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 Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:13 am
I am having terrible trouble with my guppy tank. All my mature females keep dying! I have males and even fry in the tank that are doing well, even the Panda Coradoras are thriving. But I just keep losing females. It is a 20 gallon planted tank. It is already cycled and I do keep on top of water changes. I test my water frequently. I tested it just now after losing ANOTHER fish and I have no ammonia, nitrites & nitrates are low to nonexistent and pH is in range. I use a declorinator with every water change. I use a small amount of aquarium salt per the fish store owner and resources I've read online about breeding guppies. I feed them guppy flake food, algae wafers (those were for the cories, but I saw the guppies nibbling on them) and thawed frozen blood worms. My water temp is 76.5F. I've lost 4 female guppies so far. One of my largest females, who I thought might give birth this morning was dead when I checked on the tank. 2 others look like they might not be long for this world. They hang out on the bottom or inside the plastic log with their fins down. I can't figure this out! What is going on? crying
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Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 1:52 pm
It might be stress your females are suffering from.
Giving birth takes a lot of enegry from a fish, and it's a lot harder to pop out larger live young then eggs.
I once had a guppy who was in labour for half a day, often popping out 2 or 3 young at a time.
Also, males will tirelessly pursue the females, and thus tire them out a lot. Especially if they are near the end of their pregnancy and they can't escape from the males that well it will wear hem down.
What is the male to female ratio in your aquarium? I personally prefer 3 females to one male, so the females can 'take turns'. 2 to 1 is the minimum. Unless you got gay males somehow.
Also I tend to put the pregnant females in a quarentine tank a 3 days to a week before birth, so they can have go into labour peacefully. I often leave them in the tank for a day after birthing, or untill they get hungry again.
Another, maybe less known fact, is that guppies are suspectable to miscariges. Not sure what to do if that's the case.
Hope this helps. I'm not sure if this is the case with your fish, but it might be.
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