linford585
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2016
- Messages
- 5
Hi everyone,
Having a new problem here - perhaps I'm reacting too soon to a non-issue, but I wanted to hear some thoughts from others just in case. We have now lost 2 guppies in fairly rapid succession.
First, some additional details of my tank since I last posted:
Levels are pretty much held perfect - pH is high (about 7.8), but has never budged at all and doesn't seem to cause any issue. Water is clean with regular partial changes.
Have added some additional plants both real and fake to add hiding areas. Roughly 10-15 smaller java ferns, 2 anubias plants, 2 amazon swords, and in the corners, tall and thick fake plants that go to the surface. There is also a large fake hollow stump in the tank.
We now have:
9 Neon Tetras (had 6 at the start of my story below)
1 Dwarf Gourami
2 Mollies
1 Guppy (had 2 at the start of my story below)
1 smaller Angelfish
We feed them twice daily with flakes, and once daily (during the 2nd flake feeding) with a small amount of freeze dried blood worms.
The first one we lost was while we were on vacation for a week, it must have died early on, because we found almost nothing of it left when it came back and it was pretty rotten. We used a slow dissolving pyramid shaped feeder while we were gone. About a week after we got back, we got 3 more neon tetras, and replaced the dead guppy (so totals went back up to what I said above, except 9 neons now). 3 days later (this morning) we found the new guppy was dead. Looked very fresh, and I couldn't discern any damage on its body. The original guppy now has quite large flowing fins and looks very healthy still, and when the first guppy that died was still alive they both loved to play together, which is why we got the replacement. I have not noticed any aggression in the tank besides a little harassment of one molly by the other (we didn't realize it, but one molly is female... and now pregnant... but that's something entirely different). Way back when we first got our first molly (the male one), the gourami would harass it a bit, but that has not happened since. The angelfish is actually the most calm fish in the tank. We'd really like to be able to have a playmate for the guppy we still have, as it seems to enjoy one a lot.
Do you think it could have been stress related due to the sight of the angelfish? There are a decent number of hiding places, but there is a lot of open space as well, and I don't think it's really overcrowded at all for a 36 gallon. Am I perhaps reacting too soon? If it's stress related, would they maybe feel safer if we got 2 replacement guppies, so we'd have 3 total?
Having a new problem here - perhaps I'm reacting too soon to a non-issue, but I wanted to hear some thoughts from others just in case. We have now lost 2 guppies in fairly rapid succession.
First, some additional details of my tank since I last posted:
Levels are pretty much held perfect - pH is high (about 7.8), but has never budged at all and doesn't seem to cause any issue. Water is clean with regular partial changes.
Have added some additional plants both real and fake to add hiding areas. Roughly 10-15 smaller java ferns, 2 anubias plants, 2 amazon swords, and in the corners, tall and thick fake plants that go to the surface. There is also a large fake hollow stump in the tank.
We now have:
9 Neon Tetras (had 6 at the start of my story below)
1 Dwarf Gourami
2 Mollies
1 Guppy (had 2 at the start of my story below)
1 smaller Angelfish
We feed them twice daily with flakes, and once daily (during the 2nd flake feeding) with a small amount of freeze dried blood worms.
The first one we lost was while we were on vacation for a week, it must have died early on, because we found almost nothing of it left when it came back and it was pretty rotten. We used a slow dissolving pyramid shaped feeder while we were gone. About a week after we got back, we got 3 more neon tetras, and replaced the dead guppy (so totals went back up to what I said above, except 9 neons now). 3 days later (this morning) we found the new guppy was dead. Looked very fresh, and I couldn't discern any damage on its body. The original guppy now has quite large flowing fins and looks very healthy still, and when the first guppy that died was still alive they both loved to play together, which is why we got the replacement. I have not noticed any aggression in the tank besides a little harassment of one molly by the other (we didn't realize it, but one molly is female... and now pregnant... but that's something entirely different). Way back when we first got our first molly (the male one), the gourami would harass it a bit, but that has not happened since. The angelfish is actually the most calm fish in the tank. We'd really like to be able to have a playmate for the guppy we still have, as it seems to enjoy one a lot.
Do you think it could have been stress related due to the sight of the angelfish? There are a decent number of hiding places, but there is a lot of open space as well, and I don't think it's really overcrowded at all for a 36 gallon. Am I perhaps reacting too soon? If it's stress related, would they maybe feel safer if we got 2 replacement guppies, so we'd have 3 total?
