New Fish Added to my Tank Die

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

DPirateRoberts

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
Messages
33
I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.

I have a 55 gal tank with 4 female guppies, 1 male guppy and about 10 babies. There are 3 Cory Cats in it, one snail and one Pleco.

The tank has been cycled and my Ammonia and Nitrite levels are at 0. My Nitrate levels are between 5 and 10.

I do regular 1/4 tank water changes each week and use a water conditioner (Aqua Plus Tap Water Conditioner) with each change.

There is sufficient filtration, light and air.

But every time I add a new fish it dies after a couple of days. (One fish, usually a male guppy.) I am very slow in adding fish because I know it can mess up a cycle.

My ph levels seem to be fine also: usually around 7.

What can I do? I'm confused. Any ideas, Freshwater Aquairum Jedi?
:(
 
Is the place you are getting them from reputable? Maybe you are getting bad fish from the start. Also, how exactly do you acclimate? Great swings (they'd have to be quite large) can cause a problem. Just a thought..
 
Devilishturtles said:
Is the place you are getting them from reputable? Maybe you are getting bad fish from the start. Also, how exactly do you acclimate? Great swings (they'd have to be quite large) can cause a problem. Just a thought..
Petsmart. I will try and get a fish from another store and test. However, all of the surviving fish in my tank are from the same place...

I float the bag in the water for 20-30 minutes and then dump as much water out of the bag as possible. Then I put the fish in with the lights out and feed the fish on the opposite side of the tank...

Can you clarify what you mean by swings for me?

Me = newbie.
:)
 
guppys and neons are notorius for dieing quickly when added, your nto doing anything wrong, your levels are fine, how are you aclimitaing the fish to the new water conditions? it could be just a wide range of PH differences
 
A better way to acclimate is to float the bag for 15-20 minutes, add some water from your exsisting tank, let float another 15 minutes and add more tank water. Doing this a couple of times will acclimate your fish if there is a water parameter difference from the store to yours. Then net the fish out of the bag and get rid of all of the water from the bag.

Swings means large differences in parameters either from the lfs or ph swings for example within your own tank.
 
Male guppies are tricky. They are weaker now due to massive imbreeding for colour and such. They are not very hardy fish IME, yet the females do great. Sometimes i think that tail is just too much for them.
 
Sometimes i think that tail is just too much for them.

Nice. :)

I do agree about them not being hardy at all... Males are definitley less hardy than females as well. If you really do like males, find out what day your petsmart gets the fish in, and make sure you get them far away from that date. A few days atleast. This gives time for the weaker fish to die off before you can buy them.

Just a thought.
 
my petsmart always had healthy fish until recently, i dunno if yours is the same.

males are weaker, though i dont understand how inbreeding them would only weaken the males, as males and females are born together, same parents
 
hc8719 said:
my petsmart always had healthy fish until recently, i dunno if yours is the same.

males are weaker, though i dont understand how inbreeding them would only weaken the males, as males and females are born together, same parents

But then the males might be bred with their female siblings, or even their parents in order to 'hone' colours etc.

It's interesting to think that one-time "impossible to kill" hardy fish which every new aquarist is advised to stock (mollys, platies, guppies) are increasingly inbred (in some cases as someone said in another thread, because people don't care so much about them perhaps as a 'starter fish'). I think in 10 years time it might get to the point where these fish are considered hard to keep and 'only for the experts'... :S
 
i would test the water from the bag you bring your fish home in. i asked my lfs what there parameters where and they told me. well when i tested myself it was different than what they said. so in short if your water differs greatly slowly try to match theirs, and after you are ready then go buy the fish and then slowly let your water go back to normal.
 
A better way to acclimate is to float the bag for 15-20 minutes, add some water from your exsisting tank, let float another 15 minutes and add more tank water. Doing this a couple of times will acclimate your fish if there is a water parameter difference from the store to yours.

This is what I was going to suggest as well.Add a little.Give it 15 minutes and add a little more....this will help if its an acclimation issue.You can also take your time with this and do it until the bag is almost full.The cool thing is the longer you take the better it will work.

This is a more common acclimation method in SW because of the extra worries with salinaty as well as everything else.
 
I've done a drip acclimation with the guppies I got and then QT them for a week. About 50% make it past the QT. The remaining 50% have all died in the main tank - anywhere from 2wk to 4 wks later. I agree that they are just not hardy any more, which is a shame as I'm quite fond of guppies.
(ps : all my guppies were male)
 
How long does it take you to bring the fish home from the store? It is best to try and get the fish out of the bags within an hour, or so I was told.

As for acclimatizing them, I'd go with what Zagz said. That's pretty much how I do it. Even with my Guppies.

The only fish I've ever lost right after acclimatizing it was a betta. I got another one and took more time with acclimatizing it and it survived.
 
Back
Top Bottom