23 replies to this topic

[chocky]

got a couple of questions but i'll try to be as succinct as possible.

 

I bought 2 separate trios of thai guppies from the online fishchick auctions. 

First trio (2F + 1M) were some purple galaxy guppies back in Nov '15. 

 

Second trio were called Luxuxy Grass guppies, and got them just end of Feb '16. 

 

I'm pretty certain the males were older than the females, cos they were a lot more developed. i'm guessing cos they are the 'selling' point and what you're really after when bidding. 

Anyway, the purple galaxy male ended up slowing down (like it couldnt' hold its big tail very well) and dying last month, the luxury grass guppy shortly after. which really ticked me off cos i didnt have them for very long. I don't think its my water, because the females and also eventually fry, were in the same tank, haven't lost any at all.

Nothing external that i could see, they literally would just stop swimming and cark it within a day or two. 

 

i msged the lady who runs the auctions, she told me that the guppies are shipped around 3-4 months old. If the males and females are kept together, there's a higher mortality rate. Males spend all day courting the females. Females sometimes kill the males. 

 

Which i dont doubt what she tells me is true, but it just didnt seem like the reason they died. :| 

Could anyone spread some light on this? 

 

Second random death - 

I bought some leopard corys from the last PCS auction. Had a couple just randomly die. I saw one just sitting on its side, then it swam a bit but did the spiralling swimming, and few hours later carked it. They are kept in a tank with a couple of discus, peppermint bn's and another panda cory. All are fine. Tank is 200L , heated to 28-30C. 

 

 

 

[Androo]

Not that i have a huge amount of experience with guppies. I always found that the males kill the females not the other way around

[chocky]

Not that i have a huge amount of experience with guppies. I always found that the males kill the females not the other way around

 

that's what i thought too - but i think that's when there's more males then females. then the males harass the female out til they die of stress. (almost like in people eh? HAHAHA) 

[Frontosaman]

Were they imported?


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[chocky]

Were they imported?


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Yeah from Thailand :/

[Frontosaman]

Hmmm, I do know they dose the males with hormones before export, to make them harder to breed over here. I think it also makes hem weaker


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[chocky]

Hmmm, I do know they dose the males with hormones before export, to make them harder to breed over here. I think it also makes hem weaker


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oh really? grrr

well I've had plenty of fry from the purple galaxy so no problems there. but i wouldn't be surprised if they do that too make them develop faster and therefore decreasing their life span maybe?

cos the offspring i raised at 3-4 months haven't got their purple colour yet but are super active and appear healthy.

[tunagirll]

The tank temperature is very high for guppies - the adult like around 24 degrees. That may be a fair bit of your problem. If you are keeping the pH acid for your discus, then that may also be a fair bit of the problem, because guppies like a fairly neutral water.

Edited by tunagirll, 29 March 2016 - 08:49 PM.

[Mattia]

Could it be some internal problems, since coming from Thailand, like worms or parasites?

Have you had a little look at the deads?

[chocky]

The tank temperature is very high for guppies - the adult like around 24 degrees. That may be a fair bit of your problem. If you are keeping the pH acid for your discus, then that may also be a fair bit of the problem, because guppies like a fairly neutral water.

sorry didn't clarify

guppies and Cory/discus are in separate tanks

[chocky]

Could it be some internal problems, since coming from Thailand, like worms or parasites?

Have you had a little look at the deads?

umm not closely...

but main symptoms they showed were fins started to fray a bit and then they couldnt swim properly. like their body's stiffened.

i thought maybe cos they were imports they didnt have good immune system for here. but just strange they died only a few months after and that the females are still strong and healthy..

i still think i got jipped on the males.. i doubt they were actually 3 months old. more like 1yr old

Edited by chocky, 29 March 2016 - 11:54 PM.

[bigjohnnofish]

unfortunately in the fish game there is always going to be lies told to sell fish

 

firstly imported guppies are quite often treated with high doses of estrogen to prevent them from readily breeding... its done to protect their own industry as we know guppies breed like rabbits -> one person buys a pair and breeds them and sells all their fry - so the original seller has a very limited market... hence why they are always pushing to make new varieties.....

 

your male guppies will develop larger than normal tails putting a lot of stress on the male as it takes so much more effort to swim and mate etc... giving it a much shorter life span... suits the seller also - gives less time to breed them....

 

guppies that i got over the years that came from overseas all had problems getting the first lot of fry - but after that got a lot easier breeding their offspring....

 

now if all your females and fry are healthy and show no signs of any illness then you should be ok as far as parasites and disease go.... 

 

as for temp i find guppies breed and thrive in anything from 20-30 degrees and females killing males is just a friggin joke lol trying to pull the wool over your eyes or they are very naive and believe this bs that was prob told to them....

 

 

secondly im no expert on cories but from i have seen a lot of varieties prefer mid 20's or lower temp - especially when spawning them....

could it be temp too high for them and the weakest ones died first... or is it something more sinister - possibly camallanus worm ??? or something similar ? i guess if you keep getting more random deaths in the tank it could well be worms.... but first thing you should do is test ammonia , nitrate -> followed by ph and kh and then you could possibly eliminate these from your problem...

[Buccal]

Some Cory species are a bit more sensitive to others and prefer matured water and sometimes weaken of in newish set ups.
And yeah, sounds like you got geriatric guppys there,,, but as Johnno pointed out,, with guppys, your number one goal asap is to always really rush them to breed, and keep that first selective stock batch as your true breeding colony.

[tunagirll]

Fishchick is one of the most reputable sellers/importers, she's not known to lie abut stock.

[chocky]

Fishchick is one of the most reputable sellers/importers, she's not known to lie abut stock.

i don't doubt jodi but i doubt what the Thai breeders are telling her is 100% true

[CleanedFish]

The fish that jodi (fishchick) imports are normally breed to such perfection that they have very weak genes after many generation of interbreeding within their family. Also many of the fish purchased from her with my experience have about a 40% survival rate and many are treated making them infertile. Her guppies are also kept in very poor conditions and mainly fed on live foods. You can take a look at this video to see how they are kept 

[chocky]

unfortunately in the fish game there is always going to be lies told to sell fish
 
firstly imported guppies are quite often treated with high doses of estrogen to prevent them from readily breeding... its done to protect their own industry as we know guppies breed like rabbits -> one person buys a pair and breeds them and sells all their fry - so the original seller has a very limited market... hence why they are always pushing to make new varieties.....
 
your male guppies will develop larger than normal tails putting a lot of stress on the male as it takes so much more effort to swim and mate etc... giving it a much shorter life span... suits the seller also - gives less time to breed them....
 
guppies that i got over the years that came from overseas all had problems getting the first lot of fry - but after that got a lot easier breeding their offspring....
 
now if all your females and fry are healthy and show no signs of any illness then you should be ok as far as parasites and disease go.... 
 
as for temp i find guppies breed and thrive in anything from 20-30 degrees and females killing males is just a friggin joke lol trying to pull the wool over your eyes or they are very naive and believe this bs that was prob told to them....
 
 
secondly im no expert on cories but from i have seen a lot of varieties prefer mid 20's or lower temp - especially when spawning them....
could it be temp too high for them and the weakest ones died first... or is it something more sinister - possibly camallanus worm ??? or something similar ? i guess if you keep getting more random deaths in the tank it could well be worms.... but first thing you should do is test ammonia , nitrate -> followed by ph and kh and then you could possibly eliminate these from your problem...

thanks for the info! my first batch of fry from the purple galaxy are doing pretty well. i tried to select the males with the strongest/thickest peduncle .

i do notice though that they are taking a while to colour up (if they ever will). they are more red/orange than purple. Though the original females had yellow tails before they eventually turned purple.

once I've sold the discus ill bring the temps back down

Some Cory species are a bit more sensitive to others and prefer matured water and sometimes weaken of in newish set ups.
And yeah, sounds like you got geriatric guppys there,,, but as Johnno pointed out,, with guppys, your number one goal asap is to always really rush them to breed, and keep that first selective stock batch as your true breeding colony.

im just going the second batch i bought the females are pregnant. The male died only a couple weeks after receiving them.

[tunagirll]

I've purchased both bettas and inverts from Fishchick several times and they have always arrived in perfect condition, ate right away and proved to be excellent breeders. That's my experience!

 

Also my experience, my mum insisted on buying about a dozen guppies of different types for the discus tank which was set to 30 degrees and a little acid (natural rainwater that had been buffered) and every single guppy died. They were local fishies. The community tank has numerous other species in there that were fine.

[chocky]

I've purchased both bettas and inverts from Fishchick several times and they have always arrived in perfect condition, ate right away and proved to be excellent breeders. That's my experience!

 

Also my experience, my mum insisted on buying about a dozen guppies of different types for the discus tank which was set to 30 degrees and a little acid (natural rainwater that had been buffered) and every single guppy died. They were local fishies. The community tank has numerous other species in there that were fine.

 

I dont think you read my reply 

 

The Guppies and discus are in completely tanks 

 

I'm glad you have had good experience with her. But i think you're missing the point of my thread. I'm not asking about experience with Fishchick auction, I'm asking why my male guppies (both who just happen to be from her, imported from Thailand) died so soon after receiving them. 

[bigjohnnofish]

if you google reviews for fishchick you get a rather mixed bag of comments... 

 

my experience was i simply never got a reply after several attempts to make contact.... i asked a female friend and she said she always gets replies so i gave some $$$ and she got what i wanted quickly with no problems...  i thought jodi just didnt like dealing with blokes  

 

anyway back to the problem at hand... your male guppies have seeded the females so its just a matter of time till you can reselect the best quality and start breeding again....