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Post by siobhan on Sept 13, 2016 16:09:22 GMT -5
It may sound odd to get attached to an individual guppy, but Alpha Male of the opalescent body and gorgeous black fan tail fathered nearly all the babies in my tank. Mama Fish wasn't terribly fond of him because he was relentless and never let her be, which may have contributed to his demise. Last night he was on the bottom of the tank, sort of trembling and clearly struggling. I do have clove oil for euthanizing sick fish, but I hoped he'd pull through. He didn't. Now Mama is getting some rest from his constant attentions and she is a giant compared to the babies -- I think she's actually a different breed of guppy than he was, though they managed to make babies anyway and those babies are in various stages now. None is big enough to make their own babies yet.
Female guppies can have several batches of babies long after they've been with a male, so she might yet produce some of Alpha's offspring. I'm sorry to see him go because he was pretty and interesting and always came to the glass to visit. He was the most spectacular looking of all of them.
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Post by easttex on Sept 13, 2016 17:43:15 GMT -5
I can understand getting attached to a fish, or to anything, really. I hope he went quickly after you last saw him, poor fellow.
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Post by biteybird on Sept 14, 2016 2:47:54 GMT -5
Sorry to hear of your loss. Of course you were attached to him! I think it would be strange if you weren't.
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Post by aaron on Sept 14, 2016 8:47:07 GMT -5
Sorry to hear that you lost your little alpha male friend. You gave him a nice life though  |
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Post by siobhan on Sept 14, 2016 9:09:08 GMT -5
Now I'm afraid something is off in the tank or some disease is running through. There are considerably fewer babies than there were, and last night Mama Fish died. I saw three babies behaving the same way Alpha did, sitting on the bottom sort of shivering. I'm sure they died overnight, too, but they were so small the snails could have disposed of them in no time. I managed to get Mama Fish out before they got very far with her this morning. I had to come to work early today and I worked late last night so I can't do anything until this evening. I'm going to do a water change and clean the filter but it may already be too late. And my guppy colony was doing so WELL before this happened. I finally had guppies and they were reproducing and it was all clicking along just as I'd hoped. Maybe I should just give up.
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Post by aaron on Sept 14, 2016 16:17:28 GMT -5
Are there any visible issues? Other than behavioral? Have you tested the water to make sure you don't have a nitrite/ammonia problem?
I'm sorry to hear about all of the casualties-- this is the part of keeping fish that I really dislike. Illness and death happen so often, and so quickly.
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Post by siobhan on Sept 14, 2016 16:55:53 GMT -5
I don't have any way of testing it myself and can't afford to take a sample to the pet shop for them to test it before the weekend. And I have to work this weekend, too, so I don't know when I'll be able to do it. This sort of thing always seems to happen when I'm having one of those work weeks. I'm home to sleep and change clothes and that's about it.
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Post by aaron on Sept 14, 2016 22:01:20 GMT -5
I guess this probably won't help, but for future reference, these help a lot in a pinch... They don't test for ammonia and they aren't incredibly accurate, but they are certainly accurate enough to identify a major problem: www.amazon.com/United-Group-Tetra-Easystrips-Test-Pack/dp/B00RODWXMO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1473908014&sr=8-2&keywords=6+in+1+test+strips+water+fishWorth having on hand. When you use these, nitrites should always read 0. If even the slightest nitrite reading is present, your fish are in danger. Same thing goes for ammonia, which you could test with these: www.amazon.com/Tetra-19540-EasyStrips-Ammonia-25-Count/dp/B0053PQZ9C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473908132&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=ammonia+test+strips&psc=1My amateur understanding -- A fish tank with a properly established baterial population will have a cycle that converts ammonia from waste products into nitrite, which in turn gets converted to nitrate. Nitrate is safe in reasonable levels for fish, but nitrite and ammonia in any detectable concentration will kill your fish fairly quickly. If things get out of whack, the levels can rise suddenly. It can be hard to establish this cycle in small tanks, especially from scratch, which is why when setting up a tank it can be very helpful to have dirty filter media from an established tank to "seed" your tank with the necessary bacteria to sustain this cycle. Sorry if you already know all this... It might not even be at the root of your problem, but I figured it couldn't hurt. |
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Post by easttex on Sept 15, 2016 6:19:59 GMT -5
I think between the two of you, Aaron and Siobhan, I have been scared off of my fish tank aspirations.
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Post by beccilouise on Sept 15, 2016 7:19:06 GMT -5
Siobhan I'm so sorry to read this, I really hope your fish are ok! I don't think it's silly to get attached to any living thing. When I was young, my sisters and I caught a black beetle. We kept him in a match box and fed him Cheerios. His name was Wilfred. After three days, my father found out and we were ordered to release Wilfred back into our garden. Though I know my father saved Wilfred's life from our seven-year-old antics, I was very sorry to see the little guy go. Every living thing deserves our respect, so being attached to a guppy is no different. I hope you're able to sort out any issues with the tank, it's horrible to feel helpless.
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Post by siobhan on Sept 15, 2016 10:52:36 GMT -5
I did a 50 percent water change and cleaned the filter the moment I got home from work yesterday. I tried to count babies, but they won't hold still so accuracy is questionable. I think there are around 20 babies, from really tiny ones to almost-grown ones. If they can hang on, and they seemed lively enough last night and this morning, they can keep the colony going. What's bizarre is the snails and the algae eater fish are doing just fine. The pleco (is that right?) in particular has grown and thrived in that tank. So I don't think it's the water. I'm afraid it's some disease that's gotten into the guppies only.
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Post by aaron on Sept 16, 2016 0:12:38 GMT -5
I'm not trying to push the water issue, I just happen to have picked up a lot about that topic over the years. You may very well be right that it is a disease that is just affecting the guppies. I've seen diseases kill off a specific type of fish and leave the rest untouched on a number of occasions. That said, in my experience, bottom feeders like plecos tend to be more resilient in problematic water than just about any other fish I've had. On the note of the water again (sorry)-- If the water troubles are of a high-nitrate nature (waste buildup), then a 50 percent water change will definitely help. If they are due to a not fully "cycled" tank, then it could help at first, and then hurt. Hopefully it's not a water issue in the first place. One thing you can do to be safe is put an extra dose of a water conditioner like Seachem Prime in the water to neutralize ammonia and nitrite if they happen to be present. It won't work forever, but it can help in a pinch. I'm no expert, just sharing things I've learned from my own haphazard fish caretaking. Could be totally irrelevant to your issue. And sorry Easttex-- taking care of fish can be a lot of fun, but a lot can go wrong and it can be really hard to figure out why. If you're the kind of person that gets really attached to their animals (which I think we all are here), it can be really painful to watch, too. Personally, I'll never purchase another fish. But I will be at it for many years to come, I suspect, thanks to my big cichlid friend. |
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Post by siobhan on Sept 16, 2016 11:01:05 GMT -5
The water and filter change seemed to help a lot. And probably there was too big a bio-load in the tank while the parent fish were still there. Mama Fish was twice the size of the others and all the babies that were there -- we're down quite a bit in numbers from then -- plus the adults, plus the pleco and the snails, was probably too much. Now that we're down to the babies and snails and Darty Fish (the pleco), it seems a lot better. I'll do another 50 percent water change in a few days and on Sunday I'm off and can take a water sample to Petsmart.
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Post by aaron on Sept 16, 2016 12:39:55 GMT -5
Glad to hear it! They should have those test strips, or something like them there. Worth picking up if you can. Just so you don't have to worry about going there to make sure there isn't a crisis... because in a crisis, you generally don't have time to go to the pet store But it does sound like you probably had a bio-load (nitrate) situation. That's a lot of little bodies in one tank Another thing I've learned is that it is much better to under feed than over feed. I feed my huge cichlid just 3 XL pellets every other day. I really would have thought he would starve at this kind of diet, but my fish expert friend told me he discovered that his fish live FAR longer if he feeds them minimally. I've been doing this for months and my cichlid is more active and energetic than ever. Overfeeding can easily lead to a nitrate problem. That said, it's often hard not to, when you have so many bodies to feed... you need to make sure you put enough in that everyone gets some. Easier when you're just feeding one fish. Anyhow, glad to hear things are going better! |
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Post by julianna on Sept 16, 2016 13:36:49 GMT -5
Sorry you lost your guppies. I had guppies one time and they did make babies. I was told that the babies need protection from the parents so I put a small net in the tank. The babies went straight in there and hid there. One morning I awoke to find momma in the net and all the babies gone. I gave up on fish.
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