[What do I want to stock in my tank?]

1 hour ago, Brandy said:

Can you compare your pH GH and KH to the water in the bag/at the LFS? I also would more likely expect this to be a source issue. Mutt guppies are so tough I have had tanks experience a nitrite spike (and presumably an ammonia spike I missed) and not lost a one or even noticed odd behavior. If your pH is dramatically different that could be a problem though. Inbred strains may be more fragile, but mutt guppies are generally pretty tolerant.

I will have to test them and see what happens. I’ll report back. My ph is about 7.6 and my water is super hard. The lfs is an hour away, so who knows. 

[What do I want to stock in my tank?]

4 hours ago, ChefConfit said:

Sorry for the rough time you and your family are experiencing, but glad to hear things are getting better!

How are you doing the quarantine? In a separate tank or in the main tank? Are you feeding during quarantine? If in a separate tank is it fully cycled? What are your water parameters? How do you acclimate them? 

Guppies are usually pretty hardy so unless something is glaringly wrong in the answers to those questions I'd be tempted to say try a different source.

If you're not drip acclimating them it's possible they're experiencing shock from a drastic change in parameters, but I can't imagine a local store has parameters that are that different from yours. Ask your LFS about their water and how they treat it to see if there's any huge difference between theirs and yours. 

I’m quarantining and medicating in the main tank since they are the only fish in there. I’m not feeding during the quarantine period, as I’m following corys advice of waiting 7 days. I have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates. I’m pretty sure my tank is fully cycled because I had a fish die and I didn’t notice him behind the rocks, but he was pretty decayed and I still had 0 ammonia, and 0 nitrites, but my nitrates were at 10ppm, so I did a 20% water change. I have been constant at 0 ammonia and nitrites though. I even took samples to the lfs to confirm a few times. 

 My process of acclimation may be the problem. I let the bag sit in the tank for an hour or so to match temperatures and then drop them in. I wonder if the lfs uses salt in their tank. It’s worth asking I guess. I’ve got two guppies left out of about 30 over the last two months. Frustrated!
 

I’ve never had these problems with bettas or tetras. Might be time to go back to that. 

[What do I want to stock in my tank?]

Sorry, for the long absence! Life has been rough lately. Got in a car accident and then family has been sick...I think everything seems to be getting better now though.

Well, as far as the Aquarium goes, I treated completely for ich, bought 10 new male guppies, did the quarantine medication trio, and only two are still alive. I’m just so frustrated at this point. I don’t know if it’s stock that I’m buying from my lfs or me.  I’m tempted to get two females and a male and let them hopefully have a generation born in my tank, but I’m also tired of throwing money at it now. For what it’s worth, the red cherry shrimp population is exploding, so at least I’m not killing those yet lol!

[What do I want to stock in my tank?]

On 12/10/2020 at 12:23 PM, ChefConfit said:

@Drummer230 I wouldn't do an angel in a 20 long. 1 angel in a regular 20 is doable but a long is not tall enough. Why not do a pair or trio of guppys? If you don't want to deal with the fry they will control their population themselves. Plus if fancy guppies are hard to find in your area then you should be able to sell them fairly easily in the future if you change your mind about dealing with fry. 

Personally I would plant heavily, then let the shrimp get really well established. Then add 5 corys, 5 otos and finally a trio of guppies. Most people would say 6 for the corys and otos but odd numbers look better. 

If you keep your water clean and parameters stable all those fish may breed for you which is really cool (the otos are the hardest of those to breed), but the adult guppys and corys should keep the populations in check so you don't need to worry about pulling fry to keep it from overcrowding. 

Thanks for the ideas everyone! I think I’m going to give guppies one more shot. They are pretty much everything I want minus the weakness when you first purchase them. 

[Guppies Dying Off]

So I wanted to update. I went and took a ride to the fish store I bought the guppies from today and guess what? The tanks were full of ich now that I know what I’m looking for! I’m glad that I know what’s killing my fish and that I didn’t cause it; I’m sad I didn’t realize it sooner and save them with treatment. 

[What do I want to stock in my tank?]

4 minutes ago, James Black said:

The cherry shrimp really limit you on what you can put in that tank.

Some bettas can be kept with shrimp but it depends. And you would probably want to make sure the betta you got is shrimp safe before you woke up and all the shrimp were gone.

Some cool fish to keep that are shrimp safe

-Mollies and Platys (only get either male and female, not both. they will breed like crazy)

-Most smaller tetras are shrimp safe

-Kuhli Loaches are cool, just beware that they are noctournal so you will really only see them at night. And they won't come out the first month of purchase

-Celestrial Pearl Danios

If you decide to take your shrimp out here is a list of good fish

-Angelfish, great persanlity and aboslutley gourgeous

-German Blue Rams (keep warm though at least 81F)

-any Betta

-Honey Gourami (other gouramis are super aggressive and will be fin nippers)

-Albino Bristlenose Pleco

Do you have any other fish stores in your city/ state/ province?? The others may be carrying the fish that you want.

I have an empty 5 gallon that I might turn into a heavily planted shrimp tank and that will free me up here a bit. The next closest store is literally over an hour away, but if they have whatever I decide on, I will purchase there. I was interested in angelfish to start with, but I was under the impression that they need a larger tank than 20gallons?

[What do I want to stock in my tank?]

I have a moderately planted 20 long. If you saw my other post, I had a tank of guppies that were wiped out by Ich. I’m down to four male guppies, some cherry shrimp, and a mystery snail. While I’m treating the ich, I’m planning/researching what I want to put back in the tank. First off, I want the most colorful fish possible. I love guppies, but I want fancy guppies (cobra, leopard, lace, etc...) which are really hard to find around here, and I don’t want females, which makes it hard to buy online since they are typically sold in trios. I was reading about German rams, but they are not shrimp safe, and neither are bettas. My lfs is mostly saltwater and has very few freshwater offerings, so I’ll probably have to buy online unless I go with guppies again. I don’t really want tetras or need to deal with fry, as I’d have no options to deal with them. Any suggestions or pictures of what you’ve done? I’ve already watched corys 20gallon idea video, but nothing really appealed to me, but I have trouble kind of visualizing it also. 

[Guppies Dying Off]

48 minutes ago, toothgrinder said:

It came with them or the plants or something you didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t believe it simply manifests. Those water changes don’t sound like too much, but I would recommend only changing your water when your nitrates get high enough that they may bother the fish. Like 30-40 ppm. Otherwise there’s not really a reason to change the water outside of special interests like cool water changes are supposed to trigger corydora breeding. Your plants will grow better if you let the nitrates go up a bit too.

Got it! I actually just found a water change guide on the website from Cory for guppies, so I’m gonna give it a go. Thanks for all the help!

[Guppies Dying Off]

1 minute ago, toothgrinder said:

I don’t suppose you are changing such a large volume of water so often that everything stays down near 0? This could interrupt your cycle development.

Heres a question for ya, you got established media from another aquarium you mentioned, did you continuously add a source of ammonia during the time you let it settle in? Without an ammonia source like fish food that you let rot in the tank, the bacteria that existed would have died off with nothing to eat, killing the cycled environment. Plant growth means nothing, they will grow in water that will kill fish without problems.

Nevertheless they do have white spots, that’s probably the issue, not your parameters. 

I’m changing about 30% weekly, so maybe? I did drop food in there like I was feeding an empty aquarium. My ammonia was less than .25 ppm the whole “cycle” time so, I assumed it was cycled/working from the start. My thought process was I added good bacteria, fed them, ammonia stayed low, plants used converted nitrates for new growth, safe to add fish lol.

I have no doubt that my fish have Ich at this point. I guess the question is did I do something wrong that caused them to die/get ich or were they already infected and ich is causing them to die? I guess I will really never know. 

[Guppies Dying Off]

Here’s some better pictures 

[Greetings from Nashville]

Hey there,

I'm pretty new to the hobby except for the occasion bett a growing up. I hope to learn lots and maybe even contribute in the future! If anyone around Nashville raises guppies Id love to be in touch!

 

randy

[Guppies Dying Off]

26 minutes ago, toothgrinder said:

Personally I doubt introducing the fish is the problem. Those spots definitely look like ich but it’s hard to tell for sure. You have the right idea cranking the temperature, I beat ich on my clown loaches that way (plus UV sterilization, no medications were used) but they also love hot water, I keep them at 84 normally, I’m not into guppies so I couldn’t say what temp they like. For reference once I increased the temperature and started UV it took roughly one week before everyone was ich free. 

Do you have a bubbler going? Excellent oxygenation is a must at high temperatures and I believe the medicine makes this even more true. Very important! 

Your tank has to have some amount of nitrates, it doesn’t have enough plant growth to keep them at 0. If ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are all reading 0 I would be skeptical of the test kit being used. 

Gravel vacuuming helps get the ich spore thingies out of your tank that fall off your fish once they mature, before they hatch. 50% water changes help remove free swimmers that have hatched but your meds should kill them as well. 

Best of luck and please don’t be discouraged. Fish die, it is a part of the hobby, however frustrating it may be. 
 

Edit: Also, it’s worth mentioning that the increase from 76 to 86 should have been over the course of a couple days, a couple degrees each day, that seems like a big overnight swing in my opinion. Go slow when you eventually bring it back down.

Thank you for the advice! I did read about hotter water having less dissolved oxygen, so I added a bubbler in before cranking the heat. I also did increase the temp slowly over 24 hours, but I will go slower when I lower it. 
 

im really confused about the nitrates thing. I’m using API freshwater master kit and following the instructions including the vigorous shaking of bottle number 2 for one minute. I even brought a sample to a chain by my house to be tested and all three were zero. If my tank wasn’t cycled, how could the ammonia be zero with everything in there (minus the dead fish spike)? I’m just confused....

ive already invested this much money; I’m not giving up yet 😁

[Guppies Dying Off]

2 hours ago, Sapere_Ceta said:

Yeah, I agree with this. It’s often better to go the slower route when adding fish. Makes it easier to monitor them and keep everything from being overwhelmed. It could definitely be that the higher number of fish added was too much and that triggered it all. 

 

2 hours ago, James Black said:

Usually you will still be able to mesure nitrates. But it seems that your problem was the adding too many fish, too soon.

Thanks for all the help. Once I have this under control, I’ll try adding fish slower. 

[Guppies Dying Off]

20 minutes ago, Sapere_Ceta said:

More deaths could definitely make it worse, since an ammonia spike usually ends up happening from them. It could definitely have created a bit of a chain reaction, in relation to everything else occurring. 

I did have an ammonia spike when I found three dead one day. I did a 30% water change then and brought it back down. 

[Guppies Dying Off]

22 minutes ago, Sapere_Ceta said:

Hm, maybe the fish were added to quickly? If that’s the case, perhaps that made them more stressed and prone to disease, which could have made them susceptible to getting ick. 

I’m not sure. How long should you wait before adding a higher bio load?

[Guppies Dying Off]

43 minutes ago, James Black said:

is it only one fish with the white dots? also did you eve test you water before adding in new fish? I'm thinking it could be ich but also maybe your tank wasn't properly cycled.

No, they all have white dots. Just this guy has the most and easiest to see. I did test the water before adding fish. I waited until Ammonia and nitrites measured 0 before adding fish. I have never been able to measure nitrates, but I’ve assumed that was because I’m doing about 30% water changes and the plants use the rest?

[Guppies Dying Off]

Hey there,

I’m new to aquariums. I got into it by watching cory’s YouTube videos, and decided to give guppies a go. I purchased a 20g L and planted it moderately. I was able to get a filter from another aquarium to start my cycle. I let it cycle until my plants showed new growth, then added 2 guppies and a mystery snail. They did fine. The next week I added 5 more guppies. The week after, I added 6 more guppies and some cherry shrimp. My water parameters stayed stable the whole time ( I was testing twice a week). Out of nowhere, my guppies started dying and I’m losing at least one a day. I went from 13 to 5 in five days. My water parameters are:

• pH 7.8
• Nitrates 0ppm
• Hardness tds=110ppm
• Nitrite 0ppm
• Ammonia 0ppm
• KH/Buffer not sure
• Water Temperature was at 76, increased to 86 for possible ich 

I did not quarantine the fish as it was a new tank and figured I’d follow Corys method of treating with his three quarantine meds once I bought everything I wanted to put in the tank. The problem is that they started dying before I got to that point. I’m pretty sure they have ich now, which I am treating with a temperature of 86 f and APIs super ick cure. I’ve ordered ichx and paracleanse from Cory, which I’m waiting to receive. 

I’m just wondering where to go from here  I’m superbummed to lose so many fish so quickly and feeling down on myself. I’m scared to buy more to restock the tank. I don’t know if the ich killed them or if it’s a secondary issue. Any suggestions would be super helpful!

Thank you!