Guppies / Danios And Weirdness

[pditty]

Everybody in goldfish land seems happy, but my tropical tank is acting up.

I had 3 glofish danios in an established 30 gallon tank at 76 degrees with a marineland penguin biowheel 350 (75 gallon filter).

I added 3 more (young ones) and 2 seem like they wouldn't thrive. One had an arched back and looked very sickly. It was kind of odd but then 2 of the young ones died. A few weeks after tha happened, I put a male and female guppy in the tank with the remaining 4 glofish danios. The male guppy's tale was pretty torn up about a week later, and the side of his body was a bit red.

I took the guppies out and put them in a 10 gallon tank. I've been giving them regular water changes and some triple sulfa. I don't know if he's got some sort of fin rot or hemogragic septicemia, or if the danios were just beating the22 out of him. He was kind of hiding, so it could be both.

I think the tropical tank the guppies and danios were in is doing something odd. There was the 2 danios that wouldn't thrive, and the beat up guppie, but I went away for 3 days when I got married and I put in this gel based tropical fish dissolving food block. It came in a can that looked sort of like a cat food tin. I came back ~3 days later and the block of food was covered with this big ball of white stringy stuff. I took it out.

About 2 weeks later, my algae eater (I forget the exact type, not a pleco but named after some asian country other than china) died. He was about a year and a half old. Anyway when I found him, he was in the corner upside down covered in this stringy white stuff. Couldn't have been like that very long.

So at any rate, I've done a couple heavy water changes and vacuum jobs in the tropical tank. I'm seriously considering medicating that 30 gallon tank while I'm medicating the guppies because I tend to think anything that grows that fast must be bacterial and it seems to be bad news for the fish.

Looking for some input on the white stringy stuff, and also wondering how bad an idea it would be to put the 2 guppies in my goldfish tank? I think the goldfish would be less likely to nip at the male guppies tale, but Ryu may just swallow him whole... if he could catch him...

Edited July 28, 2008 by pditty

[Chrissy_Bee]

I feel your pain, tropical tanks can be mysterious sometimes

First, the guppies. I think the danios did tear the male up for sure, those fancy fins are just too attractive to any type of fin nippers. I wouldn't put them in with the goldies, they might just get eaten. Keep them where they are. Salt may be a good idea as well, guppies do well in slightly brackish water and it may aid in healing.

The stringy white stuff....sounds like funugus to me. I know that many people have made negative comments about vacation feeder foods. I don't know about medicating the tank, the large water changes may do it but best to see what some other members have to say.

[pditty]

i'm thinking either fungus or columnaris. odd thing is it is not on the fish.

what i may do is keep the guppies in the 10 gallon tank and decorate it. i guess i could get a few more guppies then. but then there goes my hospital tank. i'm not really looking to take care of 4 tanks though. aquarium guy told me they would do fine together, i guess not. i have a divider for the 30 gallon tank, but that looks kinda ghetto.

i have a rolling drum vacation thing for the gold fish tank (you put food in it and it spins twice per day). i think i should get one for the tropical tank(s) as well.

i have trisulfa, moroxy, and clout at home, so i should be able to knock out whatever it is, if i can figure out what it is.

[Chrissy_Bee]

i have a divider for the 30 gallon tank, but that looks kinda ghetto.

Yep, I have one in my goldie tank, not a big fan of it either.

As for the meds, hopefully someone with a bit more experience comes on for help with that. I just know what I HATE medicating unless I know it's necessary, it's not worth crashing the cycle.

[pditty]

I have a 10 gallon with a TON of snails in it. I think I'll give that away and setup a 10 gallon guppy tank.

How many guppies can I reaponably get away with in a 10 gallon? I was thinking ~8 or so. I have a pretty solid biowheel filter for it.

I really didn't want to setup another tank, but it seems like the danios are too aggressive, and Ryu eats anything in his path.

Edited July 29, 2008 by pditty

[scaring]

If it's only a 10 gal, no more than 5 Guppies. Guppies are the Tropical Goldfish. They dirty the water faster than most tropicals. Tho the males are small, usually less than 2", females can get almost as large as a swordtail female.

If you are sticking strictly with males, they sometimes can become restless without females and the ratio is 4 to 10 females PER male. Otherwise the males will literally kill her by trying to mate 24/7. Keep the water temps below 74 degrees and that will help. Warmer waters trigger the mating instinct.

Hope that helps.

BTW, the best fish to keep with Guppies is guppies. Guppies tend to get and spread a wider range of diseases/parasites than other tropicals.

[pditty]

The store by my house sells guppies only as a male and female pair. Currently the tank is at 76 with a small heater. I keep my house at 72-74 due to the 65 gallon goldfish tank.

I guess I can just pull the heater entirely.

I've notice the male follows the female or or less constantly. Also noticed they the two of them pushed the ammonia levels up (still pretty low) in the uncycled 10 gallon faster than 1 ryukin goldfish did.

[Petperson04]

I would suggest keeping ONLY males. You're gonna have a lot of baby guppies on your hands if you have males and females together. I keep 5 males together in a 10 gallon, and they do just fine.

I suggest you keep a close eye on your ammonia levels, and do water changes to keep it as close to 0 as possible.

Edited July 29, 2008 by Petperson04

[scaring]

The store by my house sells guppies only as a male and female pair. Currently the tank is at 76 with a small heater. I keep my house at 72-74 due to the 65 gallon goldfish tank.

I guess I can just pull the heater entirely.

I've notice the male follows the female or or less constantly. Also noticed they the two of them pushed the ammonia levels up (still pretty low) in the uncycled 10 gallon faster than 1 ryukin goldfish did.

Talk to the store. Sometimes if you explain and offer to pay a few cents more per male, they will slack off on the rule. Especially if you are a good customer. If you decide you want 5 and you want babies... ( They were great for trading in for store credit on supplies) You will need a fry tank or they will get eaten, and you shouldn't have less than 4 females per one male. Male guppies will go for a female no matter what temp in a tank. In nature, the warmer waters triggers a mating desire. With all males, they will try for each other and that can cause battles. Torn fins and such. All male, low temps, male/female... it don't matter. You'll have babies no matter what temp you keep it at.

Also, heed Petperson's advice. Watch the params.

[arabpaso]

I had 5 guppy males together for almost a year and they were fine without females. They chased each other sometimes in what looked like play fighting or tag but never did any harm to fins or otherwise.

I now have 2 males and one female guppy in my 20 gal with a swordtail, 2 platies and 3 catfish and they all get along fine. When the female gup gets tired of being chased she turns around and chases the males!

Almost 4 weeks ago she presented me with my first batch of guppy fry that I'm keeping in a breeders net hanging over the side of the 20 gal. No need to go out and get another whole tank for the fry unless you want tons of them. I do plan on taking any more fry to my lfs for credit since I don't have room for more than the 5 I have now.

One more thing--I had a guppy male in with danios for a couple days once but he had trouble getting enough food with the danios being so fast. So there's another reason not to put them together besides getting fins nipped.

[pditty]

I suspec the store would sell me females, but most people want just males so they sell them in pairs.

How long does it typically take for a beat up tail to heal up?

I guess I'll be buying gravel and plants this weekend for the "new" 10 gallon guppy tank. Right now they have a filter, and airstone, and 1 plant... and not much else.

Just regular gravel?

[Petperson04]

Um, I would say about 1-2 weeks for the tail to heal. I guess it depends on how torn the tail is.

Regular gravel should be fine. I use large stones or river rocks in my tanks, though.

Edited July 30, 2008 by Petperson04

[pditty]

I moved the guppies (1 male, 1 female) into a 10 gallon with about 15 pounds of rocks colored similarly to the female. it's pretty heavily planted and has a biowheel on it.

they're pretty darn good at hiding in there. ammonia levels seem constant (0) so I may add a couple more.

have been looking for a solution to snail problems in my larger danio tank. chemical treatments weren't working, and made me wonder what it does to the fish based on some scary warnings on the labels.

pet store recommended adding 2 clown loaches. i did, not sure about the snails yet, but everyone is playing nice. loachs hid for a day, and now swim like crazy. they're the same size as the danios now... we'll see how long that lasts.

Edited August 7, 2008 by pditty