What Can....

[Mad Professor]

What can kill small fish like guppies but not big fish like barbs and tetras?

Here's my problem: I bought a dozen fancy guppies and put them in my main tank skipping the QT process. I already had dozen in the main tank, but I needed more females. Well Today *Sunday* I lost another one stuck to the filter. I also lost another one yesterday with the same result and one of the new ones the day after I got them. I did 25% PWC yesterday just to be on the safe side.

I did a test on the tank today.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrates: around 5
Tank size is a 44 Gallon and with 20 guppies in the tank. It barely puts a bioload on there. I assure you its cycled but it could be in a mini-cycle because of the new fish and the grav-vac I did the day before I bought the fish.

I have cory cats in my 44 gallon and my sister's 10 gallon.
The tiger barbs and black skirt tetras are in the 10.

But whatever is killing my guppies is not killing the cories or the barbs and tetras.

I'm thinking theres some sort of poisoning in the 44 gallon that could be coming from my watersupply?
What are the types of poisoning out there besides ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates?

Thanks
~Mp

 

[sith j]

it could be as simple as acclamation problems. i have this problem with neon tetras

 

[Mad Professor]

it could be as simple as acclamation problems. i have this problem with neon tetras

I forgot to mention that 1 of the dead were the new ones and the other 2 were mine.

 

[Jchillin]

The only thing I can think of is your ph/kh values. It's entirely possible to have OTS without knowing it. I had a similar issue over a year ago with new stock dying off even though I was maniacal about weekly water changes. I had no buffers whatsoever.

 

[Mad Professor]

Well I did a regular PH test which hit the maximum of 7.6 or off the chart reading. So I went to high Range PH which register 7.8 reading. I remember I did one in the winter, and had a reading of 7.2.
Which a guppy can take a 6.4 to 8.6 ph rating. so I don't think thats a problem.

 

[canuckaquarist]

I am having this kind of problem too with Neon's and Guppies. I added four Neon's and they all died within a week. Almost two weeks later I added four Guppies (just the other day), all but one died.

Also my readings are the same as yours 7.6-7.8 PH, 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrates, and 0 Nitrites.

Someone said it could be just bad strains of fish, or stress that killed them. Might be the same problem your having, could be just a bad strain or stress. Hopefully that's it.

 

[Mad Professor]

Is your tank cycled????

Because mine is, it could be in a mini-cycle tho.

I'm also testing that theory; We could have a bad strain/batch of fish. I bought 9 Females from petco and 3 males from petsmart. 1 of the females died, and 2 of mine that were in the tank died. They have been with me from the beginning.

so......

 

[Jarred Darque]

Itis possible some of the fish where sick when you got them, and it transferred to the old guppies.

We lose alot of neons, about 2 out of 3 we get from the LFS, but the black neons have a much smaller loss rate. So tehre I think it is a combination of bad enviroment from the LFS (the tanks REEK of medication they use to keep them alive) and bad strains of neons from cheap breeders.

It can be weird at times, I boght 10 guppies from petsmart, lost all but 2, bought 3 from the local LFS, which almost never has fish in great condition, and didnt lose any, whereas we lost 5 neons we got from the same tank from them.