can anyone give me any tips as to how to liven my guppies up they are all hanging on the bottom of that tank and looking really sad (they had been swimming around and looking quite happy) even when I feed them??

I dont know what to do and after my last lot all died on me im quite worried its going to happen again - especially since my recent purchase of two gorgeous green diamond males (thanks caserole)

Any Ideas??

What is your tank setup?

give us more details about your set up, cleaning methods, other fishies etc

yep that's me.

Water quality is probably the reason.

I do daily 5% water changes so my water is clear as - no colouration at all.

If you haven't already, you could put salt in your water 1teaspoon/4 to 5lts live bearers prefer it.

If adding the salt it must be done over a couple of days as I don't know what else you have in the tank and replaced as a % each time you do a water change.

um, my tank is bigish (Well to me anyway) not sure of litre size,

it has water in it and 2 filters, um a heater and some rocks and some plants......not to crash hot on the lingo im pretty new to this.....is that what you meant? :oops:

oh and i only have guppies in it...and a few red ramshorns

I have been doing water changes about 5-10% every day or two, ??

still have lazy fish

How long have you had the tank setup?

What have you done with your tank (except feeding) in the last week?

I have, changed the water 3 times, and cleaned the filter, and fed them,.....i think thats it

How much water did you change and how did you clean the filter? and was that before they started going to the top or after?

Sorry for all the questions :oops: , just seeing if I can find the cause.

Are they looking any better with the fresh water?

I usually change about 5-10% every day or two and i clean the filter by rinsing it under the tap??? is there any other way?

Yeah, the official recommendation is to rinse it in water taken from the fish tank (same temp, same pH etc). Using water thats too cold or too hot can kill the nitrifying bacteria causing an ammonia and (later) nitrite spike.

I use the tap, but make sure its similar to the tank temp, we've got one of those hot/cold mixers.

Anyway, if fresh water helped, that may be why, just an idea anywho.

Opps! Warning! Warning.

That is where you have made your mistake Ruthie.

When you clean your filter in tap water, the chlorine is what kills the "good bugs".

So as Spider says, wash it in the water that you have syphoned out.

IMO your tank is in an uncycled condition and the ammonia content is what is upsetting your fish,

it can go to the point of killing them.

But don't sweat, most of us have done the same, but we learn from it.

Have you any plants in your tank, if not, get some,

they are a good investment as long as you have reasonable lighting.

Hell, sorry Ruthie I missed that bit about the filter, Alan is right.

What type of filter do you have?...

Sponge

Box

Canister

Power head.... etc

And how often have you been cleaning it out.

I have two filters one is one of the ones that sits on the side on the tank and like trickles like a water fall, and the other is like a jet type filter with a sponge thingy that i rinse, dont know what they are called....but hope that helps :oops:

oh and i clean them about every 2nd week maybe

Take note Alan, Blenheim doesn't have chlorine in their tap water. We're pure we are

(I always wash my filters under the tap)

If you wash the filters all the time the bacteria will not establish it self as your always washing it off + theres other factor like temp of tank water and tap water.

but as you have 2 filters and you only wash 1 then the other will be doing the job.

the 1 you wash is a power head.

If your water is then fine ( only way to know is test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate ) I still don't know what could be wrong.

Could it, being that these are fancy guppys that the water flow in the tank is tyeing them out - to much water movement??...

As that is a lot of filtration for a guppy tank, how big is the tank in cm's ( length = front, depth=front to back, hight =top to bottom)

Just a note: When Stu mentioned "Salt" he was talking about a special type of salt called "Tonic salt" which you get from the pet shop. This is not to be confused with "Table salt" "Rock salt" "Kelp salt" "Red Sea Salt" "Iodised salt" "Epsom salt" or any other type of salt.

[somebody else on here will hopefully jump in and explain exactly what "Tonic salt" is chemically. I read it on here somewhere ages ago but forgot.]