Guppies dieing... Why

[Ulysses-31]

Hi there I was wondering if anyone can help me. I have had my tank 10 gallon tank over 2 months now and only a week after introducing fish 2 have died. I will tell you everything I did, from the start, if you guys have all the information then you might be able to help me.

The first thing I did was set up the tank with all the water and equipment running. I then let it run for couple of weeks. Then I bought some live plants. I place them inside the tank. I left the tank for a week and monitored the plants see if they were growing ok and they were doing fine. I bought a ph tester it said the ph level was 7.6. I thought this was a bit high so I bought some pH down and got it to a pH of 7.0. After another week I added 3 male guppies. They were all very active, they were schooling and enjoying the tank . But after 6 days one of them was gasping for air and within an hour he was dead. The other guppies were fine though. I was upset so I bought a master test kit to test everything. The results were as follows.

pH 7.0
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 40ppm
Nitrate 100ppm

I knew the nitrate was far too high so I changed 20% of the water and then the next day i change another 20%. I took the nitrate test again and it was 10ppm. But now today another guppy has died. Meanwhile the plants are doing fine and they require the same water conditions as guppy’s.

I have spent 5 months researching fresh water aquariums before
I even bought the tank. I have several books and have been doing everything by the book. I hate to think I am murdering my fish.


Has anyone got any advice?

 

[mattrox]

During the six days did you do water changes? Did you test the water during this time? It looks like the nitrite spike killed them.

The plant would love it with all that nitrate. For now don't worry too much about the pH just as long as it is stable.

To get nitrite down from 40 pmm a 50% change would drop to 20 pmm still way too high. Just from the water changes you said the Nitrite would be down to 26 ppm, so a reading of 10 would mean that maybe the cycle is finishing up.
Maybe replace the guppies to keep the cycle going before the bacteria you have built up starves?

 

[BrianNY]

Hi Ulysses (that was my great grandfathers name ).

Just to let you know, you took a bad situation and made it worse. It's true that if plants do well, than fish usually do too. But your tank hasn't been established long enough to use that as a barometer.

Nitrites and Nitrates that high can and will kill fish. At least they are in extreme stress. Adding a product like pH down puts further stress on a fish simply by changing it. You have to understand that your fish have already adapted to one pH and that sudden swing downwards is enough to through them over the edge.

Allow the tank to finish cycling before adding anymore fish. Also, most aquarium fish (but especially live bearers), will do very well in a pH of 7.6. Too much emphasis is placed on trying to achieve some perfect pH number. It just isn't needed. HTH

 

[Menagerie]

[center:e739cfea7e] Welcome to AA, Ulysses!! [/center:e739cfea7e]

I agree with Brian.
Add some Aquarium salt to the tank to help the guppies deal with the nitrite poisoning. The best thing for the tank is PWC. Be patient and things will turn around. We've all been there at some point and we know how to help

 

[Ulysses-31]

Cheers for the help you guys, each one have been helpful. i have written down some of the things you said and put them in my note book. i have been doing pwc and the other guppy is doing fine, hes even changing colour a bit from black into a lovly dark blue. and he seems as very happy. i will get him some female friends soon.
i feel good to know that if i have anymore problems i can come here for help.
Also thank you for the quick replys. you've been great.

 

[BASSNMAN]

It sounds like you are near the end of the tank cycle. If you get your guppy a girl friend, you might as well buy another tank at the same time

 

[samwise]

I was going to ask what the temperature was, but since things are fine, congrats.

Oh... and putting female guppies in... Bassnman is right about getting another tank. I have 5 males and 1 female at one time and the female was being .. er... chased too much so I added another female. I don't want to scare you, but in 3 weeks or so, my 12 fish aquarium (7 being guppies), went to 25+ fishes. The increase are all guppies! 8O I swear, guppies are the rabbits of the aquatic world.

just my 2 cents... if it's worth that much

Sam

 

[aquazen]

You may want to prepare a new tank. I went from 4 guppies to 11 guppies in two months. That's just one of the females delivering every 4 weeks or so. For some reason, the guppy that keeps getting pregnant is the duller of the two. The guys don't seem to chase around the bright yellow female guppy but prefer the dull off-grey female. Go figure. Maybe they think she's a guy?