Something very strange has just happened. After introducing my first 4 Guppies to my new fresh water aquarium yesterday, I noticed one of them had disappeared this morning.

I searched high & low & decied to move the tank out to investigate the back & found the poor missing Guppy stuck on the filter intake. Surely this is highly un-normal & I have never heard of this happening.

We are using the Fluval 1 Plus filter, which came with the tank we bought, & it doesn't have an adjustable speed on it.

Anyone know how to avoid this happening again, as I am sure it was a horrible way to die.

It's very unusual for a healthy fish to get sucked into a filter intake, unless the filter is ridiculously strong (not the case with a Fluval 1 Plus!). I'd suggest that the fish died of another cause and got sucked into the filter afterwards. As long as your other fish look healthy I'd put it down to bad luck and not worry too much - guppies in general aren't as robust as they were ten years ago and a loss of one out of four in a new tank isn't uncommon.
Make sure you're testing the Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels of the water regularly and hopefully you can avoid any further losses.

Thank you very much for your reply, Marc.

Sadly I have lost a further 2 fish out of my original 4 today . It seems they got stuck in the bubbles at the back of my tank(from a rubber bubble tube attached to an air pump) & just keeled over on their backs & floated up to the surface dead. I am now left with a very lonely orange tailed Guppy, which looks healthy enough.

Luckily I only started with 4 fish I guess !.

Can you recommend any good testing kits on the market that test for Ammonia & Nitrates, as I tested the water for Ph, hard water & buffering zones before I bought the fish & the water seemed OK.

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Fish are pretty strong little critters and don't tend to get stuck, like Marc mentioned, in water or air flows. They usually manage to thrash themselves free.

However if they're dead or nearly dead they will easily get pulled in by currents.

I always liked the Interpet testing kits. There used to be an all in one starter kit.

You can always take a small sample of water to the shop and get them to test it.

Thanks for the reply, Fishadmin.

I lost the last guppie last night so will invest in a multi test kit & leave the tank fish free for a week.

The shop I bought the fish from tested the water before I bought the guppies & said the water was OK - all I saw was some pink liquid in a test tube, so I'm not sure what test he did.

Very sorry to hear about your guppies. I am concerned about the shop you are buying your fish from - they should really have let you know what they were testing for, and explained the Nitrogen cycle to you - it's very simple, really!
Any good all-in-one starter test kit should include tests for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH, and have a simple-to-understand booklet explaining why you are testing for these.
I have been using Tetratest's range of kits for the past four years religiously, and can highly recommend them, but will also agree with Fishadmin that Interpet's range are just as good.
Hope you have more luck when you restock - I would suggest starting with something slightly hardier than guppies, for instance platies, black neon tetras, or black widow tetras. There are many more species which would be just as suitable, as long as you make sure your water is toxin-free to begin with.
Good luck,
Marc

Thanks again for your reply :o)

I just rang the LFS that sold the guppies to me after they did the water test & spoke to the Manager. I told him that the test water came back pink & I was told that I could buy up to 4 guppies, as they are hardy fish.

According to the Manager of the shop, guppies are not hardy & I should not have been sold fish to go in my tank yet. He was very concerned that one of his staff had given me wrong information & told me to go back to the shop & ask to speak to him personally. He said he would re test the water for everything (inc ammonia & nitrites), reimburse the price of the guppies & recommend some hardier fish.

I have just ordered the Tetra Test Laborette & will start testing as soon as it arrives, so I become used to using it.

i to kept guppies when i first got my tank, all 6 died within a month, it was nothing to do with the nitrites or ammonia, as i visited my LFS for some fin rot treatment and told him that it was for my guppies, he was very concerened and told me that, shops shouldnt really be selling guppies, as all the new batches being imported have been bred intensively to gain the big tails, due to this process they have weak immune systems and die very easily. The best guppies to buy are the british bred guppies, but are less common.