Woke up to half of the tank dead?

[giggalz]

i had previous issues in my guppy tank...i recieved more guppies from the guy i bought them from originally to replace two that i lost. last night they were fine..although swimming in circles like they did when whatever was going on happened but their fins werent clamped..the last time i noticed their fins clamped i kept changing the water..etc and nothing worked..i changed more then half the water saturday which i noticed made them unclamp their fins..and gave them parasite meds...i've been giving that to them everynight..its been what 3 days of it..it almost seemed like it was pointless cause they were fine and back to normal saturday night..but i kept it up..anywayz...last night they were fine..fins fanned out..they just were swimming in circles..i noticed 3 fry..although later..i couldnt find them..went to bed..woke up..theres about 16 guppies in there total..theres about 5 dead now..my mom and i are just lost as to what the issue is...we've never had this in all our fish years...and just lost on whats going on..

 

[roydooms]

Hi Giggalz,

Have you tested for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? When did you get the last batch of fishes? Maybe it's just a bad stock.

 

[giggalz]

i havent even had time to even test mine..mine doesnt have a test for ammonia...i took out so much water saturday..and havent fed them to much since so i cant imagine have to much ammonia in the tank..i doubht the parameters would be all that great with tons of dead fish in a tank..i've pulled out 7..and had 15..i've only had these guppies from the same seller for 2 week..same thing happened to those but didnt lose so many fish...i just got 4 yesterday as a replacement for free..and their all gone plus some..he put crap in his water to kill my tank..everythings been fine parameter wise until last friday

 

[giggalz]

nitrates are a little higher then 40..and 40 is the lowest i can get for my tank cause what comes out of the faucet at my home is 40...and i've had tanks growing up and nothing like this..so i know even if they were at their lowest it would be fine..nitrites are up a tad...everything else is fine..i'm going to take some water out

 

[roydooms]

i havent even had time to even test mine..mine doesnt have a test for ammonia...i took out so much water saturday..and havent fed them to much since so i cant imagine have to much ammonia in the tank..i doubht the parameters would be all that great with tons of dead fish in a tank..i've pulled out 7..and had 15..i've only had these guppies from the same seller for 2 week..same thing happened to those but didnt lose so many fish...i just got 4 yesterday as a replacement for free..and their all gone plus some..he put crap in his water to kill my tank..everythings been fine parameter wise until last friday

I'm assuming your tank is not "cycled". Having a test kit is important to keep track of your aquarium water's quality. Here is a link for you to better understand "nitrogen cycle".

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/fishless-cycling-for-dummies-103339.html

 

[roydooms]

nitrates are a little higher then 40..and 40 is the lowest i can get for my tank cause what comes out of the faucet at my home is 40...and i've had tanks growing up and nothing like this..so i know even if they were at their lowest it would be fine..nitrites are up a tad...everything else is fine..i'm going to take some water out

Nitrites is more toxic than ammonia for the fish. You would want to keep both ammonia and nitrites below .25ppm until your tank cycles. Your tap water reads 40ppm nitrates? I've never heard of tap water having nitrates. Usually it's ammonia. How do you test your nitrates? Do you shake re second bottle for at least 30 seconds before adding and the shake it for a minute then wait 5 minutes before checking? What's your nitrite reading?

 

[giggalz]

its been cycled...otherwise i wouldnt have fish in the tank..it was doing great and had no problems got fish and everything was fine until two weeks later...at the time i bought what i did it was all they had...and growing up we never tested for anything other then ph and we had no problems..i know its helpful to have all of it...but i'm doing this while unemployed and what i have is fine until its gone...

 

[ShadoeFox]

My tap water tests higher on everything than my tanks do normally. Sadly on this front I feel her pain

 

[giggalz]

i know i come here for help but i'm not stupid..i know how to take a test in a tank i know everyones trying to help me..i keep saying i've had fish all my life..i've just never had this issue lol..nitrates will be at 40...we need to move on away from that...i didnt have any nitrites when i put the fish in..and didnt have them till this issue started friday..then i was fine by sunday parameter wise...now nitrites are at .5

 

[roydooms]

its been cycled...otherwise i wouldnt have fish in the tank..it was doing great and had no problems got fish and everything was fine until two weeks later...at the time i bought what i did it was all they had...and growing up we never tested for anything other then ph and we had no problems..i know its helpful to have all of it...but i'm doing this while unemployed and what i have is fine until its gone...

How long has the tank been running? You shouldn't be seeing any nitrites if your tank is cycled. May be a mini-cycle. Adding too many fish at the same time might cause a mini-cycle.

 

[roydooms]

I didn't say that you are stupid or anything... I'm just basing on the information that you provided.

 

[giggalz]

it ran for a month or so...i've never cycled anything that long..i'm old school we had our tanks going for a week..if things tested fine we bought fish..and they lives...i cant help the number of fish he gave me either..

 

[Aspencer]

it ran for a month or so...i've never cycled anything that long..i'm old school we had our tanks going for a week..if things tested fine we bought fish..and they lives...i cant help the number of fish he gave me either..

What do you consider tested fine. How do you test?

 

[giggalz]

tested fine based my charts for the test kit that i have

 

[spoonman]

Did you possibly clean the filters? I killed off half a 140 gallon tank by cleaning both filters at the same time and dessimating my bacterial colony. Other than that, is it possible there is a dead fish in the tank that you cant see? Decaying fish will send the ammonia and NitrItes upward. Sorry I cant be more help.

 

[Aspencer]

Without knowing what what the parameters are of your water, it is very hard to know what is wrong except that something is wrong, either with your stock or your water.

Fish can survive and look well for long periods even though there is something wrong with the water. When that happens and something small happens, fish can go downhill quickly.

 

[giggalz]

nope havent touched it...no all fish were accounted for...and still are.....cause the alive count is much lower then whats dead..i've lost over half now...

 

[giggalz]

and as i said my parameters were just fine until last friday...then they were back to fine sunday...

 

[Vircomore]

Do you have a heater in the tank? It's possible that the heater could be faulty and throwing off loose current into the tank.

If you have a back-up heater or you can easily get a replacement - i'd try that. If you have an accurate voltmeter and know how to use it you could try checking for the loose current directly.

 

[carey]

She had some fish deaths, I would assume the levels would have risen from that. How's your ammonia giggalz? Did that go up too?

probably a mini cycle, the bacteria probably weren't enough to support the load yet. Just my opinion.