Bio Bag every month like they say. Whenever mine gets clogged (That's usually when the Wonder Chamber overflows excessively) I just take out the bag and swish it around in some old aquarium water (don't ever clean the bag in water that hasn't been treated for chlorine removal. It will kill the bacteria).
I also was concerned about putting in a brand new bio bag, so I decided to put an additional filter in, so that I have 2 bags and can change them at different times. They also sell a filter that has dual chamber's for bags. Those filters are for large tanks though. I think it would be ok to use in 29 gallon tanks and up. I'm planning on getting one.
 
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But the real question is if I should even be midicating the main tank non of the other fish seem sick or bothered? Or just medicate the quarantine tank?

I just added some charcoal a week ago, it is a real pain to change the charcoal out in the 10i in a 10 gallon tank...

I definately do not have enough room for a second wisper filter in the tank,

So I should never replace the filter just clean it out?

I guess I will eventualy have to step it up to a canister style filter...which might be better for the plants anyways..
 
Well, if none of the other fish seem sick, then personally I would just quarantine and medicate the one that is sick. If another one started showing signs of the same then I would medicate all of them just to be on the safe side, because whatever is happening maybe highly contagious. But that's just my guess. I can't really say because I haven't had much experience with ill fish.
Do you know exactly what is wrong with the fish? Is it a bacterial or fungal infection?
As for the filter, eventually you'll have to replace it. Some people have said that they use the bio bag until it starts to look ratty. It could probably last for about 3-6 months. I really don't know though, because I just started out in this hobby myself. Does your filter have a coarse black sponge that sits in front of the bio bag? It's called the aerobic grid and I think it also houses good bacteria. So if even if you change the bio bag there should still be enough bacteria in the aerobic grid.
We need someone who has more experience to post their opinion here.
 
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