I am a new aquarium owner and have been running what I think is a 40 gallon tank for about 2 months now. I started with a couple of small (1-2 inch) goldfish from my folks' outdoor pond (which are the offspring of some feeder fish I threw in there a couple of years ago to eat mosquito larvae). They are very hardy, if not really gold. I then added 5 neon tetras, and 2 polka dot mollies who are dong well. Then I added 3 guppies, 2 male and 1 female about 3 weeks ago, the 1st male died after about a week (I had suspicions that the female might have been responsible as she is aggressive with them). 2 days ago I found the 2nd male dead, his tail had been chewed by the female but otherwise there was no outward sign of disease or distress. Now the female seems fine but I've noticed some rust coloured spots around her head and am concerned as I don't believe they were there initially. It might be natural colouration, I've been feeding them tropicla flake that is supposed to enhance colour, I just don't know. I've read all of the articles on this site that I could find relating to fish illness and no one has mentioned any similar symptoms that I've found. If anyone has an idea I'd welcome it!
guppy spots
- Thread starter karn
- Start date
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sir_dudeguy
Aquarium Advice FINatic
first, the food that you feed can actually determine coloration. When i was in 8th grade, i set up like 9 seperate tanks with just feeder goldfish. Everything was exactly the same except for the food i fed them. For tank A, i fed regular goldfish flake. For tank B i fed a tropical fish food not meant for goldfish...more for stuff like neons, angels, etc..stuff that has color unlike goldfish. Tank C was fed some marine flake i think lol. I cant really remember that third one tho.
Anywho, each tank had 6 goldfish in them. After 6 weeks, the goldfish in the tank that was fed goldfish flake remained exactly the same with no different colorations. Then the fish in the second tank that was fed with tropical food...they all had weird black and orange patterns after 6 weeks..pretty much like koi do. The third tank didnt do so well, i'm guessing cuz the food wasnt inteded for freshwater fish even lol. But all fish were the exact same fish with all the same parameters, amount of food, everything..just dif. foods...and there was a very noticeable affect on the colors.
But anyways, gold fish and neons and all other tropical fish should not be in the same tank to begin with...goldfish are colder water fish, where tropical fish are..well..tropical water fish lol, meaning warmer.So if you've got the temp set for goldfish, that could have killed off some of the tropicals, and vice versa.
oh, and welcome to aquarium advice
Anywho, each tank had 6 goldfish in them. After 6 weeks, the goldfish in the tank that was fed goldfish flake remained exactly the same with no different colorations. Then the fish in the second tank that was fed with tropical food...they all had weird black and orange patterns after 6 weeks..pretty much like koi do. The third tank didnt do so well, i'm guessing cuz the food wasnt inteded for freshwater fish even lol. But all fish were the exact same fish with all the same parameters, amount of food, everything..just dif. foods...and there was a very noticeable affect on the colors.
But anyways, gold fish and neons and all other tropical fish should not be in the same tank to begin with...goldfish are colder water fish, where tropical fish are..well..tropical water fish lol, meaning warmer.So if you've got the temp set for goldfish, that could have killed off some of the tropicals, and vice versa.
oh, and welcome to aquarium advice
Zagz
Aquarium Advice Addict
Welcome to AA. First what are your water parameters? Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
Sir_dudeguy is correct, goldfish and tropicals should not be housed together. Not to mention that goldfish need at a minimum 10 gals per fish and are very messy. How often are you doing water changes and what quantity of water. The colorization may be nature but may also be a result of water quality.
The fish may have died and then been chewed on, fish are opportunists. A dead fish in the tank can provide a meal for the other fish.
Sir_dudeguy is correct, goldfish and tropicals should not be housed together. Not to mention that goldfish need at a minimum 10 gals per fish and are very messy. How often are you doing water changes and what quantity of water. The colorization may be nature but may also be a result of water quality.
The fish may have died and then been chewed on, fish are opportunists. A dead fish in the tank can provide a meal for the other fish.
Thanks for the replies! Sadly the guppy died about two days after my first posting. Her rust spots turned out to be blood spots which spread about her head and she expired. I've since changed the water, suctioned the tank and balanced the levels (the nitrates and ammonias were high) but am concerned about the other fish. They seem healthy and happy now but I'm concerned that the guppy has given them some kind of latent disease. Do you know what could be the cause of the blood spots? I'm hoping it was just the high ammonia and not anything more serious, as they came from a reputable store which claimed had given them a 1 month quarantine before selling.
All ideas are welcome and much appreciated!
All ideas are welcome and much appreciated!
sir_dudeguy
Aquarium Advice FINatic
srry, i'm not good at figuring out diseases and stuff, but i dont think the lfs would have quarantined them for a month before selling. Firstly they're guppies, which i've had live thru pretty much the worst conditions, and secondly, i dont know of any lfs that has the facilities and the means to quarantine all the fish that they receive. They dont have seperate tanks for quarantining for the most part. I have seen where they write "quarantine" on the glass of a tank, and they put a fish in there...then 2 days later i'd see them putting that same fish in their selling tanks. So very few lfs's would truely quarantine imo...so dont fall into what they say...they're more in it for the money for the most part.
