About Darryl Expertise I can answer questions about pets found in common, major pet shops, and I'm researching and expanding my knowledge outward every day.
I don't, however, know a great deal on salt water.
As a side note, I removed the option for readers to further comment due to false information being posted. Please, if you have comments, email me direct at Dragontyrant079@yahoo.com. If your point is valid, and true (Like Chris's comment), I will post it. If you happened to get lucky, or are completely wrong, I will tell you so.
Experience Years of owning fish tanks ranging from half gallon to 150 gallons. I have had fish from all areas, climates, aggression levels, you name it, i've probably had it.
Organizations AllExperts (fish and freshwater fish)
Publications Does myspace and allexperts count? If not, none that I'm aware of.
Education/Credentials Just experience. High School diploma, with honors. nothing special
Awards and Honors The award I'm most proud of came from a biology project in which we had to develop an aquarium in a one gallon container with a screw on lid, that we glued shut. I had 7 fish survive for 48 days without any outside aid. (No fish died during our project. At first sign of stress, the teacher ended that student's project. The goal timeline was 30 days, with 3 fish.) I feel that accomplishment worthy of noting, but not glorifying. After all, it was just a school project
Question I had a few guppies in a tank and they were doing fine. I then moved them to a 10 gallon with a few tetras, and realized that they needed salt to survive. I put some salt in the tank, and within 3-4 days of doing that, I lost 5 of my guppies. Is there a certain kind of salt I should use?
Answer Hey Jen,
Yes! Only use aquarium salt. Table salt will poison your fish, and kill them at alarming rates. If you used table salt, do a large water change immediately. 30% or more. Add conditioner like NovAqua, or AquaSafe on the remainder of the water, as well as the newly added water. This should help remove the excess chlorine from adding the table salt.
Once you've stabilized the water, take a cup (in a baggie) to a pet store, and ask for a salinity test. They pour the water into a hydrometer, and the readings will be very low (as low as 1.005) so you need to make sure theirs goes low enough to read that far down, or atleast close to it.
Buy a box of regular aquarium salt. A small one will last you years, and will only run about 3$ USD. After the salinity test, remember the results and ask a followup giving me the number, I'll figure out exactly how much salt you need to add still. Generally, i keep my tanks around 1.015. Any higher, and scaleless fish like neon tetra and plecostomuses tend to suffer.
As a general rule with your guppies, keep them at least 2 females to 1 male. I typically keep 2-3 males, and around 15 females. This reduces tension, over mating (which exhausts a female) and also ensures that if and when you have fry, they either get eaten off, or will grow and have many different mates, instead of severely inbreeding. Plus, male aggressions over females are usually neutralized at a ratio of 3:1. Also, keep your tetra in a school of around 6. They'll be much more comfortable, and healthy in a slightly larger group. (unless they're big tetra like glass, or black skirt. then a group of 3-4 is better in a small tank).
Also, it sounds like the tank might be over stocked. When you have the salinity test done, test for ammonia and nitrite as well as nitrate. If ammonia and nitrite are off the charts, you know that ammonia poisoning was a factor in fish death. A bottle of NovAqua will solve the chlorine from table salt issue, and AmQuel will get rid of a lot of the toxic chemicals like ammonia. They're not always the cheapest conditioners, but they are amazingly effective.
After a few weeks, if your tank seems to have stablized, try adding a couple more female guppies and tetra and see if the balance of animals helps perk them up. A live plant like Java Ferns or Hornwort can also help reduce fish stress, remove CO2, increase O2, and help regulate other toxins like iron, nitrate, phosphate, etc. (Phosphate is what makes algae grow uncontrollably!)
I hope all this info helps you get organized and on track with your guppies! If you notice that your water is really, really soft, try raising the hardness a bit too. Supposedly a pinch of baking soda will bump it up, but i've never tried it! Ask your pet store what they recommend if your hardness is low.
