Sick guppy?

[syhko]

Got a guppy from the pet store today, and of course they don’t care much about their aquatics. I saw a guppy alone with the tetras that looked different from the others, he was extra wobbly. Got him in the fresh new tank, he was doing good but suddenly he stopped swimming well. He is tipped over. My lover thinks that he has flatworms. The guppy is having trouble swimming and his back looks a bit bent?

pH is at 7.0, no nitrite or nitrate, KH at 0 and GH at 30. the temperature is consistently between 74-78 degrees Fahrenheit.

We aren’t sure he is going to make it. When we saw him he didn’t look well compared to the others. Right not he’s tipped downward in a live plant. We hope he will get better after adding some parasitic remedy in the tank.

Any idea what is going on?

 

[Andy Sager]

Why would you possibly buy a fish that is obviously not healthy and probably going to die shortly? That only encourages the shop owner to not take better care of their fish.
Bent spines are a common symptom of vitamin deficiency as well as fish TB. There is little hope for the fish and would be better to be euthanized carefully. Fish TB is contagious and can be transmitted from the fish to humans. Make sure you sterilize anything you use(d) with this fish and do not handle the fish with bare hands.
The little burst of energy when first placed in the new tank was probably it's last bit of energy. The proof of that is that it can't stay upright.
Sorry to be the barer of bad news but this was not a wise purchase or even a freebie gift.

 

[syhko]

The guy was not getting treatment. The person almost killed him when getting him for me. It’s Petco so I doubt that they will take better care of their fish anyway, it sucks.

He ended up passing. I went to check on him but he was laying at the bottom, not breathing. I took him out with the net, gonna return him since there’s a 30 day refund. He wasn’t going to make it any longer.

Rest in peace guppy.

 

[Andy Sager]

The guy was not getting treatment. The person almost killed him when getting him for me. It’s Petco so I doubt that they will take better care of their fish anyway, it sucks.

He ended up passing. I went to check on him but he was laying at the bottom, not breathing. I took him out with the net, gonna return him since there’s a 30 day refund. He wasn’t going to make it any longer.

Rest in peace guppy.

I suggest you be more careful in the fish you choose. If you see the salesman having a hard time catching a particular fish, you have the right to say " Never Mind" instead of taking a fish that has been beaten up while being caught. That said, in your first post, you said the fish looked "extra wobbly" which should have been a sign to you that that fish was not a good one to purchase in the first place. I suggest that you look for fish that appear to be in the best of health and leave the Doctoring to the professionals. ( Actually, the fish's best chances are for the chasing to stop and not being transported then acclimated into a new tank. )

If your only choice is to buy from stores where the fish are not being kept in the best of care, any fish from there should be quarantined before adding to your main tank as you can easily wipe out an established tank with just one bad fish with a communicable disease.

 

[syhko]

Yeah I agree. My boyfriend went back today to get new fish and they finally decide to tell us that some of the guppies are sick. Today one of the other guppies we got is endlessly floating, starting to swim again, and then floating. Their body is barely moving. I think it’s a disease.

 

[Aiken Drum]

This is one of the major things that annoy me about retail or service in general. When someone sells you something and they know something is wrong.

"Waiter. Excuse me. I think the fish is off."
"Yeah, we know. We are having trouble with the supplier."
"Then why did you sell it to me?"
..... confused silence.

 

[Jacky12]

I’m sorry for your loss. It was kind of you to give the fish a chance, but a favorable outcome was unlikely. Employees at Big Box and local pet shops have told me the first thing they do when opening up is to toss out dead and dying fish. I’ve gravitated more and more to purchases or free fish from people in my local Facebook aquarium group. I could almost say I’m done with pet shops of any size.

 

[Andy Sager]

This is one of the major things that annoy me about retail or service in general. When someone sells you something and they know something is wrong.

"Waiter. Excuse me. I think the fish is off."
"Yeah, we know. We are having trouble with the supplier."
"Then why did you sell it to me?"
..... confused silence.

Sadly, the reduction of Mom & Pop shops has really shrunk the knowledge pool in pet shops. When I first moved to Florida ( I was 16) and went to work in pet shops, I wasn't allowed to even talk to customers until the owners felt I knew what I was doing. ( FYI, I was already listed as a professional commercial fish breeder for multiple species before I moved to Florida. ) Needles to say that didn't last long. LOL

 

[syhko]

Yes! And we could have put the others at risk. They didn’t decide to tell us until it came back dead? Like..

 

[syhko]

I’m sorry for your loss. It was kind of you to give the fish a chance, but a favorable outcome was unlikely. Employees at Big Box and local pet shops have told me the first thing they do when opening up is to toss out dead and dying fish. I’ve gravitated more and more to purchases or free fish from people in my local Facebook aquarium group. I could almost say I’m done with pet shops of any size.

Thank you. Do you know how I can find those groups on Facebook? It would be nice if I can join one and maybe get a good supply of fish from breeders who actually take care of their fish.

 

[Colin_T]

Yeah I agree. My boyfriend went back today to get new fish and they finally decide to tell us that some of the guppies are sick. Today one of the other guppies we got is endlessly floating, starting to swim again, and then floating. Their body is barely moving. I think it’s a disease.

Post clear pictures of the sick fish and maybe a 1 minute video showing its behaviour.
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.
If you use a mobile phone to film the fish, hold the phone horizontally so the footage fills the entire screen and doesn't leave big black bars on either side.

 

[Colin_T]

I’m sorry for your loss. It was kind of you to give the fish a chance, but a favorable outcome was unlikely. Employees at Big Box and local pet shops have told me the first thing they do when opening up is to toss out dead and dying fish. I’ve gravitated more and more to purchases or free fish from people in my local Facebook aquarium group. I could almost say I’m done with pet shops of any size.

Removing dead or dying fish from new stock has been standard practice for decades. If you leave the dead/ dying fish in the tank, they cause water quality problems and can introduce diseases to the tank. The other fish in the bag can also introduced diseases into the tank but sick ones don't normally recover anyway so are simply euthanised at the time.

When we had new fish come in, the bags were poured into a net that was in a bucket and we discarded the water and put the fish into their tanks. If there were sick or dead fish in the bags, we wrote NFS (not for sale) on the tanks and monitored them for a few days afterwards. Unfortunately not all shops do that and it is a shame because people buy newly imported fish, take them home and wipe out a tank simply because a shop is unwilling to mark the fish NFS for a few days to make sure they are ok.

If anyone buys fish from a pet shop, ask the shop when the fish came in. Try to avoid buying fish that have only come in during the last few days and if possible, wait a week before getting them. This gives the new fish a chance to recover from the stress of being shipped to the shop.

A similar thing with water changes. Find out when the shop does water changes and try to buy the fish on the day before they do water changes, or a few days (preferably a week) after they have done the water changes. This reduces the stress on the fish because they aren't being water changed, then caught and put into your tank, which might have different water chemistry all in a short period of time.