WHY I KEEP LOSING FISH!! I NEED A MENTOR ON THIS

[IsisP]

Firstly, I DONT WANNA GIVE UP. I always pray to God for forgiveness, for all the three little guppies' souls I take away on my way to becoming a good fishkeeper. Thank you if you read it all to the end, I appreciate you a lot.

THIS IS MY AQUARIST ROUTINE UNTIL NOW

Tank: 10 G. / Planted. Anubias and Java Ferns. Cycled. Three months old. Species: Guppies and Endler Guppies (smaller fish), 5 Fish. 2 Mistery Snails. And air pump. Automatic Heather at 78. automatic light device for plants programmed to function from 9 am to 3 pm for the lights. 

Filter: AQUEON QUIET FLOW 10 MODIFIED with Pre-filter sponge, Internal sponges, and Biorings. 

Water testing at the end of each week during the month. Never had any Nitrate or Ammonia spikes since the end of cycling. Ph is always around 7.5. Kh 80 to 120 and Gh 180.

Water changes every two weeks between 25% and 50%. 

Quarantine Tank (10 G) with adjustable heather and Sponge Filter, hiding decoration. 

Medicine: Aquairum COOP MED TRIO. Melafix from API, and Aquarium Salt. 

. For food I have dry brine shrimp, Spirulina FLUVAL BUG BITE, SERA fry food and SERA O-NIP Treats made from tubifex worms, krill, and mosquito larvae. But I give them Boiled Peas with a touch of Garlic once a week. 

MY PROBLEM NOW

All of a sudden and one by one they started to act lethargic and be still in one place. They looked good and shiny, I separated them into the quarantine tank and treated them with salt, but I haven't had any improvement and they end up dying. Just happened with guppies.

The rest of the fish ate normally, swam around, and didn't show any symptoms.

The one I am trying to save right now has started to act shocked and stand still at the same spot on the tank surface. When I tried to feed them, he suddenly became crazy and started flashing and bumping himself into the rocks. I immediately set up the Quarantine tank and put him there with 5 TBSP of salt treatment. Yesterday I saw him doing a stringy white poop. 

Did I Quarantine my fish? Yes. I put the new fish under the MED TRIO for one week, and after a couple of days and a water change at the end of the treatment, I put them into the display tank if I didn't see any symptoms. 

I just don't understand what the hell is happening or what am I doing wrong. And I really love this hobby, I learn every day and I research a little bit more every day. I want them to live happily and I have spent a lot of money on this. I am on a short budget, and I want to keep caring for guppy tanks and specialize in them because they fit into my budget. 

Please help me, don't be mean. I want to be a professional like all of you. The pic attached is the sick guppy.

[Colu]

Any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface lethargy flashing spitting food out sunken belly how long from the onset of symptoms to them dieing @IsisP

Edited November 11, 2023 by Colu

[IsisP]

On 11/10/2023 at 7:06 PM, Colu said:

Any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface lethargy flashing spitting food out sunken belly how long from the onset of symptoms to them dieing @IsisP

I can't remember exactly, but it could be a couple of weeks since the first symptoms and then death. However they just felt lethargic or in shock, I never saw sunken bellies or rapid breathing.

One of the ones that died before was a little bloated, I thought I had fed them too much. The next one who started acting weird just stopped eating and then developed damage on his tail, like fin rot.

The guppy I have now isolated just swam at the surface at the same place, barely move, try to eat but spotted the food, had stringy white poop and today he hit the tank substrate as if he wanna get rid of something. 

[Colu]

On 11/11/2023 at 1:19 AM, IsisP said:

I can't remember exactly, but it could be a couple of weeks since the first symptoms and then death. However they just felt lethargic or in shock, I never saw sunken bellies or rapid breathing.

One of the ones that died before was a little bloated, I thought I had fed them too much. The next one who started acting weird just stopped eating and then developed damage on his tail, like fin rot.

The guppy I have now isolated just swam at the surface at the same place, barely move, try to eat but spotted the food, had stringy white poop and today he hit the tank substrate as if he wanna get rid of something. 

What I would do is treat with paracleanse do three full course of treatment two weeks apart so treat on week 1 week 3 week 5 I would treat all the fish in the main tank as well 

[IsisP]

On 11/10/2023 at 7:21 PM, Colu said:

What I would do is treat with paracleanse do three full course of treatment two weeks apart so treat on week 1 week 3 week 5 I would treat all the fish in the main tank as well 

My Quarantine tank is already with 5 TBSP with salt, should I change the water and start para cleanse? i don't wanna kill them with salt and med overdose...

[Colu]

On 11/11/2023 at 1:28 AM, IsisP said:

My Quarantine tank is already with 5 TBSP with salt, should I change the water and start para cleanse? i don't wanna kill them with salt and med overdose...

You can use paracleanse with aquarium salt the salt will add essential electrolytes and aid Gill function and add an extra air stone during treatment just leave the salt in two weeks

Edited November 11, 2023 by Colu

[IsisP]

On 11/10/2023 at 7:32 PM, Colu said:

You can use paracleanse with aquarium salt the salt will add essential electrolytes and aid Gill function and add an extra air stone during treatment just leave the salt in two weeks

Ok, i will follow that. Can i keep you updated? I want to learn how to save fish and avoid these situations from happening, and I need a guide. Thank you so much for the help.😭

[finbean3]

IsisP: I just wanted to add a note of empathy and encouragement since I'm new to this hobby as well. (Started in July of this year) Like you, I've been enjoying and learning a lot with this hobby, but I'm also undergoing the stress of observing fish death in our own fish community. (Just lost our long fin Zebra Danio tonight after a full day of trying to figure out why he was sick. Still don't know and continuing to research.) I'm telling myself that this is part of being a fish keeper and if I'm going to continue in this hobby, then I have to learn from these events also. In time, we will learn how to better care for our pet fish to help them thrive while we have the pleasure of keeping them. 

Let's make sure to take breaks also so we don't stress ourselves out. As caretakers for fish, it does them no good if we exhaust our own resources. All the best to you and I would love to read more about what you learn from this. 

[pecosROB]

keep it up! it's OK, I have had a few fish die early on in the hobby as well and felt very discouraged and almost quit! this was about a year and half ago, now I just finished building a canopy for a 100 gallon tank - which I think is my 16th or 17th tank? lol

assuming your tank has been fully cycled, my suggestion would be to maybe do a weekly water change of about 15-20% of water instead of going every 2 weeks 25-50%. if your schedule only lets you do this every other week then I understand why you do 25-50%.

[IsisP]

On 11/13/2023 at 9:46 AM, pecosROB said:

keep it up! it's OK, I have had a few fish die early on in the hobby as well and felt very discouraged and almost quit! this was about a year and half ago, now I just finished building a canopy for a 100 gallon tank - which I think is my 16th or 17th tank? lol

assuming your tank has been fully cycled, my suggestion would be to maybe do a weekly water change of about 15-20% of water instead of going every 2 weeks 25-50%. if your schedule only lets you do this every other week then I understand why you do 25-50%.

I've lost a few guppies and I felt terrible, diagnose fish disease that isn't like ich is hard.. thanks for your help 😊

[IsisP]

On 11/10/2023 at 11:23 PM, finbean3 said:

IsisP: I just wanted to add a note of empathy and encouragement since I'm new to this hobby as well. (Started in July of this year) Like you, I've been enjoying and learning a lot with this hobby, but I'm also undergoing the stress of observing fish death in our own fish community. (Just lost our long fin Zebra Danio tonight after a full day of trying to figure out why he was sick. Still don't know and continuing to research.) I'm telling myself that this is part of being a fish keeper and if I'm going to continue in this hobby, then I have to learn from these events also. In time, we will learn how to better care for our pet fish to help them thrive while we have the pleasure of keeping them. 

Let's make sure to take breaks also so we don't stress ourselves out. As caretakers for fish, it does them no good if we exhaust our own resources. All the best to you and I would love to read more about what you learn from this. 

This is what I've been needing to hear or read since I started the hobby in August. I wish I could hug you, Thanks I really appreciate it! You're totally right 👍 I've been losing guppies and still figuring out how to prevent them to get sick or if that happens, save them. I've done tons of research, adequate my tank to be a guppy paradise and still suffer from fish loss. That specially hurts when the guppies were a little bit pricey! I'll be happy to exchange experience with you and know about your tanks! Feel free to leave a message anytime 🙂

As you wisely said, everything is part of the experience. Let's keep it up! 

[Nina]

I'm not sure what is wrong, but I've never been able to keep pet store guppies alive. I've had tons of success with tetras and rasboras living years and years, but the two times I bought guppies they were dead within hours or days. Guppies can be very weak. I've found other types of fish, like tetras and rasboras, very hardy. I also have very soft water, and I think that didn't help. Anyway, you may just be choosing the wrong type of fish. If they were raised in water that is different from yours at all, they may not make it. Try a hardier type of fish! 

[Revaria]

Ahh don't give up! I would say transitioning fish from the store to your home for the first 3-6 months is quite hard, but if you are successful then your fish should live a long time with care.

If you aren't successful multiple attempts might be needed before you are successful, it’s just part of mastering that particular species in my opinion. Besides you can always breed more once you get the hang of it.

Your tank seems to be doing fine as all the other fish are surviving, it may just be the guppies themselves. You can go back to the store and see how the rest of their stock have fared. Guppies tend to move from arrival to the store to someone's home sold quite quickly, so if a batch is bad or the weaker individuals have not been sorted out you may end up with them. Just an idea, but your local fish club may also be a good source of locally sourced guppies which would be hardier as well. 

For some reason in my fish room new guppies have a high chance of crashing within a couple of months, like yours they tend to do fine for a little bit, but end up shimmying and refusing food. It seems to happen to everyone, Stan Shubel was a famous guppy breeder who passed away a few years ago had individual guppies that would occasionally stop eating and start shimmying and that behavior would spread to the other fish. His solution was to stop feeding and also isolate the individuals before it affected the colonies. As for tail rot, he thought it stemmed from too much food being put into the aquarium increasing the likeliness of a bacterial infection. For me sometimes increasing the hardness of the water with shrimp minerals helps and they recover, but it doesn't always work. Regardless my workaround has been to breed them quickly as the babies will be much hardier and more conditioned to your water than the parents, so if I lose the parents the colony will survive! 

[finbean3]

On 11/18/2023 at 2:03 PM, IsisP said:

I'll be happy to exchange experience with you and know about your tanks! Feel free to leave a message anytime 🙂

IsisP, I'm glad to have encouraged a fellow fish keeper. And while I understand you are having trouble with your guppies, I am intrigued to learn more about them. I have a coworker who has guppies and has even had them breed. I suppose that is one thing I know about guppies: that they are live bearers! And I just read that they like harder water, like what you have. 

For an update on my long fin zebra Danio, I have a topic/thread here: 

 

 

[IsisP]

On 11/22/2023 at 12:00 AM, finbean3 said:

IsisP, I'm glad to have encouraged a fellow fish keeper. And while I understand you are having trouble with your guppies, I am intrigued to learn more about them. I have a coworker who has guppies and has even had them breed. I suppose that is one thing I know about guppies: that they are live bearers! And I just read that they like harder water, like what you have. 

For an update on my long fin zebra Danio, I have a topic/thread here: 

 

 

Yeah! My water looks apparently perfect! Or that's what I thought, I'm still figuring out what the heck is causing illness in them. Because my snails thrive, my plants thrive, but my guppies don't. I've lost another one recently. I think I finally found out what was going on, I started to see tail rot in one of them so I started Maracyn's emergency treatment immediately and he started to get better! Still has a short tail but has energy, swims with his tank mates, and eats, I have high expectations of him. Yes, they give birth to live young but I have never bred them, maybe in the near future. Guppies are really beautiful and colorful fish to watch, but they are sensible. I recommend The Guppy Channel on YouTube and also Cory's Aquarium CoOp videos about them, they are his favorite fish! I am rewatching all of that to keep learning because I'm determined to have a guppy paradise. 

I have a red guppy named *Canijo*, which means *bully* in Spanish haha, he is terrible with some tank mates sometimes, he likes to chase them and any weak fish he finds. Is my fault he turned like that because I did a fish-in-cycling when I bought him and he was alone for a long time, he became territorial. If you wanna get guppies, PLEASE CONSIDER BUY THEM IN GROUPS!! Don't buy them alone.. I also have three Endlers, a mini guppie's cousin

I have read your story, I'm really sorry about your Danio he looked as beautiful as your other fish. I would love to have Glofish one day. I think that to be more successful and not buy any medicine everybody tells us to use, we must research for common illnesses of the fish species we are keeping and just buy the necessary medicine which helps us to prevent and treat that illnesses.

One of the things I have learned from this hobby is that EVERYONE HAS ITS OWN METHODS to do fishkeeping right, sometimes it will be common, and sometimes not. Each tank is different and each hobbyst too. Don't be desperate or act impulsively, choose carefully the method that you feel could work for your fish. And while we learn, everything results better if we move slowly and steadily.

Thank you for reading if you get to this point!

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/10/2023 at 4:42 PM, IsisP said:

Water testing at the end of each week during the month. Never had any Nitrate or Ammonia spikes since the end of cycling. Ph is always around 7.5. Kh 80 to 120 and Gh 180.

Water changes every two weeks between 25% and 50%. 

Quarantine Tank (10 G) with adjustable heather and Sponge Filter, hiding decoration.

What is the temp?  I would suggest adding some ceramic media or lava rock to the scape and verify that temperature is ok.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

In your quarantine tank, do keep an eye on ammonia level if you added the salt all at once.  The salt will slow the beneficial bacteria on the filter.  It will spring back; it just takes time.  If you have a reading, do a 25% water change and use a dechlorinator detoxifies ammonia, such as Prime or Fritz Complete.  Repeat the ammonia test daily.

I'm so sorry for your losses.  Keep your chin up and keep going!  You got this.

[Lennie]

I find guppies, especially imported guppies, problematic overall. 

You may be a newbie and asking for help. I have been keeping fish for 15+ years, and I still lost majority of my guppies as I got imported ones. I think it has something to do with pathogens and immunity development. The parents do breed. A few of the parents make it. The rest sadly dies over time. The ones that survive this acclimation period to your tank and all the offspring of the imported parents  that born in your tank do great. Also idk if this is valid for guppies, but some fish may be raised in brackish conditions so they have no immunity development and when they end up in your tank, they just dont do well. Because they have been so isolated and sterile until that time.

 

My suggestion would be go for the hobbyist bred options if possible and get them from a good source. If you already got hobbyist bred ones, then idk. 

[IsisP]

On 11/22/2023 at 2:43 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

What is the temp?  I would suggest adding some ceramic media or lava rock to the scape and verify that temperature is ok.

I have an automatic heater on 79 F always .