Dying Guppy

[XxDNAxX]

Okay so this little guy caught his fin and now he's struggling to swim, he occasionally has a frantic fit and swims rapidly all over but he's doing so upside down, I am reluctant to give him any medication, he is still breathing but it seems as though his damage is very severe and may cost him his life. Any advice?

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

 

[Delapool]

Hi, How is the fish going? I find they don't always come back from that but into a breeder trap or net can give them a bit of quiet to recover.

 

[XxDNAxX]

Since this post the guppy I posted about died that day, as a result I had a slight ammonia spike and since then the problem has got worse. With that ammonia spike (I'm hoping) another guppy passed away the following day which again spiked ammonia further and subsequently killed yet another guppy the day after that. By this point I'd had ammonia spikes each day due to fish death, this later went on to kill a glow light tetra on the 4th day after the first fish death and a Platy on the 6th day. My tank is rather good at cycling out ammonia within a few hours but on the downside my nitrite is now sky high and I am in the process of lowering it. To recap, I believe I know my plan of action with trying to turn my tank around but the fish deaths still somewhat remain a mystery. There were no physical marks to indicate any disease, even guppy disease, however to have 3 guppies, 1 glow light tetra and 1 platy die within the week is far too strange for me. There was no question about my water parameters prior to adding the guppies, it was perfectly fine for all levels but the 1 fish death has ultimately thrown everything out of balance. Any advice is appreciated.

Nathan

 

[Delapool]

Since this post the guppy I posted about died that day, as a result I had a slight ammonia spike and since then the problem has got worse. With that ammonia spike (I'm hoping) another guppy passed away the following day which again spiked ammonia further and subsequently killed yet another guppy the day after that. By this point I'd had ammonia spikes each day due to fish death, this later went on to kill a glow light tetra on the 4th day after the first fish death and a Platy on the 6th day. My tank is rather good at cycling out ammonia within a few hours but on the downside my nitrite is now sky high and I am in the process of lowering it. To recap, I believe I know my plan of action with trying to turn my tank around but the fish deaths still somewhat remain a mystery. There were no physical marks to indicate any disease, even guppy disease, however to have 3 guppies, 1 glow light tetra and 1 platy die within the week is far too strange for me. There was no question about my water parameters prior to adding the guppies, it was perfectly fine for all levels but the 1 fish death has ultimately thrown everything out of balance. Any advice is appreciated.



Nathan

That is sad news

Water changes as standard recommendation to freshen water up. I assume here the water used for changes is fine (sometimes it seems water companies add things).

Also products like seachem prime / API ammo lock will detoxify ammonia for 24 to 48hrs. Prime will also detoxify nitrites however a small pinch of aquarium salt will also help prevent brown blood disease from the nitrites.

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Prime.html

Would you have the readings, including ph? The link below will give some idea of how toxic your ammonia is so we can understand if it is just the ammonia which is a problem.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html

A bacterial infection is the only thing I can think of (apart from somewhere in water chemistry) that can wipe out fish quickly. I'm sure these have been thought of but some thoughts.

 

[XxDNAxX]

That is sad news

Water changes as standard recommendation to freshen water up. I assume here the water used for changes is fine (sometimes it seems water companies add things).

Also products like seachem prime / API ammo lock will detoxify ammonia for 24 to 48hrs. Prime will also detoxify nitrites however a small pinch of aquarium salt will also help prevent brown blood disease from the nitrites.

Seachem. Prime

Would you have the readings, including ph? The link below will give some idea of how toxic your ammonia is so we can understand if it is just the ammonia which is a problem.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html

A bacterial infection is the only thing I can think of (apart from somewhere in water chemistry) that can wipe out fish quickly. I'm sure these have been thought of but some thoughts.

The water here is fine apart from being a ph of around 7.6, other that, no issues with it.

I've been actively using API aquarium salt after water changes to help drop the nitrite levels but it isn't helping as much as I would have liked it to be doing.

My levels as of last night at 8pm GMT are as follows: pH - 8.2 (working on this at the minute, the increase is due to fish death and an issue when my fiancée over fed them) ammonia - 0 ppm (my tanks cycles ammonia very quickly) nitrite - 1.0/2.0ppm (like I said this is the area of concern but I'm trying to halve this with water changes, aquarium salt, live plants and a backup air pump) nitrate - 0.0/5.00ppm (it jumped slightly the other day until another fish died and it level back out to 0 again, was hopeful my nitrate was going to pick up and lower my nitrite.

I have asked around and the only conclusion various pet stores have come to is that it was neurological and the consequent deaths were due to the water parameters changing.