All guppies die when I put them in my 40 gallon

[bloodlucky]

I have a 40 gallon community with gold barbs neons and kuhli loaches. There has been a disease in my tank that apparently not a single person on this forum can help me with that basically drains a fish down to nothing but a skinny corpse before instantly moving into it's next victim. It's swept through 1 generation of platies which I have bred myself and raised, a baby angelfish, and my Bolivian ram.

Anyway I noticed a gold barb beginning to "waste" away and so I immediately quarantined him in a 2.5 gallon tank occupied by a test guppy which has been in the tank for a few months just to keep the healthy bacteria running in the small tank. So I swapped the test guppy with the sick barb. The barb is sick but looks no different in the 2.5 than he did in the 40 but yet again the test guppy is dead in the 40. Not to mention I have tried multiple times to introduce guppies into my 40 gallon but none of them last for over a week.

I have no idea why.

 

[anteatergoanna]

I think I would empty the tank, give it a good scrub, and start again using tetra safe start. Throw media out of filter and replace with new stuff and sterilise everything!! That's only my opinion, hopefully there's someone in here that can maybe suggest something else.
Have you researched "Skinny disease", I know loaches can get, not sure about other fish, worth a look though, if it is, they will tell you what meds to use...good luck

 

[TomCarter13]

You should probably test your water before you try anything that you may not even need to do. If your nitrites or ammonia are very high (should both be at 0) they are very very toxic to your fish and pretty much kill your fish within a week in my experience. If your nitrates are above 40ppm (which is still rather high) than that can be very toxic too. If any/all of these are very high then do at least a 50% water change and add fresh de chlorinated water and then i will be happy to help you from then on

Apart from them getting skinny, is there anything else effecting them? Like are there white spots, sores, white cottony stuff on the skin, is the ling white stringy poo, or any thing? Any weird behaviour like being; lethargic, skittish, dashing, flashing (scratching on objects), or not eating? There could be parasites in your tank that you'll wanna get rid of.

Once you give more info i will be happy to help

 

[Mebbid]

It sounds like a parasite except for the guppies dying within a week. Fish generally don't waste away in a single week unless there's something seriously wrong with them.

Are you getting your guppies from the same place? I would imagine that if you are the guppies are sick at the source and you're just getting sick guppuies.

What have you done for treatment so far?

 

[bloodlucky]

You should probably test your water before you try anything that you may not even need to do. If your nitrites or ammonia are very high (should both be at 0) they are very very toxic to your fish and pretty much kill your fish within a week in my experience. If your nitrates are above 40ppm (which is still rather high) than that can be very toxic too. If any/all of these are very high then do at least a 50% water change and add fresh de chlorinated water and then i will be happy to help you from then on

Apart from them getting skinny, is there anything else effecting them? Like are there white spots, sores, white cottony stuff on the skin, is the ling white stringy poo, or any thing? Any weird behaviour like being; lethargic, skittish, dashing, flashing (scratching on objects), or not eating? There could be parasites in your tank that you'll wanna get rid of.

Once you give more info i will be happy to help

I have educated myself about the nitrogen cycle ever since I had my tank which was about 3 years ago. I remember when I started this tank I was paranoid about ammonia and nitrite levels and didn't add any fish until they reached 0. I have yet to check them again because it's been a while since I last checked. But I assure you that some of these neons in my tank that are thriving (since they aren't victims of the disease yet) have been around since the days I was stilling living in NYC. Same with the barbs.

As far as I can say there are no other physical changes in the fish aside from becoming very thin in terms of stomach width and they become very flat like pancakes. There is no scraping whatsoever oddly enough but by the time they almost reach death I notice they begin to reject all types of food and swim with great difficulty.

 

[bloodlucky]

Also to add, I know the fish are dying of a parasite/disease specifically because the disease attacks a single host at a time. There have never been 2 fish at once with this disease, but each fish dies after the last one consecutively in no particular order regarding species of the fish

 

[Mebbid]

Also to add, I know the fish are dying of a parasite/disease specifically because the disease attacks a single host at a time. There have never been 2 fish at once with this disease, but each fish dies after the last one consecutively in no particular order regarding species of the fish

That's an interesting observation but it's not really one that you can prove. You don't have any way of knowing if the fish is sick or not until they actually show visible symptoms.

My previous questions still stand: What treatments have you tried? Have you gotten the guppies from the same source?

With the fish wasting away like that it's almost guaranteed to be a parasite in which case metronidazole medicated food for 5 days in a row should clear it up.

 

[bloodlucky]

That's an interesting observation but it's not really one that you can prove. You don't have any way of knowing if the fish is sick or not until they actually show visible symptoms.



My previous questions still stand: What treatments have you tried? Have you gotten the guppies from the same source?



With the fish wasting away like that it's almost guaranteed to be a parasite in which case metronidazole medicated food for 5 days in a row should clear it up.

Well I meant that I could see visible symptoms when I classified fish as "sick." By now I think it's more than just a coincidence that these fish are withering away one at a time in a huge consecutive line.

I have not gotten the guppies from the same source, in fact all guppy attempts came from about 4-5 different stores, some even LFS. Which increases my suspicion

And for medication, buddy I don't know how I can stress this more but I have tried everything. I tried aquarium salt by API, coppersafe, and internal parasite medication flakes enhanced FOR ANGELS which was clearly proven USELESS after my baby angel fell dead to the disease very quickly.

This is what makes this disease so irritating. I have posted about 6-7 threads in the past expecting a possible resolution but everyone suspects it's something simple that I'm doing wrong. I have checked everything off the list before I post into these threads but regardless, this disease has costed me about $50 in fish and medication not to mention sentimental attachment to the platy fry I raised myself only to see it's shriveled carcass stuck to the filter after a year of trying to battle this disease.

This is my first time quarantining an infected fish, so I pray to god this will work because if it doesn't then I really may need to start over, which would mean sending my healthy remaining community fish back to petco where they'd be killed within a week by the lack of care that that company puts into their animals anyway.

 

[bloodlucky]

Oh and one more detail, the disease attacks fry as well. The major difference in infected young compared to adults is that they don't flatten out but rather stop growing at whatever size they were when the disease claimed it's host. I was wondering why my platy fry had been an inch in total length after 8 months...

 

[mizter67]

It sounds like we have an identical issue. When mine stop eating I notice their gills are swollen and their mouth is gasping.

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[mattcham]

I have the same problem as you. It's most likely a parasite because it displays life cycle behavior (affecting one host then jumping to another). This is clearly not bacterial nor fungal nor viral. Those diseases affect many fish at the same time and have visible skin/fin/tail lesions.

Given that hypothesis, the best treatment of choice are praziquantel (hikari prazi pro from amazon.com), metronidazole flake food (kensfish.com), and seachem paraguard (amazon.com). These are strong antiparasitic meds. I had the same problems as the OP and am just starting my treatment regimen this weekend.

Also I would double or triple the treatment duration as parasite eggs may be immune to the medications and you need to eradicate the parasite and its offspring.

This all assumes that your observations are accurate and that the fish are not dying due to lack of food or bullying from other fish. Sometimes fish will defend food sources from other fish. I have seen cichlids, livebearers, and even vegetarian catfish do this. Victims of bullying may die one at a time starting from the lowest in the pecking order.

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[mizter67]

Please keep us posted

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[RackinRocky]

I've also had fish "waste away" one at a time, and all this time I thought it was columnaris. I tried Kanaplex, Triple Sulfa, Maracyn, Maracyn 2 and Furan 2. Nothing helped. If only I'd known it was a parasite, I would have treated for that long ago, but the symptoms, from all my reading, suggested columnaris over everything else. I used PraziPro not long ago when I lost a platy simply because I hadn't tried a parasite med, and figured why not? I'd tried everything else. The platy had died, but this was in a 55 gallon with lots of other fish. I used it per label instructions, and have not had a death since! I don't know if the meds worked, or if the parasite/disease is dormant right now. I've had periods of time where I'd go months without a death. This time its been 3 months, so I know I'm not out of the woods yet, but if I have another fish start to waste, I'll use the PraziPro again. I'm glad I bought it now. Sorry, this doesn't solve anything really, as to what is going on, but I was desperate, as I can tell you are, and if they're dying left and right, I feel like I can't just sit there and watch it happen. I will also get Paragard and the medicated Ken's flakes for future use. Great info here for an ongoing mystery that is devastating.

 

[mattcham]

Like you I treated for columnaris but treatment failed and heathy fish continued to become sick and die. I have since learned that columnaris should not be suspected unless you see the classic saddle back lesion on fish.

Next time I see fin clamping and flashing movement with no external lesion, I'll start with anti-protozoan medication like metronidazole.

Also my scaleless catfish seem to tolerate full dose metronidazole just fine. Paraguard needs to be given 1/4 or 1/2 dose initially and incrementally over many hours as giving full dose in one shot makes catfish rise to the surface (sign of gill irritation or suffocation).

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[RackinRocky]

Well, this certainly gives me some hope, but I HAVE, on occasion, had a fish here and there that looked like it had the typical "saddle" of columnaris. Not positive though, as I was so distraught that I didn't look as closely as I should have. Considering though, that nothing else has helped me in the past, I will use an anti-parasite treatment next time I have a fish who becomes ill. Maybe we're onto something!

 

[Noviceafter2yea]

Well, this certainly gives me some hope, but I HAVE, on occasion, had a fish here and there that looked like it had the typical "saddle" of columnaris. Not positive though, as I was so distraught that I didn't look as closely as I should have. Considering though, that nothing else has helped me in the past, I will use an anti-parasite treatment next time I have a fish who becomes ill. Maybe we're onto something!

I am far from being an expert or a reliable source. I experienced an unsolvable issue with my 20 gallon tank where my fish kept dying - all one by one except 3 which I think I killed by doing a salt bath. I tried everything. My last fish looked so bad and I decided I was maybe treating for mouth rot instead of columnarus. Like you, prior to that I tried all kinds of treatments over the course of a year with no change.

With my one fish left, I decided to start the tank from scratch. I put the survivor in a bucket. Bought an entirely new glass part, cleaned it, and transferred all the other equipment to the new glass. I believe I even took out the old filter pad and used a brand new one and added quick start I don't remember if I used new gravel, but I know I put in way less.

I was scared to do such a drastic change and knew it would be incredibly stressful on my last fish.the girl who had been helping me try to fix the previous tank told me it couldn't be any worse than the horrible water that killed everything. I took the leap of faith.

I transferred the guy into the newly set up tank with quick start and nt a real cycle. There was a tremendous change in the fish over night. His appearance changed and he swam around. I felt sad that he was alone, but waited several weeks before adding new fish. In the meantime, I also set up a 5 gallon QT tank and had that cycle as well

That little guy is still with me.

It was a drastic move, but I was desperate.

Definitely take other people's advice over mine, but maybe they can weigh in on whether as a last option you may want to try this. I'm sorry, I forgot how many fish you have left and my computer is acting up right now so forgive me. If you are down to the last, this may be worth a shot.

I understand your frustration and I an sorry you are going through this -- please remember people are only trying to help you and taking their time to do so. It would be nice to respond kindly to their feedback even if you are frustrated.