# Mystery Guppy Death



## Breitak67 (Sep 7, 2013)

Very strange. 60g tank, Water 78 degrees F, pH 7.2, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates immeasurable with multiple test kits (drops and strips). Water hardness is high, but I've read that guppies prefer hard water. API Filstar filter. Heavily planted, black sand substrate. Tank had been set up and fully cycled for about 6 months and currently contains about 20 adult fancy guppies (roughly 2 to 1 females-males) and a breeder net with perhaps 20 very young fry. Everything was great for 6 mos., then trouble. There is no strange behavior before death. We look in and everything looks normal. Fish are swimming normally and give no signs of stress. Eating normally, no unstable swimming, no fast breathing, no hanging near the surface, etc. We come back an hour later and there are 2 or 3 dead, lying on the bottom. No ick, no white splotches, no apparent symptoms of illness except death. The fry seem unaffected - all the deaths are adults, affecting male and female equally (proportionally).


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## vreugy (May 1, 2013)

First thing to do is change water. Around 75%. Nothing perks fish up like fresh water. Should give you some extra time to figure out what is going on.

have a blessed day


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

I've only had that happen/w ones that I'd just brought home from Petco.


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## Breitak67 (Sep 7, 2013)

vreugy said:


> First thing to do is change water. Around 75%. Nothing perks fish up like fresh water. Should give you some extra time to figure out what is going on.
> 
> have a blessed day


Thank you for the suggestion. We've been doing water changes. We're changing 40-50% once per week, but no impact on death rate. I should say that I have a fair amount of experience and success with aquaria in my past. I gave up the hobby to pursue other things about 10 years ago. I married a year and a half ago and my wife loves fancy guppies, so we dove back into it. Most of my experience was with cichlids, though - I was almost exclusively a cichlid guy. We have other tanks that are fine - a 46g bow front in the dining room, a 15g column in the kitchen entryway for fry, a 45g cube in our home office, and the original 10g she started with.


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## vreugy (May 1, 2013)

I think, if you still have their little bodies, I would take them back. If not, watch the tank for a few weeks just to makes sure there isn't anything contagious. 

I love the fancy guppies too, but never had a lot of luck with them. I change at least 75% water once a week. Of course my biggest tank is only a 20g long. 

They guppies you bought must have been very stressed out before you bought them. Maybe a different LFS will give you better results. Do you have an aquarium club close? Might be a good way to get a new start. Wish I could help more.

have a blessed day


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## Breitak67 (Sep 7, 2013)

These fish where the grandchildren of the fish we bought at the LFS. As I said, the tank was fully set up and cycled for at least 6 months - no new fish, other than fry of the fish that had been living there for those 6 months.


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## Goby (Mar 21, 2012)

Breitak67 said:


> Very strange. 60g tank, Water 78 degrees F, pH 7.2, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates immeasurable with multiple test kits (drops and strips). Water hardness is high, but I've read that guppies prefer hard water. API Filstar filter. Heavily planted, black sand substrate. Tank had been set up and fully cycled for about 6 months and currently contains about 20 adult fancy guppies (roughly 2 to 1 females-males) and a breeder net with perhaps 20 very young fry. Everything was great for 6 mos., then trouble. There is no strange behavior before death. We look in and everything looks normal. Fish are swimming normally and give no signs of stress. Eating normally, no unstable swimming, no fast breathing, no hanging near the surface, etc. We come back an hour later and there are 2 or 3 dead, lying on the bottom. No ick, no white splotches, no apparent symptoms of illness except death. The fry seem unaffected - all the deaths are adults, affecting male and female equally (proportionally).


You may have some stray electrical current in the water. If so, it's almost always the heater. Also, I've had fish get zapped when a cheap power strip gets wet.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Breitak67 said:


> Very strange. 60g tank, Water 78 degrees F, pH 7.2, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates immeasurable with multiple test kits (drops and strips). Water hardness is high, but I've read that guppies prefer hard water. API Filstar filter. Heavily planted, black sand substrate. Tank had been set up and fully cycled for about 6 months and currently contains about 20 adult fancy guppies (roughly 2 to 1 females-males) and a breeder net with perhaps 20 very young fry. Everything was great for 6 mos., then trouble. There is no strange behavior before death. We look in and everything looks normal. Fish are swimming normally and give no signs of stress. Eating normally, no unstable swimming, no fast breathing, no hanging near the surface, etc. We come back an hour later and there are 2 or 3 dead, lying on the bottom. No ick, no white splotches, no apparent symptoms of illness except death. The fry seem unaffected - all the deaths are adults, affecting male and female equally (proportionally).


Hello Bre...

Guppies are generally very hardy. I keep large tanks of them. Since they're "Livebearers", I've always used a bit of standard aquarium salt in the tanks. A teaspoon in every 5 gallons of replacement water. Does wonders for the general health of my fish. Even the large numbers of Corys I keep with the Guppies thrive in a little bit.

Large, frequent water changes are a must. I change out half the tank water in my 55 G tanks every week. Toxins have no chance of building up if you flush a lot of pure, treated tap water through the tank.

Plants are beneficial. I've found Common water weed and Pennywort to be the best natural water filters. Toss in a heavily planted substrate and your fish will do better. I like Anubias, Crypotocoryne and Singapore moss.

Frozen foods are best, no additives. Frozen brine and Mysis shrimp, beef heart, plankton and krill. Feed a little every other day or so. Add a bit of freeze dried and maybe a tiny, tiny bit of flaked. I also feed minced garlic. It's high vitamin and a natural antibiotic.

Just one reporter's opinion, though.

B


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