Good tank and dead guppy?

[dogartist]

My tanks water test is great (ammonia and ph tested)..My male guppy and the female due any day now are just great..I bought a female for the male so he would leave one alone for just a second...It didn't work he aggravating both.Trying to mate.. I noticed last night the new guppy was doing that swimming at the top and gulping and of course it was dead this morning..
I had a dead oto also. I had 3 of them.. I put lettuce in there and lots of food to eat..I had them about 2 weeks also doing fine till today?...

My tank has done the cycling thing..Thanks to all the help I read about on this site... the rest of my fish are great looking..
what's the deal
karla

20gal
10 fruit tetras
2 otos
1 male guppy
1 female due any day

 

[tkos]

You say the ammonia test is good (zero I hope), but how is the nitrite and nitrate? And how is the tank temp?

Ottos can be tricky and are prone to die, probably due to shipping methods and not necessarily anything you did to them. this could also be the case with the guppy.

How do you add fish to your tank and are you sure it was healthy when you bought it? Perhaps it was already sick.

 

[dogartist]

The ammonia is at zero''the temp is a constant 76..I don't have a tester for nitrate.. Do I need one?
I keep them in the bag with the top open for about 30 mins and easy dip them out with a soft net..
I buy my fish at an al's five and dime here. The girl that works there in the pet department (all she does) just great with the fish. she won't sale them if they apear sick..and this one really put up a fight..

 

[QTOFFER]

It sounds like you acclimated the fish to your tank's temperature by floating the bag for 30 min. But did you acclimate them to your tank's pH and unique water chemistry?

There are alot of different ways to acclimate newly purchased fish - try searching this site for "adding new fish'. I slowly add water from my tank to the floating bag so the fish don't suffer from a dramatic change in pH.

As tkos said, otos are notorious for dying for no apparent reason when you first get them. Be aware that many otos are usually underfed since most lfs keep their tanks free of algae You should try offering them sinking algae wafers.

 

[PK Tester]

My Fancy Guppies from the better store almost ALWAYS die. I went through somewhere around 9 to find two good ones. Apparently their fish are horiable. I bought feeder guppies from the to cycle my tank...only about 3 of them died before all the cycling was done. They had rampant disease though...cured it. I bough 3 fancy guppies the other day...hoping to get some good ones (they looked healty) ended up they all had cotton mouth and died within 3 days. I have a new 10 gal Im cycling now just for some new fancy guppies. The 2 I have in my main 12 gal have been fine for months and made it through the end of a cycle proccess...amazing. lol

 

[azn dreamer]

I don't have a tester for nitrate.. Do I need one?

Yes you need one. Nitrates level beyond 40ppm would be lethal to fish. Also i think that the main reason the guppy was dead because due to breeding so much to get a fancy guppy, it would easily die from slight problems.

 

[dogartist]

Thanks so much I will do the transfer that you mentioned. I feel so bad I didn't do the water addition...
For the otos I bought 2 bags of the algae wafers and they wont touch them ...even the fish don't mess with them..they get fuzzy and I take them out and put fresh ones in just in case..They did like the bruised lettuce .I feed blood worms 2 types of good flake food and .tuberflex worms..yum yum..
I will get a tester for the other ranges...

Thanks all..Your a big help to me

 

[dogartist]

I haven't had time to search the threads for what to do until I get a test kit..tonight one of my oto's is acting poorly.the other one is zooming up and down the tank walls..? why??.I put both of them in the breeders net with my guppy. just to get them off the bottom .Should I do a 25% water ...I vac out the breeders net today and added a gal to the tank..same way I have been doing getting to their conditons as close to the tanks even the temp I test before adding...I'm just sick about this..

 

[dogartist]

I found the article on this..I am confused The ammonia is suppose to be zero in the article it says don't kill all of the ammonia and nitrates..
I have been doing 25% changes and adding water...

 

[QTOFFER]

Which article are you referring to?

As far as water changes, you can safely do 25% a day until you get your test kits. Just remember to add dechlorinator each time and try to get the temperature of the replacement water similar to the temp in your tank. Does not have to be exact - you just want to avoid drastic changes.

Do you have enough surface agitation? Your oto's and your deceased guppy's behaviors suggest that there might not be enough oxygen in the water. Do you have an airstone? If you have a HOB filter, lower the water level just a bit so that the falling water splashes more.

 

[dogartist]

I have ......a long bubbler, 4 small air stone behind the decorations.,. A hob and and an old fashion floss / carbon kind with an air stone in it..lol..Is that enough....My friends say it boils with bubbles..I add the dechlorinator my water is hard here so I add 2 drops of the ph decreaser as direction.. test that gallon until it matches the tank ph level..It's just under 7.0 I would say more on the alkaline side..or in between (was told by the pet store for this range)
I did a 25% three days ago..and I will do one tonight. Would nitrates climb that fast? .I found an article on here about these things..(thanks to the one that wrote them up) I will hunt the one that says that about the ammonia and nitrates...

 

[QTOFFER]

At this point, I'm kinda stumped. It sounds like you've got alot of surface agitation happening, so O2 is probably not a problem. Since you have a pretty light bioload, I can't imagine why your nitrates would climb to lethal levels that fast either.

Sometimes, a batch of fish just don't do well. Maybe they had a bad trip to the fish store or were stressed before they were sold. This happened to me a few months back just after I had cycled my tank. I got five zebra danios and they looked so great that I bought another five (slightly smaller) from the same store a week later. Each of the new danios died one-by-one over the course of four days; and these are supposed to be hardy fish, mind you! Since then, I have added all my tetras and they did fine (except for a bout with ich).

I would continue frequent water changes - every few days - and get the test kits for NH3, NO2, NO3, and pH. Keep an eye on your new fish and hopefully they will settle in.

 

[dogartist]

I feel so stupid about my fish dieing,I have noticed that the oto's didnt touch the algae wafers and after a second one died today..I was told they will be good bottom feeders and eat the algae wafer if you don't have alot of algea..Again by this darn pet store..I wonder if they even have a clue to what their doing..I really think they starved to death and the poor guppy wasn't acclimated without the water addition to the bag..I love my fish and I just hate this has happened..the others look great and fat and happy. and I'm so excited about the babies guppys on their way soon I hope
.I read all the articles on this site and learned that the lady I get my fish from told me wrong on alot of stuff. I even wrote it down so I would remember by the time I got home...I feel so bad that I am learning at the cost of fish that must be suffering...

 

[QTOFFER]

Dogartist, don't blame yourself for your fish deaths. You are, after all, doing the best you can and your other fish look 'great and fat and happy'.

Otos die easily for no apparent reason, so I have been told. And as I said in an earlier post, sometimes you just get a bad batch of fish - even from a reputable fishstore. I would continue doing what you've been doing, test the water parameters, and buy another guppy or oto when you are sure that your tank parameterss are stable.

It can be very frustrating, but unexplained fish deaths happen to everybody in the hobby.