# Guppy Questions



## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

It's been years since I kept Guppies and I've had them in my 20G now for about a month or so. However, despite a perfectly cycled tank they have been slowing dying off one at a time. I started with 9 and now I am down to 4. Temperature is 78, ammonia is 0, and the ph is neutral. Any idea what could be going on?


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## blindkiller85 (Jan 8, 2011)

I'm assuming you keep a good eye and check on the rest of your parameters. Nitrate/Nitrite. As this would be a no brainer for you. Dead fish do release harmful amounts of chemicals, but I would imagine they are out as soon as you see them as well. But a water change following a dead fish is a good thing.

Otherwise, male female ratio's or did you just go in and buy some? Could be the problem there, could be some harassment as they are setting up the fish hierarchy and they just die. I have seen fish be harassed that were weaker than the rest bringing the group down, as a whole and they are eventually killed.

Other than that, how's your hiding spots for usual harassment? Plenty of cover??

If it's not anything as you or I have described, they may just be weaker fish that didn't make it.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

blindkiller85 said:


> I'm assuming you keep a good eye and check on the rest of your parameters. Nitrate/Nitrite. As this would be a no brainer for you. Dead fish do release harmful amounts of chemicals, but I would imagine they are out as soon as you see them as well. But a water change following a dead fish is a good thing.
> 
> Otherwise, male female ratio's or did you just go in and buy some? Could be the problem there, could be some harassment as they are setting up the fish hierarchy and they just die. I have seen fish be harassed that were weaker than the rest bringing the group down, as a whole and they are eventually killed.
> 
> ...


They're all male guppies. I did test my nitrate/nitrite levels a week or so ago and they were fine so I dunno what it is. If the remaining four die I'll just switch to Tetras of some kind.


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## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

We've had the same issue with perfectly healthy-guppies and good water parameters. Couldn't figure out why, so we gave up on guppies. I still see pretty ones every once in a while and get a little sad because it boggles my mind that the "easy-to-keep" fish die like flies, but we have no issues keeping more sensitive fish like loaches.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

hXcChic22 said:


> We've had the same issue with perfectly healthy-guppies and good water parameters. Couldn't figure out why, so we gave up on guppies. I still see pretty ones every once in a while and get a little sad because it boggles my mind that the "easy-to-keep" fish die like flies, but we have no issues keeping more sensitive fish like loaches.


Yeah, I don't understand it either. I have kept much harder fish for years, but for some reason it's not going well with the guppies. If they don't make it then I'll probably go with a large school of Neons or maybe Black Skirt Tetras.


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

My sister has a similar problem many years ago. What seemed to do the trick for her, was food source. As I think many are omnivores, a variety helped her out.

Its been a long time since I had guppies, but Males do harass each other a lot normally. With no females, I assume they are less aggressive with each other? I never did a only male or female, always enjoyed the courting dances lol.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Since I moved here, I've learned that guppies do not thrive in soft water. I add cichlid salt and Malawi buffer and they do much better. But you also may want to get guppies from a breeder. I am hearing about a lot of dying chain store guppies.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

emc7 said:


> Since I moved here, I've learned that guppies do not thrive in soft water. I add cichlid salt and Malawi buffer and they do much better. But you also may want to get guppies from a breeder. I am hearing about a lot of dying chain store guppies.


I got them from Wal-Mart so that is probably the problem.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Slow death over time could be internal parasites. Are they skinny? You could try Prazi-Pro + medicated food.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

emc7 said:


> Slow death over time could be internal parasites. Are they skinny? You could try Prazi-Pro + medicated food.


They're not skinny that I can tell.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

over the past 6 months i have had a lot of my black moscow guppies die off...and for no apparent reason..i feed a variety of foods...temps in the mid 70's or so...
it could well be the softness of the water...will have to check it out...


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

lohachata said:


> over the past 6 months i have had a lot of my black moscow guppies die off...and for no apparent reason..i feed a variety of foods...temps in the mid 70's or so...
> it could well be the softness of the water...will have to check it out...


I probably won't get a chance to test the hardness anytime soon. I did just pick up 8 Zebra Danios because I know they are super hardy from my own personal experience and that they won't bother the guppies.


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## Ladayen (Jun 20, 2011)

erm.. Zebra danios are fin nippers. I think it's fairly likely they will bother the guppies. As mentioned above, guppies and most other livebearers need hard water to survive long term.

Many guppies are treated as feeders. Which means neglected and poorly treated, leading to them carrying fungus', disease and bacteria. They are the swimming dead so to speak. Coming from walmart especially.


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Actually Layayen, I have six in with my gupppies and they never bother them. I've had those danios for almost a year now. SUper hardy. Only have had two die. If they are in a big enough group, they wont bother them...Ghost, I've been experiencing that too. I honestly don't know how hard/soft my water is. Guess I'll have to find out....I started with 6, and now im down to only three of the original (bought three months ago) and one i don't think is going to make it because she has a case of septicemia. Shes not eating at all... I've added two, so i have 4 in the main tank...Guppies are my favorite, but...just aren't striving like those danios. After their gone.. I might just have to get something else, even though I've enjoyed having them sooo much. Maybe not though. I have a lfs that has some VERY healthy guppies. I'll take a trip up their some time and get myself the best ones..


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

ZebraDanio12 said:


> Actually Layayen, I have six in with my gupppies and they never bother them. I've had those danios for almost a year now. SUper hardy. Only have had two die. If they are in a big enough group, they wont bother them...Ghost, I've been experiencing that too. I honestly don't know how hard/soft my water is. Guess I'll have to find out....I started with 6, and now im down to only three of the original (bought three months ago) and one i don't think is going to make it because she has a case of septicemia. Shes not eating at all... I've added two, so i have 4 in the main tank...Guppies are my favorite, but...just aren't striving like those danios. After their gone.. I might just have to get something else, even though I've enjoyed having them sooo much. Maybe not though. I have a lfs that has some VERY healthy guppies. I'll take a trip up their some time and get myself the best ones..


Yeah, I am at a loss myself since I have a fairly good track record for keeping fish alive long-term. I also watched the Danios close today and they didn't even seem interested in the Guppies. I'll be sure to check on them in the morning when I had back to work.


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## silent069 (Jul 4, 2011)

My fiance bought 5 male guppies a few months ago. She had a cycled tank all parameters were in check but slowly her fish were dying off. After a month she was left with 1 male. We bit the bullet and bought him 2 females and have had no issues at all for 3 months.

As much as these are considered community fish I don't plan on keeping guppies in any other ratio's. And if these ones kick the bucket she will be moving onto other species.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

You might try endler's. I believe if they aren't the same species as guppies, they are very close relatives. Since they haven't been in the hobby as long, they are not as inbred and may be healthier.


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

emc7-my lfs has some of those. I'd never seen them before till 2 weeks ago. They are tinY! How big do they get? The guy said the didn't get any bgger and its hard to belive that. Might just have to buy some. They're awfully pretty.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Mine are tiny. Adult females 1/3 the size of guppies.


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Do they breed the same way as guppies? May just have to get some.


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## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

They will cross breed with guppies. Makes beautiful babies. There's a lot of rumors going around saying that the offspring is infertile, but I have had absolutely no problems with them, and I often see lyertails in LFS that are part endler. They have the potential to get big, if bred right, just like normal guppies did. Guppies that you see most of the time are HUGE now, but I'm much more fond of the smaller bodies.


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

Ghost Knife said:


> Yeah, I am at a loss myself since I have a fairly good track record for keeping fish alive long-term. I also watched the Danios close today and they didn't even seem interested in the Guppies. I'll be sure to check on them in the morning when I had back to work.


Last few batches of Danios I had ended up acting fine for about a month, then they started chasing nipping each other, killing off 3 of their own. Once the group got under 4-5 they spread out, and began nipping the other fish. It was really bizarre. Many years ago I had few problems that I remember with them. Recent experience is they are little psychos cracked out. I figured mine was a isolated instance this last time.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

one of the problems is that guppies and endlers will interbreed...so now the real true endler species is disappearing at a very rapid rate...so folks won't be getting endlers...just mixed breed livebearers...


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## P.senegalus (Aug 18, 2011)

My male guppy died too. I turned the light on and all the fish were normal. When I came back to feed them he was dead. No signs he was about to die. The one fry I found is a female, and I live 2 hours from the nearest pet shop. Now I have 4 female guppies and no male. This was my first time with guppies too.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

I lost another Guppy sometime last night and it wasn't easy getting the body away from my largest shrimp as he was determined to make a meal out of it. Anyway, the Zebra Danios are doing fine as I expected, but I still can't figure out what's slowly killing the Guppies off. The only thing I can think would be the hardness of the water, but I have no way to test it at the moment.


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Ghost Knife said:


> I lost another Guppy sometime last night and it wasn't easy getting the body away from my largest shrimp as he was determined to make a meal out of it. Anyway, the Zebra Danios are doing fine as I expected, but I still can't figure out what's slowly killing the Guppies off. The only thing I can think would be the hardness of the water, but I have no way to test it at the moment.


I think im going to give up on guppies and switch to endlers. I've spent too much money buying more and more and my tank is perfect like yours. love my danios though..


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

ZebraDanio12 said:


> I think im going to give up on guppies and switch to endlers. I've spent too much money buying more and more and my tank is perfect like yours. love my danios though..


I think that it's probably the hardness. In my experience hardness doesn't bother most fish, but I have discovered in the last couple weeks that Guppies tend to be more sensitive to it.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

there are a couple of things that could be happening...the hardness or i think the lack of it could be an issue.diet is another...it could be possible that we are giving them too much protein..it could also be tankmates...except in my case..guppies are the only fish in the tank..i will continue to to monitor their tanks and see what i come up with..


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

lohachata said:


> there are a couple of things that could be happening...the hardness or i think the lack of it could be an issue.diet is another...it could be possible that we are giving them too much protein..it could also be tankmates...except in my case..guppies are the only fish in the tank..i will continue to to monitor their tanks and see what i come up with..


I appreciate it loha. I vary their diet with each feeding, but it still may be too much protein.


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Ghost Knife said:


> I think that it's probably the hardness. In my experience hardness doesn't bother most fish, but I have discovered in the last couple weeks that Guppies tend to be more sensitive to it.


I don't know what our waters at. Guess I'll get something to test it with. I found 8 baby guppies today. total 24 babies. maybe i wont give up.


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

All male guppies? That's the problem! They need their women!


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

snyderguy said:


> All male guppies? That's the problem! They need their women!


Boy do they! Little rabbits thess guppies are..


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