Dead guppies

daludo

Hi folks
Looking for a bit of advice here. I bought my 600 x 300 aquarium on 1st Feb. I've had 3 mollies (1 died) leaving a male and female, and 8/9 little shrimp since then. I've tested my water each week since I got it and the nitrate level etc is now fine
I popped in 5 guppies 2 weeks ago and I'm down to the last 2 females who are slowly dying. Now my male mollie has been aggressive towards the female one constantly chasing around the tank and flipping its tail and nipping at her. Do ye think this behaviour was also responsible for the death of the guppies??im new to this so I'm not sure what's going on.....

Alkers

Did you add fish on the first day?
Have you been doing water changes?
What else are you testing for?
What size is the tank in litres?
Do you have a filter and heater?

A fish being chased / nipped can cause it to be stressed which can result in death but in a new tank it's almost always water parameters.

You may have added too many fish at the same time, so the load on your bacteria was too great and your in effect cycling your tank again. I would change 50% of the water initially then maybe 25% each day for a few days.

daludo

Alkers wrote: »

Did you add fish on the first day?
Have you been doing water changes?
What else are you testing for?
What size is the tank in litres?
Do you have a filter and heater?

A fish being chased / nipped can cause it to be stressed which can result in death but in a new tank it's almost always water parameters.

You may have added too many fish at the same time, so the load on your bacteria was too great and your in effect cycling your tank again. I would change 50% of the water initially then maybe 25% each day for a few days.

Hi Alkers
Thanks for the reply. Ya I added 5 guppies at one time. I've been changing 5 litres every two weeks on a 55 litre tank. How come the mollies survived no problem?? I'm collecting a pair of danios today also. Using paper strips to test water

Alkers

5 litres is not even 10% so your water changes are too infrequent and not big enough. Once fully cycled you can probably get away with 10-15% each week or 20-25% every second week but since you've added new fish you will need to increase your water changes significantly for a few weeks. Should only take a few minutes with a 55l tank.

Some fish are more-hardy than others and will tolerate poor water conditions.

I would do a 20l water change now and then 10-15l every day for a week or two at least.

Are you adding conditioner to new water before adding to the tank?

Paper strips are not reliable, they are ok as an indicator but not great to rely on when you're cycling the tank. Can you post up what your water parameters were from your last test?

I would not add new fish until you get on top of the water conditions. Adding new fish to a small tank like that is goign to result in a spike in the load on the bacteria so means you have to do more water changes until your water stabilises again.

ted1

daludo wrote: »

Hi Alkers
Thanks for the reply. Ya I added 5 guppies at one time. I've been changing 5 litres every two weeks on a 55 litre tank. How come the mollies survived no problem?? I'm collecting a pair of danios today also. Using paper strips to test water

You need to be changing 20-30 litre. Are you treating the water to remove chlorine.? What temperature are you heating the water too?


How did you add the guppies?

Hold off getting any more fish. Till things settle

daludo

Alkers wrote: »

5 litres is not even 10% so your water changes are too infrequent and not big enough. Once fully cycled you can probably get away with 10-15% each week or 20-25% every second week but since you've added new fish you will need to increase your water changes significantly for a few weeks. Should only take a few minutes with a 55l tank.

Some fish are more-hardy than others and will tolerate poor water conditions.

I would do a 20l water change now and then 10-15l every day for a week or two at least.

Are you adding conditioner to new water before adding to the tank?

Paper strips are not reliable, they are ok as an indicator but not great to rely on when you're cycling the tank. Can you post up what your water parameters were from your last test?

I would not add new fish until you get on top of the water conditions. Adding new fish to a small tank like that is goign to result in a spike in the load on the bacteria so means you have to do more water changes until your water stabilises again.

Thanks for the advice folks. I'm new to this so appreciate your help. Unfortunately I added 2 danios this morning and replaced my male mollie with a female. That was before I saw yer replies!!!!
I'll do a 25% water change tomorrow and add some of the filter medium liquid. I'll also send on a few pics to ye. ðŸ‘

Alkers

daludo wrote: »

Thanks for the advice folks. I'm new to this so appreciate your help. Unfortunately I added 2 danios this morning and replaced my male mollie with a female. That was before I saw yer replies!!!!
I'll do a 25% water change tomorrow and add some of the filter medium liquid. I'll also send on a few pics to ye. ðŸ‘

What is the liquid you're using? Is it to kick start the filter or to make tapwater safe?

Let us know how it goes tomorrow anyway

daludo

Alkers wrote: »

What is the liquid you're using? Is it to kick start the filter or to make tapwater safe?

Let us know how it goes tomorrow anyway

Hi lads
So I changed 30% water today, added conditioner which I will send a pic of along with the test results pre water change. The new water I added is from my own filtered water supply here in the house.

daludo

daludo wrote: »

Hi lads
So I changed 30% water today, added conditioner which I will send a pic of along with the test results pre water change. The new water I added is from my own filtered water supply here in the house.

Photos

daludo

daludo wrote: »

Photos

Test

daludo

daludo wrote: »

Test

Food etc

Alkers

daludo wrote: »

Hi lads
So I changed 30% water today, added conditioner which I will send a pic of along with the test results pre water change. The new water I added is from my own filtered water supply here in the house.

Good stuff, I'm not familiar with that conditioner but it seems to suggest it will give your bacteria a kick start. It says to treat the whole tank at 10ml per 30l when new and again after three weeks and monthly thereafter.

You also need to treat only the new water when doing a water change, same concentration - 10ml per 30l so you'll have less than 10ml for your weekly water change.

Continue on with your water changes now every couple of days and you should be right

daludo

Alkers wrote: »

Good stuff, I'm not familiar with that conditioner but it seems to suggest it will give your bacteria a kick start. It says to treat the whole tank at 10ml per 30l when new and again after three weeks and monthly thereafter.

You also need to treat only the new water when doing a water change, same concentration - 10ml per 30l so you'll have less than 10ml for your weekly water change.

Continue on with your water changes now every couple of days and you should be right

Thanks Alkers, it's all a learning curve! No doubt I'll be re-visiting this forum again with other questions in weeks to come!