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Question
QUESTION: hi

I have a question....are guppies aggressive or is it other fishes?
because today I found one of my cardinal tetras dead and stuck to the filter and one of my male guppy's tail torn
so far I have 19 cardinal tetras(as of now)3 male guppies I adult female guppy 1 not murtured female guppy 1 golden sucker 1 widow tetra and one glowlight tetra
yes,I know I should have more female than male guppies but I kinda forgot about that.
the last adult female is on holiday(in a seperate tank)because she began dropping eggs so I could tell she is stressed with the males chasing her and the death of her female companion while the male guppy whose tail got injured is in a quarantine tank.I was told to add a small pinch of salt to the aquarium because the guppy's like it. I have added salt to the aquarium several times before but nothing happened.

oh and one more thing, why does my not matured (maybe still fry) guppy keep on following one of the male guppy's and nipping it's tail?

regards
Elizabeth

ANSWER: Elizabeth,

  I hope you have a very large tank with the amount of fish you have. Having said that, the male guppy will be very aggressive. Since you have 3 of them in the tank you will keep having problems with them. They are trying to establish a pecking order if you will and if you only have one female in the tank now the fighting will be worse. Also, guppy's do not drop eggs. They are live bearers meaning when she drops, they are very small fish. Nothing will happen visibly to the guppy if you add salt to their tank. You will continue to have the aggressiveness until you either remove 2 of the males or add quite a few females. I hope this helps. Good luck with the tank and if you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask.

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QUESTION: so far not good when I woke up this morning I found four dead cardinal tetras the rest were ok
but when I came home frm sch I found my fry looking half dead her head was bulging and she became unreasonably skinny. I read online that the tank could be infected with fin rot.after observing the tank for awhile the fry just died before my very eyes. and one of my male guppy's tail shredded and one of his fins white and looking kinda shredded I have removed all of the dead fish and is going to isolate the sick male
but strangely the female guppy on holiday seems fine and not sick at all....;) I'm going to do a fifty percent water change on both tanks the main and the holiday tank and treat both with meds....what's the cause of all this could it be a fish or fin rot

ps I have (currently 15 cardinals 1 widow 1 big golden sucker 2 male guppies 1 female guppy and a tetra)

pls reply quickly!!!!!

Elizabeth

ANSWER: Elizabeth,

 Do you have a heater in the tanks? How big is the filter? Have you recently put a new fish in the tank without putting it in the hospital tank for 2 weeks? If this is a new tank,did you cycle it? I am thinking it's your water. Have you tested it lately? This should be done weekly as well and 25% water changes weekly. Because you have that many fish you will want to have a very good filter. No matter what size the tank is I always get a filter that is for a bigger tank. After you do the 50% water change, i would test the water daily. If the ammonia and nitrites are anything above zero then do a 25% water change daily until the reading are zero. The nitrates should not be higher than 20ppm. If you think they have fin rot, get a product called Melafix. Remove the carbon from the filter and follow the directions on the bottle. Daily treatment for 7 days should do the trick. It is never wise to treat a fish with medication unless you know what they have, but it sounds, by your description that the fish has fin rot. Let me know how things are going.

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QUESTION: hi

it's me Elizabeth again


omg I woke up today and my black widow tails is missing,. only 6 cardinals left and no guppies and the unkown tetra is fat

help reply fast

Answer
Elizabeth,

    I think your cardinals are going after the other. You need to remove the Black Widow and put it in your hospital tank. Both fish can get aggressive, and when there are 6 of one and 1 of the other it will get picked on. Once you remove the one fish everything should calm down. I would add Melefix to the fish in the hospital tank to ward off infection in the injury. I hope all goes well.