I cant seem to keep guppys alive!

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Wulfonce

Gambusia
MFK Member
Mar 11, 2009
881
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Ontario
That's right! Something I managed to keep alive as a kid even though I did everything in the fishkeeping books wrong! 100% water changes, inflicting tempurture shock, using chlorinated water ect.

I bought 10 fancy guppy's about 4 weeks ago. They were introduced properly and everything. The next day, 3 had died. within a week 6 more were dead. I bought 2 more and they both died after introduction. Now I'm down to one.

What the heck is going on? Its a 10g tank fully cycled. The temperature is 74F, the PH is around 8.0, the water is hard. I thought I was doing everything right but apparently im not. :irked:

Any suggestions?
 
How heavy is the water movement?
 
haynchinook334;3669314; said:
How heavy is the water movement?
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Very light.

I'm using a HOB filter rated for a 10gal tank. I wrapped the inlet in filter floss to prevent any fry from getting sucked in. The floss restricts the water intake resulting in a very gentle outflow.
 
the PH is around 8.0
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this might be your problem. thats approaching saltwater levels.

do you have shells in the tank? its a bit high for freshwater.

I used to have the same problem as you did (could keep discus thriving, could not keep guppies alive lol). I realized that my temp was too warm for them to do well. it was 80. I couldn't keep them alive. once I dropped it to 75, I could not stop them breeding and had way too many.

but your temp. is fine.. I am thinking at this point it might be the pH.
 
dont feel bad-i cant seem to keep black neons alive.
 
OMg i was just thinking the same thing. For whatever reason ive never to keep alive either, ive tried EVERYTHING, even different set ups, temps, tanks, EVERYTHING, right now my daughter just got some for her tank and they are even starting to do the clamped tail thingy its like they hate home aquariums. I thik you just need to have a green thumbd for guppy keeping cuase i know someone that keeps them with minimal effort and water changes and no qt and she managesto keep em great. Ive never had the problem of guppies "overtaking a tank" i dont know what that is like.
 
Guppies love hard water so the pH is certainly not the problem. I think they're so over bred in such mass quantities that they just aren't a healthy fish. I love Bettas and can't get them to live longer than 2 yrs. Nowadays that seems to be their lifespan.
 
the issue could very well be the diseases or other conditions they are coming in with, like penguin said, they can be very fragile from inbreeding/ overbreeding
 
i keep guppies very easily but fish that are supposed to be hardy i can't keep 'em alive
 
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