How do you keep guppy fish alive?

Question

We have tested the water, condition it, temperature monitoring it, followed every instruction from petco and pet smart, but still my guppies fish keep dying. Please help. Thanks

Answer 1

Let's review what you may or may not be doing:

Do you keep them in a tank (minimum 5-10 gallons)?

Do you have a filter and preferably a heater (they should have temperatures at least 65o, over 70o is preferable, and most keeper have them in tropical tanks (over 76o)?

Do you acclimate them to your tank so they get used to any changes in temperature and chemistry gradually (see link: http://www.fishlore.com/acclimating-tropicalfish.htm )?

Do you either cycle the tank first, or only add a few at the beginning so that the beneficial bacteria that convert their wastes to non-toxic compounds have a chance to develop (see link: http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm)? Do you do regular (weekly) partial water changes of around 25% of the tank volume to keep the levels of ammonia and nitrite down while the tank is cycling (http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/ammoniapoison.htm , http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/nitritepoison.htm )? (also, do you use a gravel vacuum to clean down into the gravel to keep wastes from building up: http://www.firsttankguide.net/siphon.php )

Do you add water that's about the same temperature as what's in the tank when you do water changes?

Do you use a water conditioner to remover chlorine or chloramine (whichever your water company add to treat the water supply)? You need to make sure that what you're using removes the correct chemical, and you may need to contact your water supplier to determine which they use. If chloramine, you want a product theat "removes" or "neutralizes" chloramine, not one that "breaks the chloramine bond" - this releases toxic ammonia into your tank! http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/chlor.htm

I've also found from personal experience that it helps to add some salt to your guppy tank, as long as you don't have fish that are sensitive to salt. This can be aquarium salt, or you can use canning, kosher, pickling, rock, or table salt without iodine added - all of these are the same thing, but the ones you get at the grocery are usually cheaper. Add the salt at 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of tank water. When I started doing this, I cut the number of fatalities of new fish by quite a bit.

Also watch the fish in the tank before you purchase them - they should be swimming actively, with no clamped fins, no visible signs of illness or parasites (look for what looks like salt grains on the fish, dull colors, fish scratching against the gravel or objects in the tank, and red threadlike worms coming from the anus of fish that aren't swimming). If you see these, or any dead fish in the tanks (and most of the display units used have the tanks connected by plumbing, so it doesn't need to be the same section of tank that the fish you want are in), pass on buying new ones from that store.

Answer 2

I started out with 2 guppies, one died then we got 2 more, the first one had 15 babies, we lost one more adult, all babies are still living, we got 3 platys, one died and yesterday the mommy guppy died, i just think they are harder to care for. if they start acting weird, get them out because they can infect other fish and they are prone to get strange tumors and then should be thrown away :(

Answer 3

How old are they and are you sure that they don't have a fungus? Guppies are famous for fungus. Do they have any white spots on them? If so you need to get medication to get rid of it. It will kill you fish.

Answer 4

they dont last very long......i dont think theirs relly anything?? do you gotz a filter? make sure you use the right conditioner...dont use th stuff for betas or reptiles. thats all i got