Why are my guppies always dying

[chrismas]

Ph and temp is good,feed them once a day.breeding is rapid...Why why why

[bottomdweller_fan]

If you could answer a few more questions about your tank, the experts here on the forum will have more information to help you.

• What are your water parameters: ammonia, nitrites, nitrates?
  
• How big is the tank?
  
• How long has the tank been set up?
  
• Do you have any other fish in the tank other than the guppies?
  
• Do they show any signs of illness before dying? Things like white spots, red areas, fast breathing, behaving unusually.
  

Hopefully, we can help you because I know how hard it is to have fish die and not have any idea what has happened.

Good luck.

[firestorm]

I have never had much luck with guppies either, yet I can keep more difficult fish alive, go figure. I recently lost both of my females who knows how, and the water quality has always been good, no signs of disease. I am definitely not one to help you with guppies, but I am in the same boat as you.

[krazy_Karma]

I found that with my guppies when they were dropping like flies it was due to not having salt in the tank, I didnt know to put sea salt in the tanks then, once I did my Guppies all did just fine.

Lisa

[devocole]

I heard guppies were a hearty starter fish. In my experience they were not very hardy and did not last a year.

[Crystal]

I used to have a small setup and breed guppies (100-150 fry a month). Almost my entire breeding stock died within a month - you could tell something was slightly wrong, and the fish would die in a week or so. Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates at zero. ph and salt good.

Then I caught the culprit.

It is some kind of very small leech-like parasite in the gill (not much bigger than the point of of an .5 mm penwhen curled up), I and several fish stores have been unable to identify it (though we also noticed that a lot of their guppy stock also had it). The gills seem to gape a bit more than usual and be a bit inflamed, a week later the guppy was usually dead - and you could occasionally catch the parasite crawl out of the gills a couple of hours before the guppy died. They can't swim, though they when falling they can alter their fall in a leech like swimming motion. You can't actually see the parasite in the gills, only when they come out.

To boot, I tried over a 1/2 dozen medications (one at a time of course - then in combination when they didn't work) on the few ailing survivors, none worked. The survival rate was zero so I even tried 1.5 and double dosage in quarantine tanks with an extra bit of salt, the parasite still survived (I saw squirming them on the bottom after the host died).

My entire stock was wiped out in 3-4 months. Funny thing though, the parasite never went after any of my other fish (platies, tetra, danios).

But I tried to reintroduce guppies into my tank 2-3 months later, no luck - the parasite is still there, and I still see it occasionally behind one of those plastic breeding traps I keep my hatched spixis in (and that trap is over two feet above the bottom of the tank!).

If anyone knows what this parasite is from my poor description, I would really like to know. Also if you know how to kill it I would love to know (besides squishing them when you catch them).

Might have to take one to my friend in the science lab and see if she can't figure out what it is...

[Ishkabod]

I used to have a small setup and breed guppies (100-150 fry a month). Almost my entire breeding stock died within a month - you could tell something was slightly wrong, and the fish would die in a week or so. Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates at zero. ph and salt good.

Then I caught the culprit.

It is some kind of very small leech-like parasite in the gill

To boot, I tried over a 1/2 dozen medications (one at a time of course - then in combination when they didn't work) on the few ailing survivors, none worked. The survival rate was zero so I even tried 1.5 and double dosage in quarantine tanks with an extra bit of salt, the parasite still survived (I saw squirming them on the bottom after the host died).

If anyone knows what this parasite is from my poor description, I would really like to know. Also if you know how to kill it I would love to know (besides squishing them when you catch them).

Might have to take one to my friend in the science lab and see if she can't figure out what it is...

I'd remove the other fish to a completely different tank then increase the tank water to as high as you can THen add bleach. rince the tank out with a complete water empty and refill 2 times and then let it dry out to get rid of any chlorine. Meanwhile i doubt the parasite can survive without a host for long so maybe one of the other fish is a carrier. Keep the fish in the quarantine tank and be sure no more parasites appear and if they do then you know one of the other fish is a host and hasn't died from it. The guppies being the smalles of the fish in the tank seems like they might not be able to survive haveing such a large parasite in it and so succumb to it and other larger fish might not.

Hope this might help

Now to the original question

Personally i bought some very pretty fancy tail male guppies with the really big tails. The guy at the store sold them to me and saild they were from a local breeder. They only lasted about a month and within a week both were dead. The really odd thing is i had fry in the tank that were days old so any water quality issues should have affected them first but no such luck. I desided after the last one died to let my water quality deteriorate a bit and see what happens.

Nothing not a single fish died. Personally i think the guppies were overbread for their colour and patterns and the other guppies i had didn't die because the parents were from two completely different types of guppies so more diversity.

The other reason is you could be buying fish that are allready fairly old and are near the end of their lifespan which is fairly short. Basicly DON'T buy the biggest female you see.

Good luck and answer the water questions and you can probably find your answer therer.

Um another thing that occurred to me is Are you adjusting your PH. If you are then the difference in the PH values of the place you bought them and the tank water you put them in could be causing the problem.

I have 3 more questions

How long do they last

Do you have a bacteria filled filter aka very slimy goodness

and how long have you been keeping fish(how much have you researched/learned) so that any advice doesn't go over or under your head

I hope this might help.

good luck i'm sure we can figure it out.

L

P.S. some guppies grew up with salt and some didn't so jukst like pleccos some need salt and others will die with too much salt. Either way a very gradual change from fresh to salt and vise versa is recommended

Edited November 18, 2008 by Ishkabod

[newbie2]

As those above, I have found that my "store bought" parents have died off rather quickly, but any surviving offspring continue to thrive. I have some that don't last a week from the store but the others are over a year now and going strong. I think the "diversity" theory is a good one.

Try breeding guppies from different stores/towns and see if that helps(?)

good luck

[Ishkabod]

Or buy from someone how has baby guppies they don't want anymore like me.

[firestorm]

I personally find it very disturbing how many people will say guppies are great starter fish. Not true in my opinion because they seem very delicate to me. I had to begin with 4 males and 2 females, I now have 2 males and 0 females left.....and some of their offspring. I use aquarium salt in all my tanks, so I don't think mine died due to the lack of salt. I think that because guppies have such a short life span, by the time we purchase them in stores, they are already at least half way through their lives. Don't know why they die off like that, but I haven't had much luck either. Yet my friend had them breeding like mad in her tank and she never lost any. So who really knows why they die so easily.

[darkangel]

I don't think I can answer your question on the parasite but my guess would be gill flukes. I have had guppies in my 72gal planted tank for over a year now and no problems. Amonia-0, Nitrite-0, Nitrate-15-20ppm, ph-5.5-6.0, Co2-4bbls per sec 24/7 no salt at all, and no ph buffers. Also have 4 black mollies in the same tank for over 2 years. Lots of babies but they just become food for all the other fish that I want to breed.

[w00t]

I've never had much luck with guppies either, but around here they aren't in the best health to begin with. Ones that I have bought at better places, and the odd time I raised fry they all lasted a good few years before dying off due to lifespan imo.

[Dmaan.]

IMO sometimes if you over care for a fish, it may die lol.

[Erin]

I had three guppies, only one has died, and that was due to my 3 year old putting a container a betta food into my 20 gal. But the two I have have been doing great. I think it just depends on where and what time of the year you get them. And a little luck on the brreeding. Since I work at a pet store its handy because I get fish that have been in our systems for a while, I know they are healthy so I bring them home... most of the time they aren't caught because they are too fast for other co-worker to catch.

[firestorm]

I think it's all the inbreeding with guppies as to why they die so easily. Too bad we can't get some wild caught guppies from somewhere and produce them from fresh strains