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Sunday, January 15, 2006
[The problem with fish...]
I've been keeping fishes for 2 years now, and my biggest fear is when the fishes start dying, one after another for no apparent reason.
My tank has been very stable for a while now. The guppies, tetras, corys and ottos are all happy and healthy. The last 2 deaths were probably due to old age, since the corys that died had been with me for almost 2 years. So yeah, it's been good.
Until now.
On Thursday, while I was in school, my Dad bought 4 male guppies for me (without telling me in advance) from the LFS. The guppies from this LFS were unique in that they were much bigger than regular male guppies. They have a bigger body, and if you just took a glance when the aquarium lights are off, you might mistake them for young females that are not pregnant. Sounds great, doesn't it? Not really...Because drawing from past experiences, these guppies, for some reason, do not survive very long in my tank. I don't know why...Maybe it's the difference in water chemistry or something, but most of them do not survive more than 1 week.
It's always the same story. The guppies are released into my tank after the bag has been floated and water from my tank was added into the bag. They would be fine the first day, but sometimes by the next day you can tell something's not right when their tails start to rot away. Sooner rather than later, they'd be dead. My Dad's theory was that these guppies were probably raised in water that's very optimal for their growth (hence their bigger body size), and cannot adapt to the water in my tank.
So the 4 new guppies were added into my tank by my Dad while I was in school. When I came back, I already saw the tail of one guppy rotting away. I must stress that this "slow but sure" death usually only occurs to the "big" guppies from that one particular LFS, and all my other guppies were usually not affected. These new "big" guppies just waste away and die within a week.
This time, they decided to take others along with them.
Maybe it's because my Dad poured the entire bag into my tank after floating it (I read somewhere that you should never allow the water from the LFS to mix with the water in your tank...So I usually scoop the fishes out of the bag and do not pour the entire bag in), maybe the new guppies were already sick to begin with (and brought whatever disease they had into my tank). I don't know. What I do know, is that something happened and changed the water conditions/chemistry in my tank.
Of the 4 new guppies, only 1 remain (not unexpected). It's not showing any signs of distress, nor is it's tail rotting. However, I've lost half of my cardinal tetras and some of my other guppies (this really pissed me off because cardinals are not cheap, and I lost a very nice male guppy which was born under my care). I can't really tell if the corys are okay...They seem fine though. One of my ottos have a very red mouth...Maybe it's bleeding internally? I don't know.
I've told my Dad many times not to buy guppies for me, since I prefer to pick them myself. He never listens. Maybe he will now....
^^^ by Locksley @ 4:28 PM.
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