# Guppy Deaths - Nightmare!



## Alekinha (Aug 31, 2011)

Originally I had 9 Guppies (6 females and 3 males, all bought on the 02/09), in the space of 6 days I have lost 6 and I'm afraid I will be losing my last male today. Hopefully my over pregnant guppy female won't perish along with the other ones. 

A few died due to some red spots on their body (Sores?), another died I'm guessing due to sores and a secondary bacterial infection (Fungus where sores were originally), and the others have shown no symptoms, they suddenly start swimming near the top of the tank and then next day I'll find them on the floor of the tank. I'm currently on day number 4 of treating the tank + fish with Melafix since the death of my female guppy (secondary bacterial infection - Fungus).

Am I destined to lose all my guppies? I know they are more susceptible to diseases etc but, I'm losing one per day now while my Mollys (including their fry) appear to be doing fine.


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## 1077 (Apr 16, 2008)

What are water stat's (ammonia,nitrites,nitrAtes)?
Considering mollies are fine, I might consider that over time,, with no fresh genetic's (new guppies) introduced ,prevention measures taken to reduce inbreeding, that strains weaken, and fish and offspring become weaker genetically and thus more susceptible to assorted pathogen's.
Is why it is often wise when purchasing fishes such as livebearer's to not purchase all of them from one tank.Iis Very good possibility that these fishes are all offspring from one or two adult's.
Better to introduce new males and females on occasion to prevent inbreeding which can weaken the strain.
Could also be that fish are simply reaching their expected lifespan and are becoming weaker.
Dietary needs can also influence overall health. Too much meaty foods and not enough vegetable or algae matter, and this can have negative effect over the long haul.(with live bearer's)
Must also look at water quality or lack thereof, along with possible addition of new fish that may have been harboring some bacterial pathogen.
Much to consider.


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## Alekinha (Aug 31, 2011)

Ammonia last night was at 0.25, Nitrite was at 2ppm last week but has since then started to come down between 0.50 and 1ppm (I know high but I'm doing regular changes which is working on bringing it down) and Nitrate is holding steady at 20. Once the parameters settle down I'll be buying them from different shops.
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## BarbH (May 23, 2011)

How much water having you been changing out at a time with the nitrites and ammonia being elevated?


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## Alekinha (Aug 31, 2011)

I was advised by the guy at the pet shop to do a 10% twice a week or a 25% once a week. I prefer to annoy the fish once a week, don't need to stress them out anymore. Currently using aquasafe from Tetra as a water conditioner, I add it to the water and allow it to sit for a while until the temps are almost the same and then use my wonderful syphoning tool to put the water back into the tank without disturbing the fish, plants or gravel. Does Melafix actually do anything? Or am I just wasting my time using it?
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## BarbH (May 23, 2011)

With elevated nitrites or ammonia larger and frequent water changes are needed to help to dilute the nitrites and ammonia in the water. Nitrites are actually even more harmful to fish than ammonia is. I would recommend doing a 40 to 50% water change when ammonia and nitrites are above 0. Once the ammonia and nitrites are sitting at 0 than weekly water changes are fine. With weekly water changes most members here do about a 40 to 50% water change weekly. When I first started I was only doing about 25% water changes. After reading some threads here on the site that talked about how much to change out on water changes I decided to increase the amount I was changing out. I now change out between 40 to 50% a week. I have noticed that by doing this my nitrate level has actually dropped in my tank. I use to sit around 20ppm on my nitrates, after increasing the amount I have been changing out my nitrates have been sitting between 5 and 10ppm. 20 ppm on nitrates is considered to be okay, but with increasing my how much I have been changing I have been able to improve my water quality.

With melafix I have seen different views on it. I have not used the product myself personally, but have heard that it does help with fungal and bacterial infections.


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## Alekinha (Aug 31, 2011)

Change 64L every week... Shouldn't be a problem, just need to find large enough buckets. Where would one find large buckets in the UK? This is a job for GOOGLE! Thanks for your help 1077 and BarbH 
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## Alekinha (Aug 31, 2011)

Hey Guys,
Just thought I should update you. I did end up losing my last male last week Thursday, he also had no noticable cause of death. On Sunday I noticed my heavly pregnant female guppy no longer had the black gravid spot, it turned yellowish! Now I know some people say if guppies are stressed before they are due to give birth they can actually absorb their babies!? Is this actually true? Either way, on Monday I got home to find that the same guppy was missing a fin (probably got into a fight with one of her tankmates and they bit it off) but as a procaution I went out on tuesday after work and bought a new antifungal treatment (I've come to realise Melafix does not work). When I got home she had fungus growing on her fin I imediately put her in a separate tank and added the medication. Thankfully she's ok now, but I'll have to take a pic of her belly as it appears to be torn through the inside (don't know if that makes sense)? I don't know if anyone has had this before but is there anything I should be doing?
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## ladayen (Jun 21, 2011)

Do you still have your carbon pad in your tank? You mentioned you had mollies... what else is in the tank. It's looking like something is attacking your guppies, and sometimes the injuries are internal and not noticeable.


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## Alekinha (Aug 31, 2011)

1st and only question - Carbon Pad???
I have Mollies ( 1 large male, one smaller male, x1 large female and 2 smaller ones + a lot of fry) 5 glowlights, 5 neons, and 1 surviving Cardinal (I know not a big different between Cardis and Neons)
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## ladayen (Jun 21, 2011)

I mean carbon in your filter, black stuff. Usually a pad but sometimes it's little balls or beads.


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## DKRST (Jan 11, 2011)

Ok, I'm going to weigh in with a recommendation based on having a similar issue. I don't know that you have the same issue but...
Some of my guppies in my 29 gallon tank were dying with no visible cause of death, some had what appeared to be dropsy before death. Other fish I placed in the tank (multiple danios, a dwarf gourami, and young common pleco) died with no visible indicators, they just quit eating and wasted away. I started doing frequent water changes (every day about 60%, including a gravel vacuum) and the death rate slowed, but did not stop. Shortly after this, Angelfish in my 55 gallon tank showed very visible signs of camallanus worms. Interestingly, the guppies had been housed in that 55 temporarily before I set up the 29 gallon. The frequent gravel vac and water changes in my 29 seemed to lessen the worm infestation rate.

Anyway, I treated all my tanks for camallanus, the unexplained deaths stopped, and I have not had an issue since. From my reading, it appears that guppies are common carriers of this internal parasite, but they don't necessarily show the obvious symptoms (worms hanging out their vent opening). I'm not advocating a "shotgun" treatment approach, that can cause problems of it's own! However, if all else fails and your water quality is good, you might want to consider a prophylactic treatment for internal parasites. It's part of my quarantine tank routine now. I don't ever want to deal with that again in my larger tank.


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## Alekinha (Aug 31, 2011)

DKRST, do you treat all your new fish even if they don't show signs of Parasits? 
ladayen, I'm not entirely sure what's inside them, my filter is a Marina S20 with cartridges that's slide in... I'll probably rip one of them open at the end of the month (when I change them) to finally take a look. 
She appears to be swimming around better and the fungus appears to be gone but I'm reluctant in putting her back in the tank incase she has some other problem.
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## Santaclaws (Sep 20, 2011)

I agree it sure does sound like something is nipping at them. Some times male mollys can be aggressive Ive seen them pick on my guppies I dont keep mollys anymore the sail fins seem to be the worst. Are glowfish tetras


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## k19smith (Aug 19, 2011)

Alekinha said:


> DKRST, do you treat all your new fish even if they don't show signs of Parasits?
> ladayen, I'm not entirely sure what's inside them, my filter is a Marina S20 with cartridges that's slide in... I'll probably rip one of them open at the end of the month (when I change them) to finally take a look.
> She appears to be swimming around better and the fungus appears to be gone but I'm reluctant in putting her back in the tank incase she has some other problem.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_



Yes more than likely they have carbon inside them, some medications require you to remove the carbon for them to work. Make sure you only change one cartridge at a time, ideally change one wait 2 weeks then change the other, your beneficial bacteria is growing on them, or you can just rise them off in a bucket of old tank water (which is what I do). 

In my experience melafix is only good for small scrapes etc to prevent a secondary infection not actually treating a problem.


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## DKRST (Jan 11, 2011)

Alekinha said:


> DKRST, do you treat all your new fish even if they don't show signs of Parasits?


I didn't do any anti-parasite treatments historically, but I do now. All new incoming fish, unless I'm positive the source keeps their fish in good shape, get a 6-8 weeks quarantine and, after settling in, a general prophylactic parasite treatment before they go into any other tanks (I use Levamisole HCL, Fenbendazole-soaked food, or Flubendazole [my current favorite]). Even fish from sources that I trust (forum friends) get a 6-8 week quarantine! I have also decided to do an annual anti-parasite treatment on all my tanks, just in case.

I believe quarantine and anti-parasite prophylactic treatment is particularly important when purchasing fish from "big-box" stores. Some of the anti-parasite meds also kill common nasties like IcK.

Again, I do not know if you have a parasite issue, that's just what I finally discovered. Angelfish (and especially Discus) are also noted carriers of parasitic nematodes.


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