Skinny guppy at surface of water with black eyes?

[Guffy]

One of my guppies has become very thin and has been hanging our lethargically at the surface. He is not gasping, just seems very tired and frail. He is still eating but is very thin. His eyes are black and larger than usual.

Water parameters are normal, did a 50% water change yesterday. The other inhabitants of the tank are healthy and active.

Any ideas? Is it a parasite? Any way to know which one or what medication he might need? Poor guy.

 

[Guffy]

Update: His gills are now very red. (levels of nitrates/nitrites low, ammonia zero)

 

[marsh]

You might isolate him to a QT. I don't mean to be funny. But he sounds like he's addicted to meth or crack. Not very likely, but I bet his tank mates are whispering about him

 

[marsh]

Just saw your last post, nitrites should be zero, did you recently add any fish? A mini cycle maybe?

 

[Guffy]

No new fish, in fact we just lost a ghost shrimp last week. The nitrites barely registered on the test strip, but it wasn't a zero. (I should really get a kit for that, I know)

Could losing a ghost shrimp cause a small increase of nitrites?

The tank is a planted tank. No recent changes other than ghostie dying. Could the nitrites be from the ghost shrimp dying and thus no longer helping clean the tank? Or could the same thing be causing the dead shrimp and the issue with the fish? Someone seems to have been eating the leaves on the water lilys. Would this hurt a ghost shrimp or guppy?

 

[marsh]

Yes the liquid tests are more accurate and maybe you don't even have nitrites. Seems very unlikely unless there was a cycle disruption.

Plants are beneficial in keeping nitrates low but shouldn't effect the nitrites.

It could be due to the shrimp death causing higher ammonia while rotting, thus a small spike in nitrites. They eat waste too, was it your only shrimp?

If the fish had a parasite or something he was fighting off, a mini cycle could have weakened him to the point of "losing" the fight. He may make it but I recommend separating him so it doesn't spread

 

[Guffy]

We had two ghost shrimp, one died. He didn't rot though, he started turning pink and stuck to the filter so I pulled him out and euthanized him. The other lil guy is hanging out.

Will quarantine the sick guy. Any idea what type of treatment he might need? I feel bad for him, he does not look like he feels good at all.

 

[marsh]

Without exact water parameters we cannot rule out nitrite shock and unfortunately I don't have any experience with the latest symptom of red gills.

I think there is such a parasite that damages the gills but treatment for the wrong disease would be very risky

Can you post photos?

 

[Guffy]

Not sure if these will post from my cell, but am going to try. They're from earlier before I quarantined him. He's acting slightly better so I'm thinking nitrite shock is a good bet. Am going to buy a test kit and ditch the strips tomorrow. I didn't have a quarantine tank set up so he's in a 2.5 gallon tank that the Betta used to live in. Going to buy something tomorrow that's better so I have a better tank for emergencies. :/

 

[Oceangirl]

How long have you had the tank set up? It looks like Ammonia burn/nitrite on his gills. How often do you change the water? Can you tell us if he eats and spits it out or does he really eat it? What's his poop look like? What size is this tank?

 

[Guffy]

How long have you had the tank set up? It looks like Ammonia burn/nitrite on his gills. How often do you change the water? Can you tell us if he eats and spits it out or does he really eat it? What's his poop look like? What size is this tank?

2 months.

10 gallons, tankmates are three other guppies, an endlers and a ghost shrimp. Used to have 5 shrimp in the tank but they started fighting. One died early on, 2 got moved in with the Betta and two stayed. One of the two that stayed died last week.

Water changes at 25% twice a week. (Was doing 25-50% changes every day for first month until ammonia consistently stayed below zero.) I use stress coat for the water going in.

Ammonia still zero (API test kit) Gotta get a test kit for nitrites/nitrates since I'm not trusting the strips after this. Poor fish. :/

All the other fish are fine. This guy has always been more sensitive. They're all pet store guppies and came with fin rot (I was worse than clueless when I bought them) Their tails all re-grew and they've been happy and active since then at least until this guy started having issues.

He eats the food, doesn't spit it back out. Acts normal (just slower with his fins pulled in) at feeding time. I haven't seen him poop recently.