Might be kinda long post...not sure where to put it yet. Here goes... I bought my husband a 55 gallon tank for Christmas. We set it up with the under cabinet filter system (nice!), and let it run for about a week before introducing fish. We got 6 guppies, 2 balloon bellies, 1 swordtail, 4 black skirt tetras, 4 glo-lite tetras, 2 plecos, 2 albino cories, and three painted glass fish (I didn't know THEN that they were INJECTED!! Poor babies!). Anyway, we lost the occassional fish here and there, we've had approximately 80 guppy fry altogether (not all lived), and we currently have about 20 babies in the other tank (my nursery). Recently, I moved five juvies to the "adult" tank, they seemed to be okay, not being bullied or anything. We were having a little problem with a green haze in the water, changed the filter, etc., and Friday I put in the recommended dose of an algae remover. This morning, (Sunday), I found five dead guppies, my female balloon belly, and a glass fish. What could have happened to them? They were all fine yesterday. Any ideas?
Dead guppies??
- Thread starter amystours
- Start date
Well...first thing everyone is going to want to know is do you have test kits and do you know what the levels of ammonia/nitrite and nitrate are in your tank?
Then also if you could let us know what your tank maintenance is like...how often and how big of water changes do you do, do you gravel vac? What temperature is your tank at?
Then also if you could let us know what your tank maintenance is like...how often and how big of water changes do you do, do you gravel vac? What temperature is your tank at?
Okay, just returned from PetSmart, they said everything in my water was perfect....so I went ahead and got two more males and two females...also got a black platy and two bettas...(with their very own divided tank). Got some aquarium salt and put that in there as well, so maybe I just had sick guppies?? They sure didn't act sick.
No, I don't have real plants....would they be more beneficial? Unfortunately, I don't have much of a green thumb either. The tank has been absolutely beautiful since I put in the algaecide, but at the risk of upsetting my balance in there, I won't do that anymore. I changed the charcoal stuff in the filter yesterday as well, hoping that might keep things close to normal. Of the gups I got yesterday, I have a male that doesn't look too healthy, he was fine last night, but is on the bottom of the tank today, not moving around much at all. By the way, Lotus, you have some beautiful tanks.
Last edited:
If you don't have live plants, then scraping the algae off is a much better way to deal with it. Some of those algaecides are pretty nasty. Are you doing weekly water changes? That would certainly help with the algae, and will also remove the algaecide, in case it's still affecting the fish.
Thanks for the compliment. Those pictures are really old. I will have to post new ones soon
Thanks for the compliment. Those pictures are really old. I will have to post new ones soon
PetSmart said the water was perfect, but what were the readings? Their perfect may not be so perfect. I would not add any more fish for the time being. What is your water change schedule? When and what percentage of water was the last change? Do you ever vacuum the tank? How often? Tell us more about your tank and its maintenence.
Hey y'all, thanks for all the advice ahead of time!! As for my water changes, I've been changing appoximately 30% of the water once a week and vacuuming as well. I put in the recommended amount of water conditioner, and they get fed twice a day. I did lose that one male guppy I got the other day, but everybody else *seems* happy. I have three pregnant females, and the juvies I put in there are thriving and starting to get their color. The tank is still crystal clear, just don't want a repeat of what happened before. What could have caused all the algae blooms to just show up all of a sudden?? It's almost like one day the tank was clean, the next, green water! My lights are not on during the day, and only from dark till we go to bed, and the tank itself is on the north side of the house, getting no direct light.
I'll go get a testing kit in the morning, I guess, and stop taking the water up to PetSmart. They don't give me numbers, they just tell me everything is fine. As for the overfeeding, I called myself watching what I was doing, I feed them twice a day, flake food. I'll cut them down to once a day, but it's so cute when you walk up to the tank and they all crowd towards you, I almost can't help but feed them. It's like they expect it first thing in the morning and at suppertime.
You may be overfeeding. Often a algae bloom can be cause by a high level of phosphates. Phosphate can also come from the tap water. Most often the cause is overfeeding. LFS don't commonly test customer's water for phosphates. I had an algae bloom that cleared one I got my phosphate level under control. It was confusing because doing routine testing, my water seemed perfect, and my nitrate level was close to 0. I finally bought a phosphate test, and the level was very high.