# Problem with male guppies dying in planted tank



## Leeatl (Aug 8, 2015)

Sounds like the tank is not cycled . Search here for "fish in cycling" and follow the advice . Water changes are mandatory with fish in cycling . Keep testing the water daily for ammonia .


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## Bella6 (Aug 16, 2016)

I don't know that the tank is not cycled. It's been a month now and still showing 0 of everything every time I test it. And like i had mentioned i had put in tetra safe start a month ago and then a few days later 3 fish died and when i came back from vacation all the numbers were crazy high, it's been weeks since i did the water changes that brought the levels down to zero and they've been at zero since. And then i was reading that planted tanks may not have these spikes as the plants are already converting everything in small levels. That's why I joined this board and wanted to ask here, as a lot of people are saying that plants already have bacteria on them and i won't get big spikes of ammonia or nitrite now to indicate it would be. The water has been the same for a few weeks now and testing almost every day I show 0 on ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, even with fish and feeding once a day.


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

Do you have a picture of the tank so that we can see what you have set up? How often are you feeding the guppies? How much? How long do you keep the lights on? 

Do keep water changing. I would do 25 - 30 percent once a week. Do you have a siphon? Make sure you vacuum the substrate in case you have been feeding the fish heavily. Rotting food can cause ammonia spikes. Keep testing the water just to make sure you are still seeing zeros.


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## gbb0330 (Nov 21, 2015)

1 month old is still considered a new tank, the water test may not be very accurate. i would do smaller water changes, maybe 20 % every week, for another moth or 2. then buy more fish. guppies like all fish from the pet store, often get stressed and get sick especially in new tanks.


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## Bella6 (Aug 16, 2016)

The only reason(s) I haven't changed the water is because Tetra safe start said not to, and then because the numbers are showing zero all the time, unlike before when a bunch died and sat in the tank and spiked the levels so I changed the water then. 

It's been running for over a month now. Earlier today I had 5 fish left, and 1 looked like it was dying, now it seems I only have 3 active fish, one is hiding and I haven't found if the other fish died yet.

I am also wondering if it's bad to have 2 filters in the tank? The canister filter I had on the left side of the tank blowing across the tank lengthwise and set to the middle set of jets on one side of the tank and the aqueon filter is on the right side of the tank but facing front and only disturbing the water in a small area at the top right corner. Is this filtration and set up creating too much water disturbance for the guppies?

What I find weird is they look ok, nothing looks wrong, and then i notice that one will look like it's going crazy swimming frantically to all corners of the tanks and it goes by the filters and swims into the current and all over, and then as it gets weaker it just starts to stop swimming as much and float and sink falling onto the plants or gravel and at that point it either hides in the cave or just lays on the gravel and dies. Can they die from stress from the filter jets?

I changed the setting so the canister filter is now just spraying from the top jet near the top of the water surface and tried to dial it back so it's pretty low. Normal seems to have a pretty intense jet stream when it's all focused on the top or bottom jet.

The guppies I feed once a day, fish flakes mostly i take a tiny pinch and crush it up and sprinkle it across the surface. Once a week I do that with freeze dried blood worms instead. The light I set on a timer to be on for 10 hours a day because i have live plants.

I do have a siphon for removing water, my gravel isn't very deep so i don't really try and vacuum the gravel as I don't really see any debris and the plants just come out as their roots can't go very deep. So I know i should get more gravel sometime.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

Freeze dried bloodworms is a horrible food. Both for tanks and fish. I hope you at least hydrate it before putting it in the tank.
All high protein foods produce high levels of ammonia.

If you harmed fish with ammonia, they may have suffered damage to their gills which they could not recover from in the long run. I'd try to get live mosquito larvae for them, but only feed every other day until about two months since you started the tank has gone by.

If you have a hospital tank, you can medicate methylene blue (shake well), 1 teaspoon (5ml) /10 gal keeping fish in for 3 days.
Common signs of ammonia poisoning are; clamped fins, frayed fins often showing a white border, laying on t he bottom and difficulty swimming, they need to swim with their whole bodies in a worm like motion.


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## TINNGG (Mar 9, 2005)

I have another thought in mind. Consider your source. I've had...poor luck...with pet shop guppies. If I lucked up and got a gravid female, and she dropped prior to expiring, the fry did fine. Some of the deaths were obviously columnaris. It's also quite probable that some had worms. Very few of these fish survived a week.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

I too think the fancy male guppies are weak from fish stores.
I buy them five or six at a time and maybe one will survive more than a month.
The females seem a bit tougher,and they do fine for me along with their babies.
the males waste not time impregnating th females but the store bought males just aren't very hardy for me.
I have fairly hard alkaline water which they like,they just seem like crap fish anymore from the box stores. 
Got some from a breeder a few year's back that did well, but got bored with raising the guppies and traded them off.
Live bearers I keep now are swordtail's and platy's (all females), and still have a few female guppies but male fancy guppies, I am hesitant to buy from petco/petsmart.


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## Bella6 (Aug 16, 2016)

I really don't think it was ammonia poisoning. I have bought guppies 3 times from 2 different places, and thought maybe the aquarium store guppies were just weak, but 3 of my fancy (expensive!) guppies I bought from an independent breeder are now dead. I fished 2 out this morning and am down to 3 male guppies from the breeder. 

I have moved the canister filter to the back left side, and the aqueon filter is still on the back of the right side of the tank. I vacuumed some gravel and did about a 20% change. All the tests showed 0 0 0 again for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate before i did the water change. I've been using the API kit properly and it's never showed anything since that time I came back from vacation and some dead guppies were in the tank for a few days and I changed the water. 

The guppies that have died have had nothing wrong with them visibly and then a few had chunks out of their tail from who knows what. The gravel is small and smooth. I'm hoping that maybe the filter current being lower helps them. I don't know if they would die just getting stressed out swimming like crazy into the current? Or being in a tank with 8 males? Now that i'm down to 3 males, i'll get some female guppies and see if that makes a difference. I don't know what it could be for sure. I read all the signs of disease and none of the exhibited anything like that. Just looking normal, swimming around and grabbing food when fed and then the ones that died would hang out in a cave or on the gravel and then i'd find them dead later. 

I've only fed a tiny bit of crushed freeze dried blood worms twice so I don't think that's it. 

I've wanted to get some other fish but worried about if it's something I don't know killing them, or it's just going to happen to the guppies.


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## Altheora (Aug 10, 2016)

A couple questions for you, because I agree--I don't think this is a breeding question. I suspect it's something in the tank itself. 

-The fact that you have 0 Nitrate is odd and makes me think the tank didn't cycle at all to begin with. Did you add anything for ammonia (fish food, etc) or did you just let the tank sit empty for a month? The tank won't cycle without an ammonia additive--the good bacteria need something to eat, or they'll starve.

-Is there anything the fish could be getting into? Like a pot with a small hole that they could be getting stuck in, or the filter intake valves being too large for them. A picture of the tank would be helpful in diagnosing this particular problem.


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## lksdrinker (Feb 12, 2014)

Bella6 said:


> Hi guys
> 
> It's been over a month since my tank was set up and fish put in.
> 
> ...





Leeatl said:


> Sounds like the tank is not cycled . Search here for "fish in cycling" and follow the advice . Water changes are mandatory with fish in cycling . Keep testing the water daily for ammonia .





Bella6 said:


> I don't know that the tank is not cycled. It's been a month now and still showing 0 of everything every time I test it.
> 
> and testing almost every day I show 0 on ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, even with fish and feeding once a day.





gbb0330 said:


> 1 month old is still considered a new tank, the water test may not be very accurate. i would do smaller water changes, maybe 20 % every week, for another moth or 2. then buy more fish. guppies like all fish from the pet store, often get stressed and get sick especially in new tanks.





Bella6 said:


> I really don't think it was ammonia poisoning.
> .


Its sometimes hard to see where you went wrong; but listen to the advice being given to you. Your tank was not yet cycled when you added the fish. Adding the safestart after the fact could have helped a bit; but you're fighting an uphill battle if you're not willing to admit that you might have done it wrong and if you're unwilling to accept the advice you sought. 

If your tank was cycled (meaning a large enough colony of beneficial bacteria was present to consume any ammonia; and subsequently nitrite which would produce nitrate) then A) you would never have seen the "levels were high in everything"; and B) you would have a discernible nitrate reading.


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