Guppies: Dying and cloudy water.

Question
I have recently bought 2 female fancy tailed guppies, 1 male fancy tailed guppy, and 1 male betta. My females died. My water clouded up and had bubbles all over the top. I took the two fish I had left and put them into a totally different tank. The water clouded up. I was wondering if guppies put off ammonia the same way goldfish do, which is harmful to tropical fish. Please help me. I don't want to lose either of my last two fish.  

Answer
Dear Lynda,
I'm very sorry to hear about the two guppies dieing. If this is a recently setup aquarium, most likely ammonia is indeed your problem here and likely what caused the unfortunate loss of the two female fancy guppies. Of course, all fish produce ammonia, and even small fish like guppies can produce ammonia to a extremely harmful concentration in an un-established tank or one that hasn't cycled the beneficial bacteria colonies.
The cloudy water problem and foaming is due to and uncycled tank as well. The bacterial levels are out of balance and a bacterial "bloom" results. Cloudy water is very common in new aquariums. Your aquarium just needs time to establish most likely.

If you need any additional help on establishing or cycling your aquarium feel free to let me know. It would be great if you could test your aquarium water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. So we could know how far along you are in cycling your tank or if this is an established tank--what water quality problem we are dealing with.

For now, the best advice I can give is do a 50% or larger water change, making sure the replacement water is equal in temp to your tank and is dechlorinated with a proper water conditioner. Because we don't know if your aquarium has cycled yet, it's best if you repeat these 50% water changes everyday as long as it takes to get the water quality stable and the water clear again. These large water changes will not hurt fish or the slowly establishing bacterial colonies. But to prevent anymore fish loss, the remaining fish must have water changes to dilute the ammonia level and possibly high nitrite as well.
It would also be best if you could use a water conditioner with your water changes that removes or neutralizes ammonia such as Aquasafe, Prime, or Amquel. Adding a liquid bacterial supplement such as "Cycle" should also help straighten things out.

I'm really sorry about your aquarium trouble. With time your aquarium will cycle and establish and the cloudy water problem will go away with time and patience. Water changes are very important throughout this time and will help with the cloudiness. Just be patient and if you have anymore questions, feel free to write me again!

Best wishes and Happy fishkeeping!
Karen~