Hi Paul,

Welcome to the forum. Glad to see another Galwegian joining in !

Sorry to hear you are having issues with your 1st batch of fish. It makes the experience a little disappointing but I can assure you that once this is over, you will find the fish keeping super interesting and also addictive

I'm not sure what is happening in your tank but I would put it down to the guppies. Once upon a time, these were as tough as boots, but it seems that they have become more illness prone recently, becoming more difficult to keep than the most delicate tropical fish you could find.
I have been going through a similar spate lately and it's a pain.
The neons are quite prone to illness too I believe.

So, maybe you did get a 'bad' batch of guppies/neons from the shop and it's contaminated the others. The pleco and the other fish would definitely eat the body of dead fish but there should be some remain somewhere ...

Maybe you should wait until the situation has stabilised for a few weeks before adding anything else in the tank.

I would also recommend a quarantine tank in order to 'test swim' the new additions before adding them with the others. You don't need a big tank for this, it's better to add a few fish at the time in order not to overwhelm the bioload.

As far as the snail is concerned, they are not bad for the tank. They have probably come in with a plant. If they get too numerous or start damaging your plants, you can always get a few loaches in a while. They are very good at keeping their numbers in control.

There is a lot of information available on this forum. You can use the search functionality on the top right of the screen or in the menu bar on the left of the page. If you have any additional queries, don't hesitate to post on the forum.

Regards,
Valerie


PS - By the way, did you check in the filter ? I had a pregnant guppy once who worked her way into the filter part of my Juwel tank in order to have her fry in peace!

Hi,Paul Valeries right,neons seem to be so much more fragile these days,i gave up after buying a batch of 20 recentlly and only 8 survived. Even though my water is 6.5 so pretty soft to a degree and over time bought many before and cardinals too but the same outcome.Decided to buy a shoal of rummy nose tetras instead and touch wood their doing fine shoaling together and look really well...

If the neons are dying off easily, try cardinal tetras.Very similar but slight bigger and there stripe runs all the way through. I dont know what peoples experience of the cardinals are but I have 4 and 3 neons and they all seems to shoal v well. Its like anything, sometimes you can get lucky with the batch you receive from the LFS. Also I echo Valeries thoughts, stick with it and you will get through this period and turn out to be a good fishkeeper! Its addictive and v rewarding so dont lose heart.

thanks guys,i'm just worried about losing all my fish,although all my other fish are fine,i have six glowlight tetras that are doing great,they seem to be shoaling with the zebra danios,great to watch them all flying around the tank,going away sunday for a week,my brother in law is keeping an eye on them,so hopefully i wont come home to an empty tank

Paul if your brother in law is also feeding your fish tell him to feed them every second day. A lot of the time when people feed fish for other's they over feed A LOT resulting in a polluted tank. Fish need a lot less food than you may think.

thanks platty,he has a 70 litre tank himself so he has a fair idea what to do,but i've told him only to feed them on the wednesday any way so they should be ok

Hi Paul, welcome to the forum, sorry to hear your having a few losses, the advice you've got is spot on, unfortunately neons and especially guppy's are so line bred at this stage that they are weaker than their wild counterparts, unfortunately its a curse we fishkeepers face, anyway i just spotted something you said in your responses earlier, you said your tank is situated near a window which it recieves some light from... unfortunately this is a bit of a no no as it can lead yto the tank over heating and causing a lowering of the oxygen content of the water, what i'd suggest is adding an air filter to your tank to agitate the water and get it more oxidised this might make a big difference, also when you got your water tested did you find out what the ph was this can also affect what fish you keep..
Keep us posted here of any changes we're all here to help each other and remember the ONLY stupid question is the one you dont ask
Enjoy this hobby and this forum and best of luck with your fish
Seamus

hi seamus,thanks for the advice,i've been keeping the curtains closed for a couple of days to keep the sunlight out,the temperature has been pretty steady at 26 but wont go any lower,i've got an air pump connected to a mini volcano,bought it as an impulse buy one day,loads of tiny bubbles with a red light coming up the centre,looks great in the dark but not sure if this is what you're talking about,when the water was tested they just said it was fine,i will test again with my own test kit and try to get exact readings on everything

Yes that mini volcano is what i'm talking about, remember that tanks will over heat if left near a window so an the hotter days i'd do small water changes just to freshen the tank up... rather like us taking a cool shower on a hot day..when you test with your own test kit post the results we'll have a clearer picture then of whats happening..till then, or if you have anymore questions just ask
Seamus

hi all,just wanted to thank you all for your advice,back from my hols,and all fish fine,lost all three guppies and all neon tetras,but all the rest are perfectly happy,just have to put it down to a bad batch of guppies,
anyway,thanks everyone


paul