# help with guppies



## lizardboyyy (Jun 15, 2010)

hi guys i gad six guppies and now only have one does anybody know why they keep dieing on me i have a 25 watt heater set at 28 degrees and i filter some gravel and some pebbles and they keep dieing


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## Jay84 (Jun 15, 2010)

I would say 28 degrees is way too hot for guppies! When i kept them they were at 22 - 24 degrees.

I think if you are killing Guppies you should maybe stick to goldfish lol


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## lizardboyyy (Jun 15, 2010)

in the booklet it says 26 to 28 degrees


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## lizardboyyy (Jun 15, 2010)

and when i got them they were kept at 28


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## camt44 (Jun 15, 2010)

I kept them around 25 Ii think, there is a lot more to a fish tank though, like ammonia, nitrates and all that, temperature is not the biggest concern at all really, as long as its constant, it'll be fine. Do some quick research, and you'll soon see what you're doing wrong
Cam


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## bump73 (Jun 15, 2010)

Mine are kept at around 22-24 and are breeding like crazy, i'd lower the temp and see how they go. I know there's a place that breeds them in dams in victoria so the water temp there would be down around 16 degrees..
Ben


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## camt44 (Jun 15, 2010)

Actually, go onto this site, and check out the articles they have on freshwater basics and stuff, and have a look through the forums, it is like APS, just for fish! Aquarium/Fishkeeping Articles at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish
Cam


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## Mighty_Moose (Jun 15, 2010)

At the moment I keep my guppies around 25-26 and are breeding like crazy What is your PH level btw ?


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## Serpentess (Jun 15, 2010)

I kept mine at about 26C. 
What sort of filter and air system do you have?
Do you use water conditioners?
What do you feed them?


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## lizardboyyy (Jun 15, 2010)

havnt tested the ph need to get a test kit because i have lost mine


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## lizardboyyy (Jun 15, 2010)

i just have a small standard air filter no conditioners and tropical flakes


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## pyrodarknessanny (Jun 15, 2010)

the temp is fine, i think you will find that the problem is the PH of the water 
or the fish were ill to start with


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## lizardboyyy (Jun 15, 2010)

will get some conditioners and ph test kit


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## Bearded_Lady (Jun 15, 2010)

you need water conditioner/ ager... it gets rid of chlorine other nasties... probably what is killing your fish


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## ericrs (Jun 15, 2010)

alot of specialized aquarium shops now do free water testing. so bring in a sample. half a L should do it. they can test for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, ph, hardness, and other various tests also. also from having from goldfish to full on tropical marine. it is the filter that will make or break a succsessfull tank setup.it does not matter what you feed to a fish or what plants you buy or what your gravel if the filter is crap. same as heat to a snake. what are you running? tell us how many L are in your aquarium then the flow of your filter (liters per hour). your filter should pump 3-4 times what your aquarium holds to be efficient. some of my filters i wouldn't clean for 4-6 months without any issues with my African Cichlids breeding readily because they were over efficent. i know this is very different to your situation but just as an example. how much filter media is in the filter? in the end 99% of problems with the average aquarium setup is because of piss poor filtration. water quality is do or die to fish. i also never used water conditioner unless i could smell the chlorine in the tap water.
so what i think you should do is 25% water change every 3-4 days and get your water tested for EVERYTHING. just open the yellow pages and ring the closest aquarium shop and ask if they do testing.
get a small bag of activated carbon and sit in the corner of the tank where there is good flow. this sucks all they bad **** out of the water quick smart and i had these permanently as they cost about 5 bucks and last 4-5 months. best biological filtration supplement you could ask for.
now for mechanical filtration. as i said before make sure your filter has got good media that is doing its job. replacement media is cheap and could very well fix your problems. i noticed you filter your gravel. that's great, your getting the waste out so the filter doesn't have to work as hard, keep that up one a week to once a fortnight if its only guppies in the tank pm or email me if you want with any issues if this dont work. i dont have a cert 3 in aquaculture for nothing. hope this helps mate and good luck with it all


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## dragonscrawling (Jun 15, 2010)

As stated above you need to find out all those parameters in the tank and optimize them for the guppies.
I agree that a good filtration system will solve most problems.
A tip with guppies, try to buy locally bred stock. Imports often sit in solutions of tetracycline at the exporters, if you want to know more about this then pm me.
The only thing I would disagree with is using carbon. 'Purigen' is light-years ahead as a chemical filter media and you never have to buy more because you can recharge it.
I think it would be very risky not to use water conditioner/ager, all tap water has chlorine and chloramine in it, at low levels it will kill the bacteria in your filter and the bacteria is the whole reason to have a filter, at higher levels it will kill the fish. I suggest using 'prime', it also binds ammonia and nitrite to neutralize their toxic affects, this might just save your fish as it did my lungfish one very distressing evening. Also if Adelaide's tap water is anything like Brisbane's, at different times the tap water itself will have high levels of ammonia and nitrite so it is just much safer to use prime.


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## giglamesh (Jun 15, 2010)

there a pretty hardy fish. did you use straight tap water or tank because if your using tank dont waste money on a dechlorinate


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## dragonscrawling (Jun 15, 2010)

giglamesh said:


> there a pretty hardy fish. did you use straight tap water or tank because if your using tank dont waste money on a dechlorinate


 
Hardy once established in the right conditions. Even if using tank water you should use conditioner for the heavy metals. On tank water, if you were using this it might be the source of problems because it is extremely soft compared to the tap water they are likely being kept in the shop in, and the change in water hardness has osmotic effects on the fish that can kill them.


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## invader-zim (Jun 15, 2010)

What do you guys use to make the water all good?, I use Prime to remove all the nasties, have placed the bag in the water for 20 mins just in case, but temperature is usually the same and I have had this same problem 2 times now and have given up on wasting my money.


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## Aussie-Pride (Jun 22, 2010)

Cert 3 in aquaculture? what jobs can you get with that?


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## Kitmin (Jun 22, 2010)

Hi I am in Brisbane and dont use a heater at all in mine. In the winter they dont breed as much. Are you breeding them to feed to your herps?


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## Tsubakai (Jun 24, 2010)

invader-zim said:


> What do you guys use to make the water all good?, I use Prime to remove all the nasties, have placed the bag in the water for 20 mins just in case, but temperature is usually the same and I have had this same problem 2 times now and have given up on wasting my money.


 
I use Prime and a bit of salt to harden the water. I also drip acclimate small fish to get them used to the new water slowly using some old air line tubing and a clamp valve to slowly drip the new water into the bag. I aim to have diluted their original water down to about 20% over two hours and haven't had any problems.


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## da_donkey (Jun 24, 2010)

most people start with 6 and end up with 600, i am trying to cull mine with no success. lots of fat turtles at the moment!

dont know if anyone has said it yet but in regards to temps dont go off the heaters readings (they can be out by buttloads), use a thermometer.

donks

P.s if your having trouble with yr guppies maybe hang off on the discus or the marine tanks for a bit


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## RushiesReptiles (Jun 24, 2010)

Temp isnt important. 24 to 28 is fine. Or bump it up to 30 for a day or two, for the treatment of whitespot. I had a pet shop for years, and the(secret) as such is a small peice of copper pipe. I use to buy min 500 Guppies at a time and the copper keeps them disease free. Every water change add salt also. Tablesalt is fine, the ratio is 1 tspn per 40 ltrs of water. Do quarter water change every two weeks and dont over feed and your guppies will thrive...


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## mblissett (Jun 24, 2010)

I wouldn't say temp, ph or chlorine is killing your fish.....

I would say it is either ammonia or nitrates....

I have guppies in my axolotyl tank (15 degrees, alkaline ph) and they are breeding like crazy.....

I also have guppies in my discus tank (29 degrees, acidic ph) and once again they are thriving - prob breeding but never see babies cause of the other fish eating them. 

Get a product called Cycle its made by nutrafin and will put good bacteria in your water. If ammonia is a problem there is a product called Prime which will eliminate ammonia.

Plus depending on tank size..... put about a tea spoon of rock or pool salt in your aquarium per 30-40 ltrs..... Fights of nasties and puts electrolytes back in the water.....


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## Tsubakai (Jun 25, 2010)

RushiesReptiles said:


> Temp isnt important. 24 to 28 is fine. Or bump it up to 30 for a day or two, for the treatment of whitespot. I had a pet shop for years, and the(secret) as such is a small peice of copper pipe. I use to buy min 500 Guppies at a time and the copper keeps them disease free. Every water change add salt also. Tablesalt is fine, the ratio is 1 tspn per 40 ltrs of water. Do quarter water change every two weeks and dont over feed and your guppies will thrive...


 
I've heard this about copper too. An aquaculture pathologist I spoke to swears by putting a small coil of copper wire in the filter (electrical wire with the coating stripped off will do). Haven't needed to do it myself but might try it someday.


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## ingie (Jun 25, 2010)

Hi, 
I haven't read everyone else's advice but I used to work in a pet store/aquarium and take care of loads of fish. I am not sure of your experience with fish so I will just write as if you are a beginner and hopefully something will help you! Sorry if you are not a beginner - Maybe someone reading will get some use out of this too though 


Some individual guppies are hardier than others and will survive in non ideal conditions - However, all different types of fish have different ideal water chemistry needs depending on where in the world they are originally from and what the water is like there - 

Temperature
Guppies are tropical and like warm water - Doesn't have to be exact - somewhere from 24-28. 

Water hardness
They also like 'hard' water and Australian water is 'soft'. To fix this you add salts to the water - Have you seen the blue salt crystals they sell in pet stores? It is a mixture of normal and epsom salts. If you go into your local pet store/aquarium they will tell you how much to use for your tank size. (You add more for guppies than you would for gold fish or other tropicals like Angelfish or neons). ** Water naturally evaporates out of your tank but the salts stay behind - so if you are just 'topping up' instead of taking out and adding more water, there is no need to add more salts.

Water pH
Guppies like a neutral pH as close to 7 as you can get it. Our tap water has a relatively neutral pH so the more often you do water changes the better your pH will be. Fish waste products are acid so the pH will naturally drop over time without a water change. 

Chlorine in tap water
This kills fish and burns their skin - if not straight away, it will still lower their immune system allowing other things like bad water chemistry and/or usually non problematic diseases to kill them (Wrong pH and water hardness also causes the same immune system failure). There is cheap liquid you get at the pet shop that gets rid of chlorine- or else you can leave buckets of water in the sun for a few days and this will do the same thing.

Good Bacteria & water changes
One of the biggest killers of pet fish is people cleaning the tank too much - Good bacteria grows SLOWLY on all the surfaces in your tank - this bacteria is what breaks down all the toxic fish waste (ammonia>nitrites>nitrates) into neutral harmless products. Every time a person tips out all the water and washes everything down they kill all the good bacteria so then when the fish makes waste, it hangs around in the water and makes them sick and often die - This is why so many people can't keep goldfish alive very long!!- Ammonia lowers the immune system and also 'burns' their skin - It takes about 4 weeks to grow the bacteria back but by then if you have a lot of fish it will be too late and a lot of people may have done a complete wash again by then anyway. 

The best thing to do is to only take out 1/4 of the water every time you do a change - using a gravel vac/siphon so you can get the waste out from under the gravel without washing off the good bacteria. These are cheap at the pet store and worth it! If you take out too much then when you add the new water it will be cold and have different pH and hardness to the existing water and it will shock the fish and also lower their immune system. Obviously the more often you can do small changes the better - Once a week would be a great amount but as time goes by you could do it less when there is more good bacteria present.

I really hope this helps, goodluck


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## Aussie-Pride (Jun 28, 2010)

Wow good effort ingie!


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## dossy (Jul 20, 2010)

hey i keep guppys as these guys (and girls) have mentioned the temp is not a major factor as long as it is not extream and as long as it is constnt the biggest killer of guppys are nitrate nitrite and amonia basicly as i hope you know there is good backteria in the tank. when you add fish you increase the amount of amonia and this bactiria eats it so if you add to many fish to fast the bactiria will not cope with the increse and it builds up this will kill the fish same as nitrate and nitrite active carbon will absorb chemicals but if you need to medicate the fish you will need to take it out otherwise the medication will be all for nothing. also how big is the tank if the fish are crowded they will fight for top spot. if you do turn down your temp do not turn it down quickly do it about 1 degree a day otherwise it will stress the fish to much i have kept fish for 3.5 years and always had guppys if you need any help or would like tips just send me an email and i will do my best to answer it. i may not have a cert 3 tho 

regards dossy

p.s 
sorry about any of my spelling


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## VR1ton (Jul 22, 2010)

I agree with above, but one thing that the others have not mentioned is if they are imported or local breed guppies. Imported guppies have a virus that they have built up a resistance to over the years, but the local guppies are not immune to it. So if you've bought improted guppies & local guppies you will keep losing them. Even if you buy another fish out of a tank containing imported guppies (eg a catfish), the water in which the fish has come from will contain the virus, so upon introducing the new fish, you are inadvertently introducing the disease. I used to own my own Aquarium Store, and most shops & even some wholesalers will not tell you this, in fact some still deny there is a virus. Once your water parameters are up to scratch, if you are still losing fish, ask your shop if they are local or imports. If they are imported ( most of the better colours & tails generally are) then stick with imports only.


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