Why are only my guppies dying?

Fish killer :( said:
No, I said so in the first post. They told me at the pet store just to run the tank for 48 hours. You would think they would be knowledgable enough to tell me to cycle. I didn't learn about cycling until after the fact. :(


They just wanna sell you.....and have you go back and buy more fish and dechlor and all that.....
 
sublime1184 said:
They just wanna sell you.....and have you go back and buy more fish and dechlor and all that.....
They have a 14 day unconditional gaurantee. So thats kind of stupid for them to not mention the cycle.
 
rich311k said:
Your levels will rise and they will rise fast with those 3 fish in a little tank. Do you have a heater?
No. I live in Florida and my house never dips below 75 so I figured it would be safe. Should I invest in one anyway?

I am monitoring pretty much every day. When they start rising should I do partial water changes?

Kasakato said:
Nitrates should be at least 5ppm in a un-planted tank.
Ok thanks. :)
 
Fish killer :( said:
They have a 14 day unconditional gaurantee. So thats kind of stupid for them to not mention the cycle.


Yes but a lot of people get discouraged when they have to wait a long time for fish.....so two days compared to a month approx.....if they say come back in a month, they suspect that there is a possiblity that you will not go to same place or you would get discouraged.
 
I'm surprised to hear about a 14-day guarantee on the fish. Most LFSs I've been to don't offer longer than a couple of days. Since you do have that, though, you could get your money back on the guppies...but I wouldn't replace them, since your tank was overstocked to begin with. I'd suggest that if you want to keep mollies, platies or guppies that you look at a larger aquarium. Even a 10 gallon is too small for many fish (mollies need more swimming room than that). Otherwise, you may want to return the molly and platies and get fish more suitable for the 5 gallon.

My LFS recommends that guppies aren't suitable for a new (still cycling) tank, and shouldn't be introduced until a tank is well established. It will take a while to fully cycle the tank, and it seems it has barely started in your tank at this point. You'll see ammonia go up first, then nitrite when ammonia starts to drop and then finally you'll see nitrates. The process will tank a few weeks. You do have the option to do a fishless cycle if you prefer. It takes just as long, but it doesn't harm any fish. Check out the "Cycle" sticky at the top of this forum.
 
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