female guppy seriously bad off

[mumrah]

I took a look in my tank this evening and noticed my female guppy was sitting on the bottom practically motionless. I immediatly moved her to the quarenteen tank and noticed her spine is bent in an S shape. She no longer responds to food or touch, and has not moved her tail fin.

Is there any hope?

Thanks,
David

 

[mumrah]

could this possibly be Neon Tetra disease? or was she attacked or what?

Other inhabitants of tank: 1 pleco, 6 neon tetras, 1 male fancy guppy

 

[QTOFFER]

The spine deformity could be a symptom of fish tuberculosis.
Good call on your part for putting her in quarrantine immediately. I think the only way to effectively treat fish TB is by feeding food that has been soaked in kanacyn, or another broad spectrum antibiotic. Even then, it is usually very hard to treat.

 

[mumrah]

well, a few minutes ago she finally passed.

It was odd how suddenly this occured, she was fine yesterday at the fish store.

thanks anyhow,
David

 

[An t-iasg]

David,
I'm sorry to hear about your guppy

It does sound like fish tuberculosis. This is very contagious for the other fish, and be sure to wash your hands very well after doing any tank maintenance or removing a dead fish. I would treat the tank with Kanacyn (kanamycin) as a precaution. Usually there is no need to treat the whole tank -- just put the affected fish into quarantine. But for this disease, I would treat the rest of the fish too. Here's a link: http://fish.mongabay.com/diseases.htm (Scroll down to "Bacterial Infections".)

 

[SeriousDude5]

Possibly a broken spine maybe it was sucked into a filter. There is a possibilty for tuberculosis but I am unfomilar with that :? also sorry to here about the little bugger.

 

[jenpc]

If you just got her from the LFS, I would call them and ask them. I am sure they will replace her, not that it is any consolation for losing a fish.

 

[PK Tester]

Did it just all the sudden turn into an S shape?

Some guppies have genetic deformaties from beeing bred so much...

When some of my fish are born they are curved...I should cull them but I don't have the heart to kill them.

Anyhow it seems like it just all the sudden happened.

Pet store guppies are hard to get healthy!

 

[mumrah]

i'm pretty sure her spine wasnt bent when i got her, but was ~24 hrs later :\

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

TB wouldn't cause spontaeous spine curvature, and is a slow death. My guppies often have bent spines when they die, regardless of what they die from. Most likely the death was a result of a combination of factors such as parasites, fish store overcrowding and transfer shock. Ask your lfs what their water parameters are and test yours. Check out the article about acclimating. It is in the salt water section but will work fine for fw.