Why do all my guppies die?

Industrial

AC Members
Oct 29, 2009
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Buffalo, NY
In the past month I have went through 9 of my guppies.

The first guppy to go in this time period was a pregnant halfblack female guppy. She was extremely heavy and went into labour for a little over a day. She spent most of the day lying on her side struggling to move moving from one hiding spot to another. She was breathing really heavily and she appeared to be dying, but she was definitely ready to give birth. As soon as I saw her dead I tried to perform a C-Section, but none of the fry made it. I figure that she died from stress as there was too many babies to give birth to or something. She was in a filtered 10 gallon tank by herself during pregnancy.

In the next tank, which was the old half black's tank, I had her mate, and two fancy female guppies. The heater malfunctioned and the water went up to 93 degrees. They survived, but when I attempted to turn the heater down, the second drastic temperature change must have killed them.

Here are the ones I am not sure about.

I have a 10 gallon tank that had 10 guppies. Two adult moscow blacks and eight 2-3 month old moscow blue guppy fry. I came in one day to see one of the guppy fry dead stuck on the filter. I figured, my old moscow blue female had 8 fry and they all lived this long and it was just natural that they all wouldn't live a full life.

The next day, my moscow black's tailfin was half missing, it looked like the top half was torn from the bottom half. There was no sign of finrot or ick on the male. I did see a guppy fry that appeared to have ick and another fry had a large white speck on his tailfin that looked like ick, but way larger.

I put in some ick medication. The next day, another guppy fry was found dead in the tank. I also saw that tumorish/ick thing stuck on the filter and all signs of ick in the tank were gone.

The next day, my adult male in the tank was dead.

A few days later I added 7 small ghost shrimp to help in cleaning up the bottom of the tank.

My tank seemed good, and the fish seemed healthy except for the female who was just hiding behind the filter breathing heavily. She was 2-3 weeks pregnant and abnormally fat from this pregnancy.

I did some ammonia, PH, Nitrate, Nitrite and alkalinity testing and everything was fine.

A week later I found the female dead in the bottom of the tank.

A few days after that (this morning) I found another fry dead on the filter.



In September/October I purchased two Moscow Blue guppies and the female gave bith an hour into the new tank. That is where my 8 fry came from. I moved the female and the male into a 5 gallon hex and the male developed finrot I believe as his tail was bloody and his body had some open sores on it too. The male died within two days. The female died of unknown reasons a few days later.

What I want to know is why are all these guppies dying?

Also, I had quite a few guppies die before they were supposed to give birth. Both of these guppies seemed exceptionally large during their pregnancies. Could that have anything to do with it?
 
Can you post your water test findings for each tank separately. What type of test kit are you using? Are there any other fish in the tanks?
 
Def. test your water. Also I see that you mentioned you had 10 guppies in a 10g tank. Correct me if I am wrong but is that not overstocked?? And did you bother to quarantine the new fish you purchased before putting them into your established tanks? Also sounds like your passing illnesses from fish to fish.
 
Guppies are weak fish. All mine kept dieing even though all the other livebearers were fine and the water was fine.
 
I guess guppies are weird like that. Ive gotten guppies that die the next day or in a weeks time while others bought the same day thrive.
 
Def. test your water. Also I see that you mentioned you had 10 guppies in a 10g tank. Correct me if I am wrong but is that not overstocked?? And did you bother to quarantine the new fish you purchased before putting them into your established tanks? Also sounds like your passing illnesses from fish to fish.

It would be overstocked, but you have to remember 8 of the guppys are less than an inch currently and were not going to stay in the tank until they are fully grown. As they get bigger the ones I am keeping are going into their own tanks and the other grown fry are going to fish stores. If I were to keep them all and let them grow out, they would be in more than one tank.

The two fish that were with my Moscow Blue fry started out in a separate tank for the first week or so. I would never mix a brand new fish with guppy fry because if something did happen, it would likely wipe out all the fry before I could do anything.

Most of the adult guppys I bought were kept together from the store and separate from the other guppys as well. I never like to mix guppies to ensure that I can get the guppy fry that I want. I did add in two of the guppys without quarentining them, but those were the ones that died from the heater malfunction.

I will get new test strips today since I ran out last week and retest the water and post the results on here.

Can you post your water test findings for each tank separately. What type of test kit are you using? Are there any other fish in the tanks?

I am using ammonia strips, and the 5 in 1 strips from Wal-mart.
 
I keep seeing fin rot followed by torn looking, bloody, or other various signs of injury. And 10 guppies in a ten gallon.. what's you female to male ratio- live bearers commonly need at least 3:1 F:M to prevent fighting and females getting harresed to death. If you've got 5 females and 5 males in a ten, not only are you overcrowded or on the verge, but adding competition for mates into causes of agression.

The fancy guppies are a weak fish on top of all that. Selectivly bred for their colors has left them weaker than their wild, or even feeder counter parts, so they are more senative to less than perfect water, stress, etc.

As far as the abnormally fat.. this is going to sound condesending, but I assure you I don't mean it as such- have you ever kept live bearers and had sucessful fry before? I ask to see if you know what a normal pregancy looks like. I don't keep guppies, but I do keep platies, and the females always look like they are about to pop- literally- right before they give birth.

And consider getting a liquid test kit- they run about thirty bucks and last forever- hundreds of tests per kit- and they are a LOT more accurate. I've seen strips show 0 ppm, and drops show near fatel levels of ammonia.
 
It would be overstocked, but you have to remember 8 of the guppys are less than an inch currently and were not going to stay in the tank until they are fully grown. As they get bigger the ones I am keeping are going into their own tanks and the other grown fry are going to fish stores. If I were to keep them all and let them grow out, they would be in more than one tank.

The two fish that were with my Moscow Blue fry started out in a separate tank for the first week or so. I would never mix a brand new fish with guppy fry because if something did happen, it would likely wipe out all the fry before I could do anything.

Most of the adult guppys I bought were kept together from the store and separate from the other guppys as well. I never like to mix guppies to ensure that I can get the guppy fry that I want. I did add in two of the guppys without quarentining them, but those were the ones that died from the heater malfunction.

I will get new test strips today since I ran out last week and retest the water and post the results on here.



I am using ammonia strips, and the 5 in 1 strips from Wal-mart.



Yeah I don't have any experience with guppies just thought I would throw a few ideas out there of what could possibly be the problem.
If I were you I would try to get the API test kit when you get a chance. They are a bit pricey, I bought my whole kit for $30 at a pet store but I'm sure you could find a better price elsewhere. From what I've been told they are the most reliable and accurate. Good luck with your fish!
 
I must agree that the test strips are fairly useless. It would be much better to invest in a liquid test kit if your finances will allow as they are more reliable and accurate.
 
I also agree that the test strips aren't accurate. Definitely get the liquid test kit.

LFS guppies can be hard to keep alive. I've also found guppies to be extremely sensitive to water quality, more so than other types of tropical fish. I do partial water changes 2-3 times a week in my tanks. I can always tell if there is a water quality problem, because the guppies will start to act sluggish; hiding out in corners, flashing, etc. Meanwhile the other fish in the tank show no signs of trouble. So first you should be sure your water is good, and keep up with frequent testing and water changes. If that doesn't help, it's likely the LFS guppies, or overcrowding. I have been fortunate the past few years, and have received several guppies from members here. Now I rarely lose a guppy, and I have three tanks full of healthy guppies.
 
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