HELP! female guppy in distress!

[freshwaterashley]

Today i noticed that my female yellow guppy looked a bit battered with red marks behind her gills. I had noticed early in the morning that the male guppy was hounding her but ive seen that before and never thought anything of it. She is very pregnant so i thought the stress to be unbearable for her. She seems to not be swimming very well now, even though i moved her to a separate bowl. I am cery worried that i will wake in the morning to find her dead what should i do?

 

[Scottyhorse]

Red gills sounds like ammonia poisoning to me. What size tank? Stocking? Water parameters?

 

[freshwaterashley]

10 gallon

6 dalmation mollies
3 guppies
1platy.. till i can get her a mate

8 fry... not sure who they came from.. maybe the platy.. it will be a few more weeks til i can really tell.

I dont have anything to test the water. Do you think the pet store could test it for free?

 

[Scottyhorse]

Well..... You've got WAAAY too many fish in there. That would be why. Most pet stores will test for free, but make sure they use a liquid kit.

 

[freshwaterashley]

What can i do to help her besides take her out of the tank? None of the other fish seem to have a problem

 

[freshwaterashley]

I have another ten gallon tank but it is not cycled yet

 

[freshwaterashley]

How is that too many fish?

 

[pcdebb]

How is that too many fish?

i forget what the exact formula is, but it's something like 1 fish per 5 gallons or something like that (the "inches of fish per gallon" rule). for a 10 gallon you really shouldn't have more than a couple of fish. Mollies can take up that capacity easily.

that's a healthy bioload to spike your ammonia very quickly. you definitely need to do a water change ASAP.

 

[freshwaterashley]

That rule is super faulted. It is all in how clean you keep the tank, and how the fish get along together. Mine dont really claim any territory its literally just a big family. I started out with only 3 fish.. a pregnant dalmation molly.. and a male and female guppy. I have given several fry to the pet store

 

[Fishanatic]

It's not over stocked if those are only small fry. Just keep up the water changes by weekly and make sure to test you're ammonia, nitrite and nitrate every other day to make sure everything is under control. As said, signs of red gills is a sign of ammonia poisoning, so just make sure to do more water changes. Beware as some fish such as a few types of platys(ex: mickey mouse platy) have red gills normally. What type of filtration do you have and what flow is it?(GPH)
Also, don't forget to properly maintain the filter and vacuum the gravel at least once a week, and not to overfeed