critter_crazy Posted May 27, 2011 Report Share Posted May 27, 2011 Okay so on Wednesday when I went to check on my guppy tank I found one very pale dead guppy floating at the bottom. Figuring it was due to his run in with a fighter a few weeks ago I didn't think anything of it and did a 50% water change. But yesterday morning when I went to check on them again I noticed one of my new albino males was missing and eventually found him dead wedged under a rock. Took him out, went to have breakfast, came back and I had another albino floater this time among some (fake)plants! - he was fine half an hour before :facepalm: Getting to the point, this morning I had yet another guppy die. I don't know what's going wrong, I've never had problems like this before! AND they all seemed fine right up to their deaths. They're in a 2ft tank with a 4cm GBA so I know they wernt murdered so to speak. Water parameters are fine, tank is at a solid 27 degrees. Any ideas on what is happening? And how do I stop it? :tears: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BikBok Posted May 27, 2011 Report Share Posted May 27, 2011 oh dear ! That's no good and disheartening when the reason isn't obvious. I had a similar thing happen once , shortly after I had added some imported guppies.. most my NZ ones died starting with the males and then the imports as well. I only had a a few NZ females left and they birthed offspring of the imports, who are now having their own babies.. but it was very frustrating to work out what was going on. I'm still not totally sure but it was either columanaris or some weird guppy disease .. ONLY the guppies were affected , nothing else. Have you introduced anything new? Is there any chance of parasites? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critter_crazy Posted May 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2011 The albino guppies are the newest, I got them last weekend. I'm definately going to be keeping NZ guppies and imports seperate from now on but at the moment I'm just hoping I have guppies left! But I guess only time will tell. It's so heartbreaking, I love my little guppies :tears: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danval Posted May 27, 2011 Report Share Posted May 27, 2011 I have had the same thing happen with my Apisto's... Introduced imports and overnight my top Apisto that I had for close to a year was dead within a day!. Others off here have had similar experiences. As you have said, I think the key is to quarantine the imports prior to introducing to an established tank. I am sorry for your losses . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critter_crazy Posted May 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2011 That's the thing, they were quarantined :dunno: Oh well, making mistakes is the best way to learn I guess :nilly: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critter_crazy Posted May 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2011 Last albino and a snakeskin dead this morning. SS was fine when I went in but as I watched him he started swimming upside down and vertically then within 5 minutes was dead :an!gry What could this be? It wouldnt even be that bad if I knew what was happening! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 28, 2011 Report Share Posted May 28, 2011 OK so it is all the new fish that have died? Several things occur to me... 1. Your tank parameters are very different to what they were used to. This is unlikely as you have had them a week and I would expect them to die faster if this was the cause. 2. They already had an infection when you bought them. Better hope it has not spread to the other inhabitants. 3. Your original fish have some sort of bacteria they are immune to but your new fish are not. In that case no amount of quarantine would help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critter_crazy Posted May 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2011 OK so it is all the new fish that have died? Several things occur to me... 1. Your tank parameters are very different to what they were used to. This is unlikely as you have had them a week and I would expect them to die faster if this was the cause. 2. They already had an infection when you bought them. Better hope it has not spread to the other inhabitants. 3. Your original fish have some sort of bacteria they are immune to but your new fish are not. In that case no amount of quarantine would help. As you say, 1 is unlikely. 2 would be the most probable because it cant be 3 - original and new are dying. I bought the guppies from a member on here. Also it's strange because it's just the guppies that have been effected (there was a BN in there that I have since moved). I'm so confused because both my original and my new fish are dying, if it were one or the other it would be easier to tell whats going on :tears: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livebearer_breeder Posted May 28, 2011 Report Share Posted May 28, 2011 This is so common with NZ guppy's that i have next to given up on them. I still have plenty, i just care less about them now and it seems to have helped them survive lol I still do heaps of water changes and feed mainly BBS and I still find a small portion of every generation die off on the same way ( occasional clamped fins, looking a bit skinny, maybe swimming a bit funny, but always end up dead ) I only keep the strongest healthiest fish now, hoping that eventually this will no longer be a problem, but they seem to have become generationally very sensitive to change, this is most likely a result of inbreeding but it is hard to say. perfect example is, guppy's breeding by the hundreds, happy as in both mine and my mates fish tanks, so we decided to swap a few fish, this was about a year ago, no issues with either of our original fish, but of the ten we traded to each other i ended up with two left and he was left with one. these are both well established tanks, and then about 2 months ago we traded about 10ish fish each again and so far no problems, not one death yet. Very wierd..... so this is why i don't care as much anymore because you never seem to know if the guppy's are going to do well or not. Sorry to hear about your deaths, its never fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critter_crazy Posted May 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2011 This is so common with NZ guppy's that i have next to given up on them. I still have plenty, i just care less about them now and it seems to have helped them survive lol I still do heaps of water changes and feed mainly BBS and I still find a small portion of every generation die off on the same way ( occasional clamped fins, looking a bit skinny, maybe swimming a bit funny, but always end up dead ) I only keep the strongest healthiest fish now, hoping that eventually this will no longer be a problem, but they seem to have become generationally very sensitive to change, this is most likely a result of inbreeding but it is hard to say. perfect example is, guppy's breeding by the hundreds, happy as in both mine and my mates fish tanks, so we decided to swap a few fish, this was about a year ago, no issues with either of our original fish, but of the ten we traded to each other i ended up with two left and he was left with one. these are both well established tanks, and then about 2 months ago we traded about 10ish fish each again and so far no problems, not one death yet. Very wierd..... so this is why i don't care as much anymore because you never seem to know if the guppy's are going to do well or not. Sorry to hear about your deaths, its never fun That makes alot of sense, I have heard of NZ guppies being much more sensitive. I guess because there's not enough stock to outbreed enough :dunno: I wonder why my original guppies started dying though? The green snakeskin I lost today was simply stunning, I was really looking foreward to breeding him in future Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critter_crazy Posted May 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2011 Three days without any more casualties until this morning. 2 more died overnight. I'm now down to 3 :facepalm: Now pretty much just waiting for the others to die so I can start over :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reba_nz Posted June 9, 2011 Report Share Posted June 9, 2011 I had a very similar thing happen to me not that long ago. I put my guppies into a completely different new tank, (previously had minnows in - moved them to somewhere else) emptied the water to the substrate level refilled the water and left the guppies in there for about a week. Everyday of that week i did about 20% water changes in the tank that they were in orginally. I ended up saving the few i had left. 3 originals and 1 of the new ones (got 10 new ones to start with) Wasn't anything i had heard anyone do before, just was willing to try anything. You could if you wanted to try that. After about a week, i put them back in, got a few more, and now they are breading again. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critter_crazy Posted June 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2011 Thanks for that, the 3 remaining guppies are still kicking along with some new mates. I think maybe it was just a one off - what a pain though! Got some more albinos have have their own tank upstairs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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