# Urgent: male guppies struggles



## janesc2003 (Dec 11, 2011)

Hi, there:

I've been keeping guppies for about five months in a 65G tank. I don't know why I'm keeping losing male guppies every now and then. The most common symptom is that male being resting on the substrate with folded big fancy tails at first and then starves to death in a couple of days. Based on a water test this morning, the parameters I could get are PH 7.6, KH 4 degrees, temperature 76 F and nothing's wrong with Nitrate and Amonia. I was told this might have something to do with PH since I've got a rather high PH value. Is it true or there's something else wrong with my tank? (I'm dosing sechem excel and flourish to help my live plants and I usually do a 50% water change every week.) I did test the PH of my tap water (6.8), a handful of gravel with a cup of tap water (mixed and had the water tested 24 hours later, 7.2). Should I try the PH down solution or acid buffer to bring it back to normal level? If yes, how should I do it to minimize the shock to my guppies? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Jane


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## janesc2003 (Dec 11, 2011)

No visible strips, spots on my guppies.


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

Hello. i had the same problem with my guppies until i got my water harder. guppies are kinda brackish so the need salt and fairly hard water. i keep my ph at 7.2 temp 78. if you want to drop your ph from 7.6 to 7.2 that will be fine with your fish. i use equilibrium to harden my water you should have a gh of at least 5 dgh. i would raise the gh slowly you don't want to go from 1 gh to 5 gh in one day. and i use 1 tbsp of salt per 5g. Hope that helps Cheers


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Hi Janesc2003,

Sorry to hear that your guppies have been delicate. I think your pH will be okay for guppies, though. I agree with Scherb that guppies seem to like harder water and you could add some Seachem Equilibrium, Replenish and/or a bit of salt with your water changes. Maybe not so much that the water is brackish, but harder than Vancouver water generally is. 

I have endlers, not guppies, but I think guppies appreciate some plant matter in their food. What are you feeding them? 

I think that endlers tend to be hardier than guppies, so if you want to go for endlers instead, just let me know and I'll give you some. I wouldn't mix them in the same tank, though, or they would cross-breed. Unless you want gupplers!


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

Agreed, Equilibrium to get the GH up to at least 5 or 6.


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## Arcteryx (Nov 23, 2011)

If your tank is planted, I'd been told before that adding salt is a no no (bad for plants...), so Equilibrium or an equivalent only.


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## janesc2003 (Dec 11, 2011)

Thanks alot, everyone! I'll go get Equilibrium first thing tomorrow morning.


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