[MonteCarlo]

Pretty crappy situation. Ive had a 10g heavily planted NPT (u can see in my aquarium), been running for month and a half with 5 white clouds and a mystery snail. no filter, water at 75 F. Ammonia/nitrates almost always at zero, water change every week (used to be two weeks but i noticed a lil bit of ammonia so made it 1). After a month and a half, i dropped the white clouds and got 7 male guppies, 3 red cherry shrimp.

Day 1, all seem to be acclimated well. Day 3, one RCS dies, seems to be stuck in duckweed at top of tank by top of heater. My curiosity: why did only 1 die? If my parameters were bad, shouldnt they all? he wasnt even the smallest either. Right after, I tested water with API liquid test, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates.
Also on day 3, one male guppy didnt want to eat, seemed sluggish, weak.

Day 4 morning, said guppy is dead on floor in morning. Removed and went to school. Come back, ANOTHER guppy dead on ground in back, unexpectedly. Apparently it was dead long enough for my snail to eat a good chunk of it. This is my biggest concern. He looks a lot less active after eating it, even now (im currently in night of day 4). Keeping him alive is my biggest concern.
Also, one other fish did not want to eat today, seems a bit to self (signs of what previous fish had). Otherwise, the other 4 fish seem active, eat well, and social.

Now i cant imagine what in the world could cause death to guppies so quickly. It also doesn't add up how my sensitive red cherry shrimp are outlasting the two guppies that died (that kinda shows its not ammonia/nitrate). But curiously enough, ONE of the rcs did die for unknown reasons. All in all, im having a horrible experience and wondering why me. I get I should have quarantined, but guess i wanted to roll the dice and get the fish into their home asap, i trusted my store alot.

 

[charlie1881]

Hey thier , I had a similar problem when I tried to keep guppys at first , they just wouldnt live in my tank and my levels were fine ..
One problem with guppys as well as shrimp ( especialy cherries , pumpkin and so on) is that due to inbreeding in the species their genetics are so messed up and usually have very poor ammunity to any disease . You might try getting stock from a private breeder , youd get way healthier fish an shrimp much more hardy .
I would suggest adding API aquarium salt to the tank this is good for guppys but is a very debatable topic some say dont salt while others such as myself live by it , but I like it because it turned my fish around after adding salt to my tank my guppys stopped dieing . The salt is kinda like gatorade for us it offers electrolytes as well as kills bacteria that can cause fish to get sick .
I hope this helps , let me know how it gors for you .

 

[essjay]

Can I ask why you don't have a filter? Also, what are your NitrIte levels? Remember, there's Ammonia, NitrItes and NitrAtes.. Nitrites are very dangerous to fish too... Is your pH and hardness suitable for the guppies?

 

[MonteCarlo]

wouldnt the salt be sort of hard on the mystery snail? or plants?

no filter in 10g since its small enough to where my abundance of fast growing plants act as a filter. and like i said, if it were water conditions, im sure all my rcs would have kicked it long before the guppies. the 2 rcs are still going strong today

and yes, i have slightly hard water.. ph 7.5ish. fine for guppies

 

[fish monger]

wouldnt the salt be sort of hard on the mystery snail? or plants?

no filter in 10g since its small enough to where my abundance of fast growing plants act as a filter. and like i said, if it were water conditions, im sure all my rcs would have kicked it long before the guppies. the 2 rcs are still going strong today

and yes, i have slightly hard water.. ph 7.5ish. fine for guppies

Charlie1881 is an advanced guppy,invertebrate, and snail breeder; however, better let him answer this. His livestock and plants are the healthiest I've seen.

 

[charlie1881]

Hey agin , I have alot of diffrent plants some challenging as well as easy and while salt can harm some it usually from my experiance doesnt due any damage , ( never has to mine ) I keep MTS and pond snails in all my tanks also for algae and airation with the plants . The thing to think about is time wise , your only gonna have the salt in your water for a short while just long enough to clear up the disease and with all the constant water changes and extra airation it will be gone before any damage can be done to your plants . I would also suggest salt with the snail presance cause almost every "ich" medication has copper in it and copper will kill you invertabrates snails , shrimp so on .
Add an small air bubbler to the tank when you add the salt and the same day turn your heat up a touch . Slowly over a couple days get your heat up to 80-81 degrees the ich cant handle the heat or salt and will be history fast .
I hope this helps , if theirs any other questions I can help you with just send me a pm please . And dont be afraid to ask anything no matter how trivial it may sound if you think you should ask then you should .
And thanks Frank for the complament man that was cool . ido have some awsome looking plants now if I do say so myself lol .