I got 4 guppies the other day. The next day after we got them, One of them started acting strangely. It would stay on the bottom without the ability to come up. When it came up it stayed way up and dodn't go down. It then died the next day.

I separated the fish because at that time I didn't know the problem. They were in a separate part of my goldfish's tank. A book I read said they survived cold temperatures. I then realized that the water was indeed freezing. So I put them in a seperate tank from the goldfish and moved them to a warmer room. It proved unaffective.

The next one was doing the same thing. It died two nights ago... before I knew of a cure... I found it on the bottom of the tank. It was like that before i went to bed. It wasn't moving it's fins or anything, but it was breating.

Last night my 2nd to last guppy was acting the same way. I read here to feed it peas. It was really bad, he was beginning to stay only on the bottom. I put the peas in but he did not eat. I found him dead this morning.

My last guppy is pregnant and I am worried for her getting sick too. She is back in the separated part of the goldfish's tank. (I put her back when I found out the air bladder was the issue, not the temperature)

What should I do?

Im not a fresh water person and I dont have a tank, but I just found "the Complete Aquarium" Encyclopedia - and "the temperature should be 20C - 25C, and is sensitive to to sudden changes in temperature and water composition.

This is for "Poecilia Reticulata" - the common guppy.

Hope that helps?

Hi Brite,

As far as I know Gupies are a tropical fish, and should be in warm water, you may find that it hasn't helped by putting them into your Goldfish Tank which should be cold water, this has probably put extra stress on the fish aswell as it not being well, so the combination of the two has probably led to it's death, is your pregnant Guppy in cold water or warm ?

Good Luck

Lynda

Cold.... :-?

I should change that.

It is winter in the US and my house is cold...

what can I do to make it warmer?

Are heaters expensive?

Guppies need to be in 18C (64.4F) or higher. We can't help you with costs of equipment in the USA but I know a lot of people over there recommend an online place called Big Al's.

Hi Brite,

Heaters should be pretty cheap in the States.. and it's well worth having one if you want to keep fish like Guppies and the Gouramie you mention elsewhere.

The thing with the heater is that your Guppies and such can't stand the temp being too low.. but on the other hand.. your Goldies won't mind the temp being a bit warmer... in fact, they will probably be a bit more active.

It sounds like it's pretty cold over there.. so a heater would be a good investment, and they are not really expensive to run.

As above.. your fish were possibly stressed once you added them to your Goldie tank.. as they were possibly in warmer water at the LFS where you bought them.

Get the exact measurements for your tank and take the info to your LFS... and then they should provide you with the right size of heater that is suitable for your tank.

Hope it goes well.

Thank ya mucho.

All I hope for now is that the babies do okay.

My dad used to raise guppies... it was his idea, however he isn't doing much to help. :-?

Yeah so He's gonna buy a heater... I hope ASAP

And all my fish are enjoying the peas.... and my sister too... she's been eating some.

When I kept guppies in the States, we never had a heater and it was fine. However, we had central heat, so the house was never really cold.

Before you get more guppies, observe them in the store. A lot of the guppies in the States and in NZ right now have this guppy disease. Visit the shop and watch the fish, then visit again a few days later. If 3/4 of THEIR fish are dead, that's a bad sign.

And I just got a heater for cheap at Petland. Petland is a good place to buy heaters, but the conditions in their fish tanks are kind of scary.