More fish deaths - what's going on?

[agnesf]

After our guppy died last week, one of our lovely otos has died and the other is missing presumed dead - need DH's heavy duty flashlight to search aqaurium floor.

One of the other guppies has a really bad rip in his tail. I'm so upset and holding back the tears as have house full of excited children on playdates so don't want to let them know what's happened.

I've no idea what's gone wrong. All the water levels seem to be fine. After our last death we dosed with Melafix for 4 more days and then did a big clean out ~ 40% water change. Put the carbon filters back in and all were present and correct the day before yesterday.

The oto that has died has hardly got any tail left but I couldn't see problem a couple of days ago.

I don't know what to do. The only thing we had changed before this happened was the water temp - do you think we've got it too high?

I feel like giving up.

[neontetra]

Oh no, don't give up. What else have you got in there? Anything that could be killing them? Sometimes fish which are supposed to be gentle are evil - I had a murderous gourami.

[EauRouge]

What is the water temp? Guppies like it on the warm side anyway (despite some idiot shops selling them as cold water fish) so it may not be that.

Is there anything in the tank that might be injuring them? Some plastic plants can have sharp edges.

And as neontetra said, some fish can be bastards- what other fish do you have in there?

Otos can be tricky fish, they are hard to feed. How long has your tank been set up? They should only be in mature tanks really.

[agnesf]

We've got 3 guppies and had 2 otos . We've had the tank since May and put fish in August after cycling for ages.

We had 2 otos to start but one died about a day after we got it. However we got the survivor eating cucumber and got him a friend after a month and they were both happy - we gave the cucumber every 2 days and they'd spend their evenings stuffing themselves. The tank has loads of plants/ algae.

One of our guppies died about a week ago (see post re tail rot) and I'm suspicious that what killed him has killed the others. Am v worried about guppt with ripped tail. I don't think its fighting thats causing it - the guppies and otos pretty much ignorred each other. The guppies spar a bit but have never seen them nipping.

I'm completely at a loss.

[EauRouge]

Any chance of a photo?

Are there any other symptoms, does the dead fish's stomach look sunken? Does the spine look bent?

[DangerousMouse]

Sorry to hijack, but what does it mean when the stomach is sunken? I lost a fish like this a couple of weeks ago

[EauRouge]

Could be worms or internal bacteria or possible fish TB; depends on other symptoms. Was there anything else? What sort of fish was it?

[agnesf]

Oh hello again EauRouge - after my last super miserable post (I realy loved those otos) things got better for a bit. Of the 3 remaining guppies - one with bad tail rip regrew his tail and the other one with minor rip also seemed to be on mend.

Tank has been a lot more algaly since the otos left - they were such busy fish without us even notiving. Am wondering of we should get a stronger filter as lots of floaty crud seems to be building up since they left.

However now guppy tail has split again and he looks really ill - mooching around at bottom of tank/ hiding from light. Am dosing with melafix but thinks its not goin to save him. he has gone really thin but poss because the other two are up at top of tank at feeding time stuffing themselves while he is hiding in the plants.

If he pops clogs as I think he will I will post a picture ....

Only 2 guppies left now - big blue bully & even bigger leopard spotted one who is not bully but can stand up to bully boy's tactics.

[agnesf]

Good news - red guppy seems to be a lot better even though his tail still ripped. We gave him lots of TLC and have been feeding him seperately to the other two.

I think its maybe just a bad case of bullying - the other two have been chasing him away from food. He is still hiding a lot but getting bolder again about coming out for food. I think swimming with a ripped tail is hard hence lots of lurking on bottom.

All fingers and toes crossed for him (I nearly euthanased him last Saturday but DH told me not to).