Guppies alive at night, dead in the morning.

[goldenpuon]

I have had this going on for a while, actually since I got guppies. One night they would appear not to be doing well and then early the next morning, they would be freshly dead. Other inhabitants of the tank would be fine and show no signs of illness after

I have only observed this with adult guppies although I am unsure if it is restricted to them.

This may be an age thing but I am unsure. A few days before thids commonly happens, the fish is doing fairly well or fine. I first observed this with female guppies I bought from Petsmart as adults. When my guppies normally die, if not from disease, it is typically from dying abruptly.

I have had this happen recently in a tank in which the guppies had been healthy with no problems for over a year and some were quite old.

The first that died like this a few months ago was a male I got as an adult 1 1/2 years ago. Then, about a month ago, the guppy born at my house who was 2, I assume died this way. (I found him only when the other two guppies had almost completely eaten him.)

Then, a very old male who I had over 1 1/2 years and was an adult when I got him died this way. The night before, I was late feeding my fish- it was 11pm at night and he was sleeping on the bottom. I woke him up and he ate fine. However, I could tell he was not well. The next day, he was lifeless at the bottom. He had seemed a bit run-down the week prior but not anywhere near the point of being close to death. He was active, eating, tec.

The only fish I have left in there- the youngest, is French Fry who is around a year or year and a half old. He is showing no signs of disease whatsoever.

When this happens, water parameters are also very good and I have never observed this sudden a death with any other fish species.

All this said, has anyone observed this, particularly with older guppies?

Thanks.

Renee

[Carl]

I cannot say this with certainty, but my observations were that guppies can "go down" quite quickly, assuming no other disease or water parameter issues.

As Bill noted with Octopii, often when these are sold to the private fish keeper, these are already well into their normal lifespan. This too often applies to guppies and mollies as well IMO.

Carl

[bikeguy33]

as well....live bearers like mollies and guppies are so incredibly inbred that there are inherant problems from the get go.

[goldenpuon]

Thanks for the input both of you. Come to think of it, sometimes these deaths do occur when the fish are kill.

For example, a very old guppy named Irene Fish got cloudy eyes (unsure if it was popeye) and then passed suddenly overnight if I am correct.

This particular fish survived many disease outbreaks such as saprolegnia and possibly a gill parasite as well brought on by being newly aquired fish/temporarily being in a tank without a heater (their temp vared in different termps in the 70's throughout the day.) She also survived the shimmies outbreak without showing signs if I remember correctly and gave birth many times.

As well, the guppy Tyler who died recently thatr I found devoured was showing mild signs of stress off and on a week before he died. I was keeping an eye on him. He had a bloating problem that appeared when he was younger and slowly got worse with age.

These two fish were exceptions with guppies being sick before dying. However, when it was their time, they also died fast.

[parker002]

As many problems as I've had with mollies and platies, with guppies I NEVER had one live longer than a couple of months.

If your female gave birth "many times" she was probably just old.

I'm not surprised Tyler had a bloating problem. That's my #1 complaint with livebearers - they ALWAYS seem to have some kind of gastrointestinal stress even if they're not technically sick.