help me!!!

[fishyfinder]

well to start off i have a 10 gallon guppy tank with a few small cory cats and a quickly growing number of snails i had 9 beautiful guppies in it but 4 have died from what i dont know, i cant figure it out. I changed the water after the first one died of a sudden and now about every week a perfectly health lookin fish just dies i cant figure it out because there are about four babies fishies swimming around. i thought if something would be really wrong the babbies would die first. if anyone has any clues or suggestions please let me know

[mandarin11]

You have to many fish for that tank. I know keeping a lot of guppies in a 10 gallon is tempting, but the same bio load rules apply. The "old-school" way of thinking about bio load was 1 inch of fish to 1 gallon of water, but now many aquarists believe that that is to much for a tank. The fancy guppies can be temperamental about water parameters as well.

What temperature is the tank at and what are the nitrates and other readings at? Also how many males and females are in the tank?

[mateob333]

Is it possible the guppies have died from age? Guppies don't live very long, I've heard.

[lunatik_69]

Im assuming this is FW, but I would have to agree to check your parameters.

[coral reefer]

A reduced level of oxygen in your water combined with a shortfall on other water parameter levels may be the problem...I believe that guppies are live bearers as well, like Mollies and Platys which makes them less hardy than brooders especially.

[gazog]

I am sorry for your loss, How long have you had them?

Guys were talking guppies here, I have kept up to 8 or 10 and 30 or 40 babies in a gallon pickle jars for years. As long as water changes are done every couple of days there should not be any problems. I used to breed fancy guppies and give them away to whom ever wanted them just because I thought they were pretty and I liked to watch them give birth. I can remember having tanks and tanks of them and when I ran out of tanks I started using gallon jars.

The usual 1" per gallon really does not apply here and a ten gallon tank is more than enough for 9 guppies and 2 cats. And as far as water parameters go about the only thing you really need to worry about is PH they get a little persnickety about that. I have seen them swimming in water that was thick with god only know what like some bettas in the stores in those little bowels (CRUEL). As far as being live breeders and being less hardy I never really found that, just not as long lived as some others.

I am leaning toward what mateob333 said, they don't live to long. That is why they breed so much. If you have a breeding trio for 12 months to a year and half in my experience you doing good. But still it would not hurt to check your PH or Amonia

[fishyfinder]

i checked everything over and i found out that my city water was really bad ph level of about 8.0 or so i fixed that and nothing else is wrong and my fish seem to be doing way better since i changed the ph level to neutral or 7.0 i dont know what the nitrate level were i got home and my dad said they were fine and the temperature is at 75 degrees there are four females now with two tiny babies left and two males thanks for the suggestions guys

[gazog]

Glads everything is Okay, like I said they get a little tweaked about PH but other than that they are usually bullet proof. But don't get me wrong, losses DO HAPPEN......

Let see two males and 4 females... You had better get a couple of females or those two little males will run those 4 ragged. I always had at least 6 to one male... Only down side to that is the males sometimes killed themselves thinking they had to get hold of all those little females, but it was great fun watching the little boogers go!

[fishyfinder]

gazog thanks for the advice haha yes horny lil guys huh lol well im about to take my girlfriend out to eat and she wants to get a few hermit crabs so i guess i get to go look at the fish yay finally a way in the store lol i think ill pick up a few more little guys but i have some cory cats and a little i mean little pleco and a few snails i breed to feed to my oscar and a little whisper shrimp so that might be a bio load for a ten if i get anymore im moving them up to a 20 when i have time and money

[Tangster]

how do you filer the water ? and did you use a water treatment when you change the water to remove the clorine if its city water and where is the P.H in a community F/W you want to keep it a 7.0 ? also add 1 tbl spoon of uniodized salt per gallon of water to the tank . Fancy/show Guppies are funny about the water P.H and a little acidic is better like 6.8 to 7.0 will be good . You using a good carbon ? test the P.H of the source water also that may be the cause and or a build of of water is pulling the P.H to low.