Guppies falling like flies

J

jyanagi

AC Members
Sep 5, 2006
62
0
0
Hi all,

I hate to be another mysterious fish death story, but I'm confused to what might be going on. I've read all the similar posts, I'm simply not sure what the story is. Over the past 2 months, I've lost 10ish guppies, adults, juveniles, and fry slowly over those 2 months.

I have two tanks, a 28g and a 10g. I now have 3 three month old guppies and the 4 danios in the 28g tank. I have 6 fry in the 10g (one month old fry and 5 that were born last week in the big tank).

Before I did the water change Thursday night in the 28g tank, the water specs were.
pH = 8.0
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 20
The numbers are the same tonight, 2 days later.

The fish look fine. They act normal. I see no signs of disease. I did notice that my largest female guppy (which died last weekend) was swimming very slowly and hanging near the top. I started to wonder if perhaps I didn't have enough oxygen in the tank. So, a few days ago, I went out and purchased a Tetra Whisper air pump and have been "bubbling" them. But, last night, I had a juvenile female die, and, I'm more confused than ever.

It could be my imagination, but once I started the bubbler, it seems that the danios are moving much more quickly and that all the fish are hanging out lower in the tank (even when I turn it off). But, I need to be careful with that statement... you know how it is... when you change the oil in your car, it seems to drive better??

Thursday night, I did a 50% water change in the big tank. I also moved the gravel around a lot and got under it with the vacuum. I removed an awful lot of sediment. I had been starting to get green algae on the sides of the tank. But, the water itself looked fine (fake plants only).

I have transferred the male fish from the 10g to the 28g in order to "make more fish" so if it's something contagious, I could have transferred it to the larger tank.

The interesting thing is that the zebra danios have been completely fine, the original 4 that I've had for six months. It's the guppies who are falling like flies. I will say though that before the deaths started, I was finding danio fry in the tank. That has stopped. But, the guppies are still birthing.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thank you.
 
so you separated the males and females? that might of been your problem... the males tend to stress the femails out...
 
I don't think that's it because when the deaths started, the males and females were in separate tanks. It wasn't for a good month that I put them all together. And the deaths have continued.
 
I would look for signs of internal or external parasites, like stringy white poop or heavy breathing.
 
Ulan! I think you hit it on the head. I have seen white stringy poop before, never made the connection.

What parasite does that indicate? What should I do? Should I segregate the ones with dark poop vs the ones with white poop and treat the white poop tank? Or just treat them all?

Thanks again.
 
just treat them all, medicated food seems to work the best.
 
Yes, just treat them all. If you only find medicated food that is too big for the guppies to eat, you can also try those Jungle Lab Parasite Clear tabs, which seem to be available everywhere. They work quite nicely with most parasites.
 
Jungle Labs also makes a medicated fish food called anti-parasite. I have used it successfully on my Ram. Makes more sense to give medicine that goes inside the body to kill the parasite, which lives in the digestive tract, than to treat the water as you would for external parasites. Treating the water has absolutely no effect IME.

If the food is too large just crush it. I used the surface of my desk and the bottle to crush the pellets small enough for my Rams to eat.
 
I used those tabs successfully, also for internal parasites. But, in principle, you are right. It's just that I found using that food a bit of a nuisance. And the hanging out at the surface suggests additional external parasites in the gills, which is why I suggested tabs.
 
Last edited:
I have used the Jungle Lab Parasite Clear tabs before and it worked well. I had to remove my Ghost shrimp though because it said that they would die due to the treatment. Will the medicated fish food kill them to?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom