New Guppies Dying Left and Right

[HooKooDooKu]

I've got a 13 gallon 'LED' tank at the office that I've had for two years.

For about a month, the inhabitants were a 2yo Neon Tettra, Cosmic Blue GloFish Tetra, a male Betta.

I've been trying to add a set of guppies (4 female and 1 male), but they keep dying on me. Not all at once. Usually one or two at a time. I would estimate that for the last two weeks, the average lifespan of a guppy in the tank has been 3 days (excluding weekends), and that that at least 10 have died so far.

One at least three occasions, I've feed the fish "TetraMin Tropical Crisps" (about 1 crisp per fish in the tank), and within 15 to 30 minutes, one of the guppies would swell up and become lethargic. Within 12 to 24 hours, they would be dead.

The crisps were purchased only about a month ago, and I'm not seeing any issues with the tetras or the Betta.

Today I've changed over to API Tropical Flakes to see if that would make a difference. But I wondered if anyone had any thoughts on my so many guppies are dying.

 

[idol1]

I have hundreds of guppies and endlers.

I feed them marine veggie flakes. Once a week tetra staple or goldfish flakes.

I have guppies also with mollies, swords and platys no problem. they are fed the same.

I tried guppies with asst. tetras and danios never worked out for the guppies.

They never made it with those fish.

Also I'm just wondering if after they eat the crisps that it swells in there stomach causing them to bloat?

Guppies and most common live bearers are more vegetarian.

 

[Toad]

Do you keep getting guppies from the same store? They may have crap ones, illness, or just a poor supplier.

 

[coralbandit]

IMO it is something besides the food if the tetras and betta are eating it and alive...
Have you seen the betta or tetras chasing the gups? Could all be stress related ?
How often do you change water on this tank and how much? Do you know some parameters like nitrAtes and ph/gh ?
Sometimes existing fish can withstand high nitrate levels as they were 'acclimated ' to them[they have grown together so to speak] ,where as the new fish from clean water is shocked and can never adapt.
Could be a hardness/ph issue also possibly.Most gupps like harder / higher ph then tetras do...

 

[HooKooDooKu]

I believe all the guppies came from a local PetSmart, but they've come from at least three different shipments.

Two guppies MIGHT have come from Petco... don't remember for sure, but during this time I also purchased 6 Red Cherry shrimp from Petco. More than half died the 1st night.

During the day, I have not seen the other fish chasing the guppies... nothing beyond the "get out of my face". Actually, the most chasing I ever saw was one of the females directed at the other females.

However, something has been going on at night, because many mornings I've come in to discover some fin nipping has been going on. With the 1st batch, the larger tetra had a significant portion of his tail nipped... but in only 2 to 3 weeks, most of it has already grown back. I'm not seeing any obvious nipping of the betta's fins, nor the Neon Tetra. But about a third of the guppies have had some major fin nipping.

I'm not sure if the nipping has been aggression that goes on at night I don't see during the day... or if the food has caused some minor problem that a fish became lethargic and other's started nipping it.

Some of the guppies simply seemed to 'deteriorate' and die over the course of a few days. But like I said, on at least three occasions, everything looked fine when I came in the office (like on a Monday) and withing 15 to 30 minutes of getting fed, one of the guppies became swollen and died by the end of the day.

I don't know actual ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. But I provided a water sample to PetSmart and they didn't see anything with the test strips they have.

The tank is a planted tank, with anuba and water sprite. During this time, I've been doing about 20% water changes once or twice a week.

Not sure about the ph of the water, but the last time I ever tested the local water supply, it was pretty close to neutral. The local water supply is on the hard side.

I've also got MTS and nerrite snails in the tank, they are doing fine.

 

[PlatyTetra831]

The betta could be attacking the guppies I know some bettas will go after guppies mistaking them for other bettas and some tetras love fin nipping.

 

[Toad]

Yeah, sounds like the guppies might getting harassed as well. I'd definitely try to get a liquid test kit and see what the levels are, petsmart uses the strips if I remember correctly and they're not always accurate. Plus petsmarts idea of ok is not alway ok.

 

[coralbandit]

Yeah, sounds like the guppies might getting harassed as well. I'd definitely try to get a liquid test kit and see what the levels are, petsmart uses the strips if I remember correctly and they're not always accurate. Plus petsmarts idea of ok is not alway ok.

^^+1^^ again.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Well, the male I added yesterday was dead this morning.
But everyone else seems to be fine (including the two females I added along with the male yesterday). No new fin nipping.

Yeah, sounds like the guppies might getting harassed

Since I'm not in the office at night, there's no way for me to exclude that possibility. But during the day, I'm just not seeing any harassment. The closest thing to that is when the betta tells other fish "Get out of my face"... and he does that to all the fish (neon, tetra, guppies).

I'd definitely try to get a liquid test kit and see what the levels are, petsmart uses the strips if I remember correctly and they're not always accurate. Plus petsmarts idea of ok is not alway ok.

I know I can't know for sure what my water qualities are without spending the money to get a test kit, I find it hard to believe it's water quality.

I did do a thorough cleaning of the tank about 2 months ago. But I make sure to protect my Fluval Biomax filter rocks. After the cleaning, I added the betta and the tank did fine for a month with the betta, neon, and the tetra.

Yes, I've now doubled the bio-load, but it's been two to three weeks since I started that. So the filter should have caught up with the new bio-load by now (and the PetSmart strip test at least proves parameters are not thru the roof).

I would easily believe it's just a combination of stress (new environment), less than ideal water parameters, and some after hours harassment.

But none of that seems to explain why on AT LEAST three occasions, I witnesses major belly swelling (followed by death later that day) immediately after feeding them.

 

[Potluck]

Well, the male I added yesterday was dead this morning.
But everyone else seems to be fine (including the two females I added along with the male yesterday). No new fin nipping.


Since I'm not in the office at night, there's no way for me to exclude that possibility. But during the day, I'm just not seeing any harassment. The closest thing to that is when the betta tells other fish "Get out of my face"... and he does that to all the fish (neon, tetra, guppies).


I know I can't know for sure what my water qualities are without spending the money to get a test kit, I find it hard to believe it's water quality.

I did do a thorough cleaning of the tank about 2 months ago. But I make sure to protect my Fluval Biomax filter rocks. After the cleaning, I added the betta and the tank did fine for a month with the betta, neon, and the tetra.

Yes, I've now doubled the bio-load, but it's been two to three weeks since I started that. So the filter should have caught up with the new bio-load by now (and the PetSmart strip test at least proves parameters are not thru the roof).

I would easily believe it's just a combination of stress (new environment), less than ideal water parameters, and some after hours harassment.

But none of that seems to explain why on AT LEAST three occasions, I witnesses major belly swelling (followed by death later that day) immediately after feeding them.

Never underestimate water quality, i have learned that a test kit is the most essential thing to have when owning an aquarium, if you don't have the money for the master liquid test kit maybe there's a lfs by you besides petsmart that does water testing with liquid, you always want to quarantine fish from petsmart their tanks from my visits to get odds and ends not fish are very very poor, overcrowded, dirty diseased... But you always want to quarantine new arrivals anyways.

 

[coralbandit]

The swollen belly is odd...
Have you gone back to where you got the gups and seen if they were experiencing the same?
I hate to say poor stock with no real cause ,but the guppies most petstores sell are not well.
Have you thought of getting guppies from a breeder on a site like AquaBid ?
You can just about any variation you want from good breeders who know and raise their fish properly.

 

[Carrie1]

Even though you don't witness it the betta very well may be nipping at night. Mine shredded an angels fins in a very short amount of time after lights out and when the lights come back on he stops! So maybe stress, nipping, and bad stock along with water quality might be the issue? Also with as many fish as your putting in that are dying I would set up a qt tank!

 

[HooKooDooKu]

OK, no more new fish for this tank for a while...

Came in this morning to two more guppies dead AND the betta died too...
The guppies had surely been in the tank for less than two weeks. But the betta has been in there for at least a month.

Yet at the same time, it looks like the fin of the Tetra has completely grown back. You'd never know any of his fin got nipped.


Only thing else odd about the tank is that I've got a brown color algae. But a quick google says that's common in a newly set up aquarium cause by too little light, an excess of silicates, an abundance of nutrients, and too little oxygen.

Well the tank is newly set up... (old tank, but completely cleaned the tank).
I don't have the lights I used to have (part of the cleaning process used vinegar to clean hard water deposits off the hood... apparently did something to the seal on the LED lights or something because within a few weeks, they failed). So I only have the office light and a set of decorative LEDs to light up the tank. As for low oxygen, there is a blubber AND an HOB filter.