Guppies and Quarantine

[jaydawnsin]

Alright, so here's what happened. I bought 5 guppies from a store, one male and four females. I put them in the quarantine tank, all levels seem to be fine, I leave them alone after putting in the medicine. Fast forward the next day, three have died, including the male, leaving me with two females. I check the water, everything seems fine. I go to my local store, not the store I bought the originals from, and get two males and two females so I can have an even group of two trios. I stick those in quarantine, fast forward to today and one of the original females dies so now I'm left with two males and three females. This is a few days into the quarantine so the meds that were in there are now weaker than at the beginning. I do have enough meds to start over if need be.

Here's my questions. Should I return the female that died and get another female and put her into the same quarantine tank so that there's two trios again, should I get extra females if they have them so that if one dies I won't have to go back and get another, should I just leave the group I have alone, should I do a big water change and start the med cycle over, what should I do in this situation? I don't want to end up stressing out the group, especially the females, but I don't have the space to set up another quarantine tank at the moment.

[Colu]

What your KH and GH 

[lefty o]

its not uncommon to have a new fish or two die after getting them, but thats enough numbers to make me think something is wrong in the qt. i would try and figure out what is up before getting more fish.

[Guppysnail]

There is one fish store near me that the place they get their guppies from they said raises them in slightly brackish water.  I could never keep theirs alive and I know nothing about creating brackish conditions so I do not get them there. Just wanted to share that in case it may help. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you 🤞🏻

[jaydawnsin]

On 8/11/2021 at 8:38 PM, lefty o said:

its not uncommon to have a new fish or two die after getting them, but thats enough numbers to make me think something is wrong in the qt. i would try and figure out what is up before getting more fish.

Normally I would agree with you, but I talked with my local pet store and we agreed that the store I got the original group from has a history of selling fish that just do not survive. I looked at reviews for the store and almost universally it was agreed that there's just something that they're doing wrong at that particular store, something I should have checked before buying from them because the only reason why I went there is because of my own impatience. My store didn't know when they were going to get more in so I went to the next closest location. All of the ones that I got from my local store are looking great in the quarantine and the one good female that I got from the other store is also fine. I checked the quarantine with my test kit and I bought the minerals test kit as well everything came out fine, at least as far as I could tell I've only done a little research on the minerals needed for guppies but it seemed alright. It could be that my test kit is going bad, but it doesn't expire for another four years.

Edited August 12, 2021 by JaydenDSin
clarification

[jaydawnsin]

On 8/11/2021 at 8:36 PM, Colu said:

What your KH and GH 

I just redid the tests and if I'm reading it correctly, it's 35.8ppm for both gh/kh. I don't know if I'm doing it correctly or not or if that difference was what killed the first batch because I think my local store and I are on the same water and the water is different from the store furthur away, but that's a completely different result than I got the last time I did the test a few days ago, so I think I had probably done it incorrectly. That seems a bit low for guppies from the research that I've done on my own. I have green fire tetras, a betta, diamond tetras, and ember tetras and all but the betta have crushed coral as a substrate or in the filter, but they all went through the same type of quarantine as well with no issues, each had a quarantine for two months with no problems. I have aquarium salt and crushed coral lying around. Do you think I should add some more, because I did add crushed coral to the quarantine tank before adding the guppies on the first day knowing that guppies needed a higher mineral ppm.

[lefty o]

it would not hurt anything to throw in a good pinch of salt. guppies tend to do very well with salt.

[jaydawnsin]

On 8/11/2021 at 9:15 PM, lefty o said:

it would not hurt anything to throw in a good pinch of salt. guppies tend to do very well with salt.

The plan once quarantine is finished is to put them in a planted tank that only had coral in the filter, no salt. Would you recommend that I just set up a different tank that's specialized for fish and other aquatic creatures that like a lot of minerals? Also, what should my plan be with getting more females or not?

[Gator]

Use a small pinch of baking soda to raise your pH, GH, and KH, check your water the next day at about the same time, if your levels aren't where you want them, add another small pinch of baking soda, but don't overdo it. Guppies and other livebearers like their water hard and on the alkaline side and baking soda will do just that. 

[lefty o]

On 8/11/2021 at 9:18 PM, JaydenDSin said:

The plan once quarantine is finished is to put them in a planted tank that only had coral in the filter, no salt. Would you recommend that I just set up a different tank that's specialized for fish and other aquatic creatures that like a lot of minerals? Also, what should my plan be with getting more females or not?

i think they will be fine going into a tank that has crushed coral in it. i dont think many consider it, but coral has some salt in it, along with all its other minerals. my thoughts on more females. i would get these current fish through qt, then get a few more females, and run them thru qt.

[jaydawnsin]

@lefty oSounds good! I'll do more research on the amount of salt I need to add and look into that baking soda that @Gator mentioned and look at how I can modify my existing tank to maybe add more crushed coral slowly so that the fish in there can get used to it. Thank you!

[Gator]

Crushed coral will add calcium carbonate to the water, maybe too much so I'd avoid it. I haven't used salt in any of my tanks since the '60's, the salt can kill plants. The ideal number of male Guppies to females is one male for three female, but make sure they all have the same colored tail.

Keep your water temp at or close to 85 degrees to prevent diseases. This temp will not hurt your fish or your plants, my main tank has been at 84.9 degrees for many years, but it wasn't until recently that I learned that this is the reason why I haven' had a sick fish in a very long time.

[lefty o]

it takes a pretty good dose of salt in an aquarium to kill plants. at levels used for a mineral supplement, it poses zero risk to plants.

[jaydawnsin]

On 8/11/2021 at 9:43 PM, Gator said:

Crushed coral will add calcium carbonate to the water, maybe too much so I'd avoid it. I haven't used salt in any of my tanks since the '60's, the salt can kill plants. The ideal number of male Guppies to females is one male for three female, but make sure they all have the same colored tail.

Keep your water temp at or close to 85 degrees to prevent diseases. This temp will not hurt your fish or your plants, my main tank has been at 84.9 degrees for many years, but it wasn't until recently that I learned that this is the reason why I haven' had a sick fish in a very long time.

I've been using crushed coral in my water because it doesn't have many minerals in it so I will continue to use it because my ph drops like a rock when I don't. As far as keeping the temperature at 85, it's true that it keeps diseases from thriving, but it also speeds up the life cycle of the fish and they die earlier than they would otherwise when you do that, so it's a give and take of what you would prefer. I appreciate the comment, but as far at all of that goes, the research that I've done along with things Cory has said about that specific topic leads me to not wanting to do that. I keep the temperature around 78 - 80 and I think that's how it'll stay for now, though I can see why you would give that advice and I do appreciate the time you took to let me know!
As far as making sure they have the same tail color, is there a specific reason why? I get wanting consistency, but I'd like to have a diverse group of guppies so that I can have a healthier batch, even if they're not 100% the prettiest. Is there another reason why you'd advice this? I'm curious to know!

Edited August 12, 2021 by JaydenDSin
grammar

[lefty o]

if you want diversity vs line breeding, mix and match colors 'til your heart is content.

[jaydawnsin]

On 8/11/2021 at 10:41 PM, lefty o said:

if you want diversity vs line breeding, mix and match colors 'til your heart is content.

I may do line breeding later once I have a bigger group and know what I want, but for right now guppies in general are really nice to look at and I kinda like them all! The majority of the once I have are that tequila sunrise variant that's popular right now but two of them are completely different so we'll see what happens! Thank you!

[lefty o]

absolutely nothing wrong with having a pile of mutt guppies.

[Gator]

JaydenDSin;

I can take a pair of lefty o's mutt Guppies and in three generations have great looking fancy-tailed Guppies that are great for sale at my LFS, or for swap at my LFS, or show quality at an Aquashella fish show event, but it's easier to start with in-line breeding.

I've had piles and piles of mutt Guppies, my Jack Dempsey's loved them and my ex-wife's freshwater Flounders loved the baby mutt Guppies, those Flounder's grew from 2 inches to 4 inches rather quickly and my Jack Dempsey's bred often. 

They're your fish and you can do whatever you want with them, but if you should decide to breed show quality Guppies, you let me know and I'll walk you through the process.

Sincerely

Gator

[JettsPapa]

On 8/11/2021 at 8:38 PM, lefty o said:

its not uncommon to have a new fish or two die after getting them, but thats enough numbers to make me think something is wrong in the qt. i would try and figure out what is up before getting more fish.

If it was anything but guppies I'd agree with you, but I've also had terrible luck keeping store bought guppies alive more than two weeks.  From reading reports here and other places I don't believe that's uncommon.