# Cobra guppy died suddenly?



## Reccka (Jul 20, 2014)

Are cobra guppies the type to die very suddenly?  I just had one pass away today after appearing to be fine this morning. He was active and swimming alongside the other cobra guppy that's in the tank this morning and most of the day. He disappeared sometime around this afternoon, I got worried eventually, went looking for him and found him dead. What could've happened?

My tank is a fully cycled 30 gallon(he is living with one of my bettas and a ramshorn snail in a 7 gallon section, but waterflow goes through the whole tank) and he didn't have any external signs of illness. It's of course heated. And I added an air pump for them. 

The only thing I can think of is that I know I have hard water. Do they not do well in that? I don't have an exact measurement since I don't have a test kit for that, but it leaves hard water stains on everything if that's any indication...:-? Really concerned about my other cobra guppy right now.


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## Fenghuang (Dec 28, 2012)

Could your betta have attacked him? I have one male betta I kept with guppies. Normally he leaves them alone, but I suspect he was the culprit behind the death of two small subadult males. Both times, I discovered they had damage done to their belly region and fins. They would be alive when I find them, but were in serious distress and died within a few hours.


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## Reccka (Jul 20, 2014)

Fenghuang said:


> Could your betta have attacked him? I have one male betta I kept with guppies. Normally he leaves them alone, but I suspect he was the culprit behind the death of two small subadult males. Both times, I discovered they had damage done to their belly region and fins. They would be alive when I find them, but were in serious distress and died within a few hours.


He has no injuries on him, and the other guppy doesn't either. My betta was a little peeved the first day, but started to ignore them very quickly.


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## Fenghuang (Dec 28, 2012)

Hm. That is odd. I am sorry, I do not know. The only thing you can do is keep a close watch on your other guppy for now. It might just be an isolated case though if everyone else is fine.

To answer your question, I believe guppies prefer harder water. Most livebearers do.


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## Reccka (Jul 20, 2014)

Fenghuang said:


> Hm. That is odd. I am sorry, I do not know. The only thing you can do is keep a close watch on your other guppy for now. It might just be an isolated case though if everyone else is fine.
> 
> To answer your question, I believe guppies prefer harder water. Most livebearers do.


It's hopefully an isolated case...I didn't name them the entire time they were quarantined so I wouldn't feel so bad if this sort of thing happened, and I had just named them today too since they seemed like they were doing well! Darn. But that's good to know about the hard water so I can rule that out.


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## JOBAT (Mar 17, 2015)

Maybe he had a stroke  

That happens if a fish gets chased a lot. Their poor little hearts cannot handle that stress.


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## Reccka (Jul 20, 2014)

JOBAT said:


> Maybe he had a stroke
> 
> That happens if a fish gets chased a lot. Their poor little hearts cannot handle that stress.


I feel really bad if that happens so quickly.  My betta really did only chase them a small bit over the course of about two hours, then got over it. He even swims side by side with the other endler now.

And actually...durr. I just woke up and now that I'm thinking clearly about the timeline, the endler passed after the chasing had already stopped. So that possibly couldn't be it either?


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