Guppy with ragged fins not healing

[BANGAR]

Hey guys, I've been doing some research and having a hard time identifying what disease My fish being plagued with here. Am looking for suggestions or help with the diagnosis.

So in the last two months, in my one 46g display tank, I've had two corys ( new purchases, did not quarentine) and one juvenile guppy pass.
I saw one stringy white poo on another guppy about 3 weeks ago.

I currently have two guppys with ragged fins, one started yesterday.
The other, has had the same two notches on his dorsal and tail fin for like 3-4 weeks. He was looking pretty thin as well, so I put him in QT 2 weeks ago in a 2.5g with aquarium salt added. He has put on some weight but His fins still look the ripped. What's going on with this guy?

Please help! I want my tank to be healthy but not sure what to do! I think the aquarium salt helped him out weight back on but I'm not sure about the fins...
I'm thinking possibly columnaris or nematodes



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[coralbandit]

Although the fins look 'irregular' I can see no sign of infection in picture.
Looks like a healthy fish by body shape.
I know bettas bite their own fins or can be injured by 'sharp' things...
Could this be possible for your guppy omitting the previous deaths?

On the on the other deaths I am 'columnaris guy'(among other dubious titles)...
but the best treatment at this time covers so many bacterial infections that everyone can call it what they want...
Kanamycin/nitrofurazone(seachem kanaplex/Furan 2) would be my first choice of treatment if it is truly suspected to be bacterial...

 

[Matt68005]

Yes it is bacterial infection. There are several types of bacteria that will infect a stressed fish or open wound.
Male guppies usually get tails like this quite often, usually its not serious unless you notice a fungus like growth on them as well. Often times they will continue to have ragged tails like this for their entire lives, with no ill effects. It is because there is inadequet blood supply on FANCY guppies that have very large tails and their body is not designed to have such a large tail, since wild guppies do not have one.
Coral is right about the medications, Kanamycin + Furan 2 is the typical antibiotic combo used to treat sick fish, but since its only 2 guppies, and kanamycini can run 15 dollars or more, you might just try nice clean water and see if it turns out ok.

 

[BANGAR]

Hey Matt and CB thanks for the responses! I've been doing a lot of water changes on the tank. Additionally I bought "hikari frozen spirulina brine shrimp" which I've been using to try to improve my fishes immune health. I did notice the guppy pictured is starting to have a small worm possibly hanging from his anus. That means calimanus, right???
All the other fish appear healthy other than that. I'm going to keep this guy quarantined. I just bought a 55g which I intend to use to breed the guppies. Should I treat all my fish, even though they aren't showing symptoms???


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[coralbandit]

Yes treat all in tank for camallanus.
Levamisole HCI is what you want nothing else.
Are you sure it is camalllanus?

 

[BANGAR]

Yes treat all in tank for camallanus.
Levamisole HCI is what you want nothing else.
Are you sure it is camalllanus?

I think I am goin to wait a day or two before ordering the levimasole just to make sure it is camallanus.

I was also thinking of ordering the powdered levimasole (vs medicated food) to treat the cories more effectively as well. What do you guys think for effective Cory treatment?

Somebody (maybe Matt) shared the angelplus meds on a different thread. This is who I plan on ordering from.

Also thinking I should get bath salts to soak my fish food in.

Additionally, should I use the 55 ( bare bottom) to medicate all the fish, or keep them in the 46g (dirted, planted)?

I was thinking it might be a good idea to deworm in the 55g, and treat the dirted 46 tank separately as well.

Thanks for the help guys!


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[Matt68005]

If its not too late I suggest powder dewormer not the food. Just from my own experience, the dewormer feed from angels was not strong enough to cure my guppies from callamunus worms.
I actually have mollies in that tank now, and apparently, the worms survived bleaching the tank for 2 days outside this summer, I bleached everything and let it sit, and they survived that.
Coral, why is levimasole better than fenbendazole?
I have used the fenbendazole powder before, it does make them expel their bowels, especially with Epsom salt and starving them for a day before, then lacing the food with garlic to get them to eat vigorously. Because one is a worm killer and the fenbendazole only a paralyser? Would like to hear your thoughts on this coral, as this is my first time dealing with calamunus, and they are EXTEREMELY hard to get rid of....never thought they would be this bad! Sorry OP did not mean to steal your thread either.
And yes you should use the bare bottom tank to deworm then suck up the worms after treatment, I realy just don't think the fenbendazole food is strong enough

 

[BANGAR]

Alright so I checked the ragged fin, and what ever was stuck in his anus passed. Perhaps it was stool. Kinda looked like a white nub. I watched him eat three frozen brine shrimp. Maybe he's okay. Gosh am I just paranoid?


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[coralbandit]

All I know about camallanus I learned from two keepers/breeders.
One was just incredibly knowledge able and introduced to the other.

The other is Charles Harrison(inkmaker on some sites).
Tropical Fish Information
READ EVERYTHING HE OFFERS!

 

[BANGAR]

Hey guys, so I know my tank is cycling, it's about 17 days into the cycle, and I think my cories might be suffering from nitrite poisoning. They have clamped fins and dull color.

I'm trying to do some research but I'm at work so my web exploration is limited, and I can't get my water tested atm.

I have methylene blue but haven't used it. I have two questions about treating the cories.

1. Should I do a weaker concentration than recommended? I know cories are scaleless fish and some meds you need to be careful with.

2. How long should I treat them?? Like a 30 min bath, or treat for 3-5 days (kordon website recommends this).
Thanks guys!


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[Matt68005]

If you have a hospital tank, you would have to do it there because M Blue will kill off Good Bacteria.
I have always done it for like 5-7 days at full strength the first day, then just to keep it medium blue maybe 3ml per ten gallons on the following days.
If your fish have nitrite poisining and are coming down with finrot or fungus, it would be a good choice to treat them with M blue provided you can keep up water changes in an unfiltered tank with just a heater and airstone I dont think M blue will hurt cories.

 

[BANGAR]

Thanks for the advice Matt! Small hospital tank is up and running! Set it up right in front of the big tank. I was a little light on the MB, just to be sure!


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[BANGAR]

Hey so based on what I read today about MB increasing O2 transport throughout the cells of the fish... If I treat my guppy with the torn fins with methylene blue.. Could the increased O2 up take facilitate fin regrowth?!?


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[Matt68005]

It could. Its a good way to screen new guppies against outward fungus and bacteria as well. I use to take my filters out of one tank, put new guppies in the filterless tank, and use M Blue for like a week while I fed my medicated food. Its a good Quarantine procedure. Nowadays you got to be careful because there are so many parasites out there.
A good idea would be to keep New Guppies in a 5ml per ten gallon solution of M blue for the first 7-10 days while you change 50% water per day, crank up the heat to 82, and feed some dewormer type food, as callamunus is very hard to get rid of. Trust me, once you learn your diseases, youll never have problems with OUTWARD diseases again, they will be a cakewalk compared to INTERNAL diseases. what nitmare they are!
Certain fish are prone to certain diseases. Guppies genenarally internally get Callamunus and Callaprai Intestinal worms quite often. I learned that from a very old, very good, disease knowlagable Jim alderson. They get worms mostly, rarely getting anything like Hexitima or Fish TB. Very very rare in guppies. And I imagine he must know his guppies by now.
Using a dewormer food every other day 1x a day while in the Q tank is a good idea I think. As far as ick, you could use salt and the heat and lots of PWC in the Q tank and just avoid any fish with signs of ick or torn fins at the pet store.

 

[Matt68005]

If you end up getting the Antibiotic and the Dewormer food from angels plus, their two very useful medicated feeds to have on hand!
Much cheaper, longer lasting, and goes straight into the fish does not dissolve in hard water and become useless!
Some of this might be over your head, but with guppies getting sick and all quite often, I hope I have given some useful advice in a way you can understand it (I tend to just blurt out and rant about stuff people have no idea what I'm saying)

 

[BANGAR]

Lol Matt no worries I would say you communicate effectively


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[Matt68005]

lol I should open up a separate thread "matts talk of fish diseases and meds" haha
7 years of raising guppies and there is not much I have not seen, or dealt with.

 

[BANGAR]

Yeah you should. I saw you made one that kind of catagorizes disease


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