Guppy questions! Please help.?

Question

I had 4 guppies. The tank was really nasty, just dirty, but all the levels were ok. Nitrate, ph, etc. Anyway, last night I decided to clean the entire tank. I placed the fish in a separate container and dumped the tank, cleaned the rocks & the decorations I had, filled it back up with water. I waited 2 hours before putting them back in. By that time the water levels were normal and the temp was perfect. But I wake up to find 2 of the guppies dead. The other 2 are hovering by the heater and don't really swim anywhere. What am I doing wrong?! A guppy is a pretty easy fish to care for. Any tips or ideas on what's happening?! Thank you so much!!

Wow, I guess I really don't know what I'm doing huh?! No, I didn't use any soap or anything to clean with, I just scrubbed everything really well with water. I put a bit of water conditioner in it, but I admit, not enough b/c I was out. I need to get some more. The other fish seem happy now, but I want to add more fish. How long should I let this tank sit before I add more? Thanks for all the advise! I really appreciate it and definately won't be doing that again.

Answer 1

That was a nono once you have fish in you really cannot dump out the whole tank, you take out all of the living and thriving bacteria. Which means you will have to start out cycling your tank again.. Try putting in some Stability by SeaChem this may help you a little but the other two will probably die.. I am sorry that this happened to you. By the way if you cleaned the tank and decorations what with???????? If you did it with: Soap, Windex, Clorox, CLR, Pledge anything like those (household cleaners) that is what is killing your fish also. If you ever clean your tank clean it with just water and scrubbing brush, or vinegar. Hope it all gets better for you and your guppies! :]

Answer 2

Did you use soap when cleaning the rocks/decorations????
That's a big no no...No matter what kind of fish you have. How about the filter. What did you do for that?????
Also, when changing the water in the tank you never change ALL of the water at once. You should leave between 1/4 and 1/2 the original water in the tank. (Or at least that's what I do). I have 4 different tanks full of fish, and have never had any die when I clean the tanks by only changing a portion of the water.
Hope that helps a little

Answer 3

You shouldn't clean your whole tank like that. Not at one time. You should also leave the fish in the tank when you are doing water changes.

You should do partial water changes weekly along with using a gravel vacuum. This will help keep your tank clean and healthy for your fish. You should also let the new water set out in buckets, jugs or whatever until they reach room temperature. You should use water conditioner in each container of water.
Most likely stress or shock killed your fish. A sudden temperature change or even PH levels being higher or lower can cause death.

Answer 4

Several things:
1. you're not suppose to clean the whole tank
2. only 25% partial waterchange with a gravelsiphon weekly, with the fish in the tank
3. you forgot to put a declorinator for your new water, is a must, you can use something like "Aqua Safe" to make your water safe for your fish
4. did you clean your tank with soap or something? big no no
5. did you put your guppys in a bag with the old tank water and float them for at leas 30 min? if not, you killed them due to shock


Hope that helps
Good luck


EB


Edit*
At least you didn't clean your tank with soap or something else ;-)
Get an ammonia and nitrite test kit, your tank might start with cycling again (the fluid ones, they are more accurate)
As soon as both readings are at "0", you can start adding fish again
But not to many at a time, only like 4, and see how they are doing for at least 10- 20 days, then you can add more

good luck

Answer 5

The shock of the massive water change killed your fish. The rest will die because you killed the beneficial bacteria and the ammonia levels will go way up in a few days. Also letting water stand for a couple of hours will not remove the chlorine. Most municipal water supplies now contain chloramine,not straight chlorine,this is a much more stable substance,and will remain in water almost forever without the addition of a water treatment specifically formulated for chloramine removal.
Also,temperature shock will kill the bacteria before it will harm fish,the temperature of the replacement water should be as close to the tank temp as you can make it.
And finally,no matter what the pet store people say,the water should be treated before being added into the tank.
There's lots more that you need to know about water changes but that's all I'm willing to type,check a lot of web-sites before you act.

Answer 6

Did you condition the water before adding the guppies? You need to add water conditioner to your tap water to remove chlorine, chloramine and metals in the water that are toxic to your fish.

Answer 7

i had 6 guppies (2 males and 4 females) they were never healthy at any shop i got them from in the past.(other guppies this is). anyway, one day, about a week after i got them my females all died. dont know why. water levels were fine and they got cleaned out every 1 to 1 and a half weeks. they also got the correct amount of food every day. my males died after about a month and a half. i just think that guppies were not the right fish for me, so i got some orandas instead. i have to say i kinda like my 2 orandas better.

hope this helps. i know it proberbly won't as it now comes to me but hay. i've written it out know anyway.

Answer 8

You need to add water conditioner to your tap water to remove chlorine, chloramine and metals in the water that are toxic to your fish. and maybe the water was to cold but the shock of the new water mayhave killed them.

Answer 9

They probibly died of shock, The most you should do is a 50% water change and 75% if it is somthing really serious, Never a 100%., Nothing you can really do now.

Answer 10

did u refloat them or dump them in.

shock, and just shear change of water parameters can kill the fish.

the water parameters couldnt have been ok in the dirty tank, so doing a 100% water change is very dramtic, so that is a big change, if you were going to do this, you would probably need o slowly float the fihs for 2 hours.