My poor guppies!

[Pussifer]

I have a 38 gallon freshwater tank, which I have upgraded from the 20 gallon I originally had. I'm regretting this choice though, my old tank was crystal clear and my fish were healthy and happy. Since I've gotten this new setup I've had nothing but problems. First I couldn't get the water cleared up from the White cloudiness when you have a new setup with no bacteria yet. Then I got an algae bloom in the water which I thought I had cleared up and I threw my ph off. So I fixed that problem but now 3 weeks without algaecide it's green again SMH. So I've been trying to get rid of this algae in the water again (it's not on the walls or plants and my pleco is very thorough)
My current plight involves my guppies mainly. They are getting shredded by something and I have no idea what and one looks like her back is broken! Their tails are all torn up and my oldest one has a hunch in her back suddenly. Idk what did this, I have 3 guppies, 2 neon tetras, a small, shy iridescent shark, a small tricolor shark, 2 clown loaches, a killifish, a small long fin pleco, a huge regular pleco (who is going to the pet store soon as he does nothing but poop everywhere) and 2 small Cory cats. I had a third but again idk what happened to him, he was suddenly all beat up looking then died and he was fine before. I've enclosed a picture of Sunny, my oldest guppy with the messed up back in hopes that someone can help with either the guppies getting shredded or this stupid algae I can't seem to get rid of. I clean the gravel and do a 25% change weekly normally but it's been every days since the algae problem. All my levels are normal now too. I would hate for any more of them to die but especially Sunny since she was one of my first fish. Thank you so much

 

[Pussifer]

You'll see that not only is her tail all tattered but the color is fading too. I had a bunch of guppies because they had kept breeding but they all died except 3 adults, but I also lost 2 other adults

 

[toolman]

Not to be overly critical, my wife and daughter like a mismatched variety in their tank(contrary to my advice) but you have many stocking issues which will lead to trouble down the road. The loaches, plecos, and sharks need bigger tanks. The corys and neons need bigger schools 6+, you will get better behaviour and happier fish the larger the school.

What kind of light do you have and how long do you leave it on? Excessive light usually causes algae.

Guppies are genetically weak from years of poor breeding and some get this condition, not much you can really do to improve it.

Many on here with far more experience than me, hopefully you'll get some more responses.

 

[toolman]

Response for guppy was for back, tattered fins are from chasing by other fish, most likely because of over/poor stocking.

 

[Autumnsky]

Move the common Pleco(s) to a new home.

Start by doing a few 30% pwc and getting any added chemicals out of the tank (like algaecide) and water refreshed. Use dechlorinator good also for chloramines if your water provider has that in the water too.

What kind of food are you using?

Do you rinse your filter pads in tap water, or completely replace them, like recently with the tank upgrade?

Are you familiar with the nitrification cycle aka "cycle"?

Please take some time and read the article in my signature, about all kinds of helpful bits of info for keeping a tank. There are other links from the article about cycling with "fish in" cycle. You can find them in the article FW section.

What is the K rating on your light bulb in your tank, or if it isn't just one CFL long bulb does it say in your tank paperwork, or can you say which model and brand it is so we can see the lighting. It will look like 5600K or 2700K, etc.

Do you have live plants? If not, try leaving the light off for most of the day, say just have it on for a couple hours for now.

Hunch back can be breeding, lack of nutrients in food, or sometimes happen after birthing, other.

Also if you happen to be using the test strips there are many instances where the test results are inaccurate even after verifying they work right in the beginning of opening the bottle and periodically double checking. Can still be wrong.

 

[Pussifer]

I really don't know the rating on the bulb but I have it on a timer 4 hours on, 4 off etc. How do I keep from getting algae on my walls and such without a pleco? The big one I'm taking to the pet store because he doesn't do anything but eat and poop and knock stuff over but the little one cleans the walls really nicely. As far as Quasimodo the guppy goes, she never had a hunch back until a couple days ago. I feed them flake food with dried peas and a few bottom feeder pellets and when I vacuum the gravel there's hardly any waste that comes up so I'm not over feeding them. I never had a problem in my old tank, ever since I moved them to the larger tank 5 months ago it's been nothing but problems

 

[Pussifer]

That's sad about the guppies, I've always loved them but it's been 10 years since I had a tank and I thought they seemed less resilient and died easily now. Do you think I have too many fish or just not the right kinds? I've had that pair of neons almost 2 years, every time I add any they die it seems

 

[Autumnsky]

Often in a tank you have a good amount of BB in the filter and gravel. You shouldn't be getting algae on the glass. I have tons of tanks and only occassionally get a little bit of algae. It is evidence of an imbalance.

Is your little Pleco a common one as well?

What brand are the foods you are feeding? Maybe you are feeding a little too much and maybe you can change feeding to much less and divide it into 2 times per day so there isn't as much being missed by the fish.

Some types of flake foods seem to add more ammonia and phosphates to the water, I think that is issue. Lots of fish and food degrading, maybe not changing enough water and often enough maybe the tipping point is that and / or the big ole Pleco.

Try rehoming the big Pleco anyhow. Bristlenose aka bushynose Pleco (Ancistrus) are a nice size for that 38G.

 

[Autumnsky]

Algaecide is indeed a poison, though it says safe for fish, it can seem to be a problem, so get that out with a number of pwc.

Do you know /can you please share the actual readings for the tank parameters BEFORE the pwc,
Ammonia,
NitrIte,
Nitrate,
pH

Tank temp

and how often & % the pwc
and the changing of the filter pads?

When there are sensitive fish in general or from dealing with transition, whether in the lfs in it's travels to get to the lfs and you, or changing tanks and such, all those things jumbled into a pile can cause more issues...

Bacteria bloom usually indicates a high protein in the water and ammonia at some point whether you tested for it then or not.

 

[Pussifer]

My little pleco is an albino long fin pleco, she's so pretty! The flake food is Tetra brand and the pellet is aqueon. I only put like 3 like pellets in and a tiny pinch of flake which they devour in under a minute. I've taken my water to have it tested and they said it's perfect the last 2 times since I fixed my pH issue a couple weeks ago.

 

[Autumnsky]

A parameter issue will cause ragged tails in Guppies. So work on getting the water clean.

 

[Pussifer]

I will check the levels tonight again and report back. I did a 30% change last night and all I put in was start right to remove the chlorine as it's really high where I live. You can smell it. I put that and a little aquarium salt. I was doing it weekly when the algae had gone away I thought but I guess it'll be every few days again until it's gone. Fun fun lol. I changed the filter pad 2 weeks ago. My old tank could go 2 months but this one had never made it a month before I had to change it

 

[Autumnsky]

When you remove the filter pad you remove the colonized Beneficial Bacteria so you do not want to throw it out, just swish in treated or pwc tank water.

Check the label for the start right if it treats chloramines, most places in warm areas use them, you will need to make sure to use the dose for neutralizing them if your city/town uses them and change water conditioner if start right doesn't treat them. Like Seachem Prime water conditioner helps with ammonia nitrate and Nitrite as well as heavy metals and Chloramines when used as higher dosage recommends.

 

[Pussifer]

I will check on that too, thank you for all your help. I'll also check those levels again and try that with the filter as well

 

[Pussifer]

My levels are
GH 60
KH 40
Nitrate 40
Nitrite 0
pH 6.5
Temp 76.3F
It doesn't show the ammonia level though, I'll have to do to the pet store tomorrow to get that checked

 

[Pussifer]

Idk why my pH keeps going low, I have 2 pieces of that coral rock that's supposed to bring it up in the tank

 

[TMaier]

I use coral/aragonite gravel in my canister to keep the ph 7.4-7.6. Coral alone helped but the aragonite really seems to make a difference.

I have no idea what it is but someone recommended it to me ages ago and it worked.

 

[Toad]

I'd take back the iridescent shark and clown loaches back with the pleco, they all get too large for the tank and will cause problems. What kind of killifish and 'tricolor' shark do you have?

 

[Autumnsky]

I'd take back the iridescent shark and clown loaches back with the pleco, they all get too large for the tank and will cause problems.

Thanks for mentioning this issue.

Hadn't actually got that far yet but agree about the sizes, Clown Loaches need ~75G for the first few years and 125G+ because they get really BIG!!!

The Iridescent sharks get 3 feet long in the wild, I do not know how anyone in the pet trade industry thinks this is a good fish to sell to home hobby aquarists!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridescent_shark

 

[Pussifer]

It was just called a yellow killifish and the tricolor shark I've seen sold as a bala shark before. The killifish is called a golden wonder I guess upon looking him up