What can be wrong?

[Claudia]

Hi: I woke up this morning to see some fry dead and some on top(couple swimming), my set up have been like this for at least 3 month. I have not problems before. This is a fry tank only, 5g with air and heater.

[grumpystiltskin]

Thats not good Claudia, what type of fish are they ?

[Claudia]

Is a 5 g tank, i have guppy fry only, I got fry from 3 weeks old to a week old. I have done nothing diferent then usual. Did my change of water on sunday but before that didn't do it for 2 weeks due to problems, etc. I notice couple of days before that one had some type of fungus,like cottony in his behind and i change it to another tank and medicated.
http://tgvas.com/Forum/images/misc/progress.gif

[Claudia]

I just finish doing my water change and taking the dead ones out and some had some whitish on them, i think is a case of fungus http://tgvas.com/Forum/images/smilies/frown.gif I just finish my water change and I add the conditioner and treated with melafix and pimafix

[grumpystiltskin]

Well i hope the medications work for you, do you have many fry left?

[Claudia]

yes i do grumpy, I had at least 100 and about 15 died, but there is some that are almost dead. I am wondering if i should add salt?

[grumpystiltskin]

I dont think a little bit would hurt at all, but im no fish expert, someone else might offer some good info. Hopefully you can save the rest of them by acting quickly :yes:

[ChrissyFishy]

Sorry your having troubles. It probably crashed because of so many fry. Some are getting bigger too. They won't grow very good in a small tank anyway so you could get a bigger tank for your fry. Diseases spread very fast in smaller tanks to and stress can cause fungus.:no:

[grumpystiltskin]

Sorry your having troubles. It probably crashed because of so many fry. Some are getting bigger too. They won't grow very good in a small tank anyway so you could get a bigger tank for your fry. Diseases spread very fast in smaller tanks to and stress can cause fungus.:no:

Good point ...I was thinking the same thing , too many fish in a tiny tank, id get a ten gallon and split them up.

[Claudia]

Sorry guys but I always think of everything :D, I have a 20g tank for bigger fry so when the fry of the 5g is getting big they go to the next tank wich is the 20g. On the 5g is only tiny guys and this is not the first time i do this. What i think happen it was poor water condition because i didn't change water for 2 weeks and i do it weekly. I did change it sunday and just now to treat it. How much salt can i add for the 5g? I wanna try evrything i can to save them

[CACAdmin]

Sorry to hear your troubles Claudia. I moved your thread here to the ER section so that you might get some more help.

As for salt, the box of aquarium salt says 1 tablespoon for 5 gallons but I've never used that much. I would say that's the maximum amount but add it very gradually giving the fish a chance to adapt the the change.

[Claudia]

thank cac I will keep everybody up to date

[CACAdmin]

Hopefully, you'll get some more feedback a little later today when folks get home from work.

Best of luck with the remaining fry... sure hope they do ok. You've just done a water change but try to do a few extra water changes over the next while as pristine water conditions will also help. Keep us posted.

[Claudia]

I add some salt but I will be pouring the rest later on today maybe when i come from work. I was thinking to do daily water changes and everytime treat it with salt. I hope I can save them, some of my fry are blue moscow and I have only 2 chilly pepper fry. For sure I will keep u post it..Thanks

[CACAdmin]

Remember to predissolve the salt and also when you do water changes to add only the ratio of salt per amount of water you change (i.e. 25% water change: 25% of salt) Good luck. I sure hope you manage to save your treasured little ones.:yes:

[ChrissyFishy]

I think that 10 for each gallon would be the very most you could do for small fry in a small tank for just a couple of weeks. They won't grow very fast with that many but if you do a lot of waterchanges they would probably be ok at that many. 100 is really way to many for a five gallon even when they are small. sometimes people can get away with something a few times and then something happens. With that many fry you should do waterchanges every day or at least every 2 days to keep the babies as healthy as you can. Theres also a hormone or something that will stunt their growth and thats why breeders do so many waterchanges. I tried to save all of my guppies before and the same thing happened to me because guppies especially have to have very good water. Someone told me all of this and when I followed her advice they did great!!! I learned the same way so I hope I don't sound like I'm being mean or lecturing.:chatterbox: Oh and salt is ok with baby guppies and with clean water they should be ok. Fungus is almost always from stress or injury unless there is a bacterial infection. They can get fin rot from bad conditions and that can get fungus to. I hope that saves you from reading from all over like I had to do.:Research:

[Melody]

I'm sorry to hear that you lost some Claudia, such pretty fish too.

I'm afraid that is the problem, its quite a load for a five gallon even when they're small. Once/week waterchanges are recommended for normally loaded tanks of adult fish. Fry do indeed give off a growth hormone into the water which stunts them when it gets concentrated, so we change the water as often as possible. Uneaten food & waste complicates matters and fry are more sensitive to spikes.

If you could get them directly into the 10G and put the older fry in with the parents it would be better and they'll grow much faster, but a hundred fry will be crowded in there too. At around a month old, you should have no more than four babies/gallon and at juvie size it should be 2/gallon.

That's the unfortunate thing about Livebearers, you need a lot of space to raise them. If you raised only the hundred to young adult size, you would need at the very least 50 gallons of water to do it in and that's with a lot of waterchanges. Then you'd have to keep them separate if you want to keep your strains pure and that's just your first broods. Every 4-6 weeks all of those females are going to be giving birth again, and in three or four months, all of their daughters will be too...

I don't want to discourage you but I'd hate to see you continue to have problems and then give up all together. Hope it all works out for you & the fry get well soon!

[Claudia]

Last nite when I came from work I found 12 dead one a total of 27 but this morning my fry seems like they are doing ok..i hope. I think the salt helped but i also found last nite the ph was low so i add it up some crash coral to the tank. I will do a change of water agaimn and I will continue treatment, I will let you know http://www.guppies.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif Thanks to everybody

[CACAdmin]

That's so sad and disappointing to come home to find that many fry dead.::(: I do hope the rest make it. Thanks for keeping us updated and hope all goes well from here forward.

[Melody]

Last nite when I came from work I found 12 dead one a total of 27 but this morning my fry seems like they are doing ok..i hope. I think the salt helped but i also found last nite the ph was low so i add it up some crash coral to the tank. I will do a change of water agaimn and I will continue treatment, I will let you know http://www.guppies.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif Thanks to everybody

I'm glad to hear that things are improving. The pH can bottom out when a tank crashes so I think you're on the right track. Lotsa waterchanges and all should be well. :smile:

[grumpystiltskin]

How are your fish doing now Claudia / any improvement?

[Claudia]

They have been doing well, until tonite when I was feeding I noticed a fry with the same thing by his anal fin. So tomorrow morning I am doing water change and treatment. This is happening in my fry tank so hopefully I will get rid of this thing soon..I hope

[CACAdmin]

I sure hope so.

[Claudia]

:) I did the water change and treatment so now time to wait and see what happens :wideeyed: I will check again when i come back from work

[CACAdmin]

Good luck (keeping fingers crossed for you that all goes well).

[ellner357]

I'm hopping for you.

[Slipstream]

Me too :notworthy:

[Claudia]

I just hope I don't have any problems on my other tank cause some of the guppies that grew where moved to the next tank before this happened..i am crossing my fingers

[Melody]

I'm sure things will settle into place for you. I'd like to say its something every new Livebearer enthusiast learns but I still get in over my head occasionally and I'm not exactly new :Embarassing: .

Take good care of those Guppies, my name is on some of them :wink: .

[Claudia]

oh I am taking care of them, they are my babies. I was so sad and almost decided to stop having them but then I cheer myself up and they are doing not too bad with medication and lots of love from me of course. I will take some pictures to post them :)

[Melody]

Guppies can definitly push a fish-keeper's limits in the trouble department sometimes! I'll look forward to the pic's. To this day it drives me nuts waiting for them to colour up so I can see what they'll look like, even if they're not mine.:rolleyes:

[Claudia]

i know what you mean, I am always looking at them and the males get there color faster but is so nice to see the changes too

[Melody]

I learn a lot from that, watching it all come in. You see which patterns & colours come in first, 'what' overlays 'which' and how the result will look, etc. Its when I cross them that I get the most impatient. I have to wait a long time for a solid conclusion. "Aha! So BLUE dominates!" <scratching that out> "So its GREEN!" <scratches that out> "I mean BLUE! And where the heck is that snakeskin pattern coming from?!" :twitcy: My notes are more than a little entertaining sometimes.

[Claudia]

I haven't got that far yet, so far the fry that i have is from females that were already pregnant but i do wanna learn about it, I wanna be a pro hahah..just kidding just to learn what i need at least to keep them alive

[Melody]

As long as you & the fish are both having fun, all is well & good. ::D:

[Claudia]

That is true :)