Guppies loosing it's tail

[Fishgirl]

Ok I started out with 4 fancy guppies in a 5 gallon aquairum at work. I went ahead and added this 2 other fish that the pet store assured me won't bother the tails of my fancy guppies. Well of course one of the females got pregnant and I saw her all the way through and am now raising some cute little baby guppies in a breeding tank. Well I came in Monday to find one guppy dead. So I suspected the new fish. They were very hyper. So I took them back to the pet store. Meanwhile I thought this cute little brown dwarf frog needed a home in my tank.

****Note I must know 10 times more about saltwater tanks than freshwater. I figured it can't be any harder, so I went with it. My problem is not knowing many fish species and their compatability like I do in the saltwater world. That comes with time I guess. *****

Ok so now I am down to 3 fancy guppies, a frog and 6 babies. Well a few days ago I lost another guppy. He was being sucked up in the filter. So I think maybe it's too strong for them. I tried to block it off with plants. Well now one of my guppies's tails is all torn up and the other one (the momma fish) is all good.

Do you think it's the frog? He's all that's left to be doing this. Unless it's the female guppy. ???

I have better luck with saltwater tanks! LOL 8O

Gina

[reefrunner69]

I am not sure if it is the frog, but if it's not, eventually it will be. Those frogs are carnivores. Typically the only animal that sits still for long periods of time are predators, if it waits real still, long enough something to eat will pass by..... There is a possibility that your guppies have a bacterial disease that is particular to fancy guppies, I can't remember the name or the drug used for it, but your fish store should. Maybe, this is a LFS we're talking about.... :P Another possibility is fin and tail rot, or something is chewing on the tails, most people keep guppies with just guppies, everything likes to pick at a guppies tail.

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

Hey everyone
I am not sure if this will help you any regarding your guppies, but I have had a recent bout of columnaris with my 'feeder' guppies--I know you would probably never feed your pets to a bigger fish but alas...it is my only experience with guppies (and they are quite cute!)--any ole ways...they would get a pale or blanched looking area about midways between head and end of tail, then begin to swim strangely and quite rapidly die. Their tails would start to look crooked or strange, sometimes slightly eroded. Unfortunately I think I must have just gotten a pitiful bunch of gups last time, because all the treatments I tried failed and it constantly recurred, despite their wonderful new home (referring to water quality not eventual destination..) I so far of around 50 adults have one...yes one...left, and she's probably not gonna make it.. From your description I doubt this fits, but I had a heckuva time figuring out what was wrong with them and no one I asked seemed to know, so I thought I would at least throw it out at you! Best of Luck!

[Fishgirl]

Thank you for your reply. You are right 3 of 4 of the guppies didn't make it. I was upset about it. I have a theory of tail rot? What do you all think? It's just odd that one of them lived through it. It wasn't ich either. Gees I don't have nearly as much trouble with my S/W tank! I got a fancy goldfish to take their place. He's quite active and I do like him.

Gina

[Erik]

Perhaps you have an aggressive female. I wrote up a little thing about my problems with guppies so far. Maybe some of this can help you out.

I just recently got back into keeping aquariums and decided to set up one of the tanks as a guppy tank. I went to the local Petco and bought 3 of them for the 10g. And then to the LFS a couple weeks later to purchase 2 more. So my tank was nicely seeded with 1M/4F ...what a life for them. Then the mails tail split into a fork...he died a couple days later. The other two Petco females soon followed and I knew they were going to that big trashcan in the sky because they were hitting themselves against the gravel. I read that this is a sure sign of parasites.

Now one of my guppies is looking real sorry and can barely use her tail to swim. I noticed the very large red female, from the pair that I added after the death of the original trio, was attacking this sickly female. I never observed aggressiveness in guppies before and I think it might be a result of the sickly females glorious looking tail(looked almost like a male...but that is all chewed now too ).

Has anyone seen guppy females become overly aggressive to the other fish in the tank? The male and other female are left alone by the 'alpha' female. Should I put down the injured female? Should I dose this tank with medication in case of a parasitic infestation?

I can't help that much, but I'd thought I'd let you know about my male guppy.

I was at the LFS yesterday and saw this gorgeous baby blue male with an orange strip and a tail that I've never seen before. It's absolutely huge and beautiful! The LFS keeps the male and females separate so breeders can choose the fish to mate. Well, his tail had been munched by the other males. Such a shame. The guy at the store told me it'd grow back. So being the humane person I am, I decided to adopt the beautiful male guppy.

Now he enjoys a wonderful life with ample females to mate with. I have 7 females and 4 males. I plan to get a few more females, but I don't want to add too many at once. I noticed that one of my white/orange females is nipping at his tail as well as my most fiestiest. 8O I have added tons of hornhornwartnts so that the male with the nipped tail can hide from the other agressive fish. He's pretty good at that. He is getting more social but still hides in the plants. I am no expert, but I'm hoping the shelter will help him with his tail and that it'll grow back. It's looking like a fork. He'll have a better chance in my tank then in the all male tank at the LFS.

[Erik]

I put down the injured female the most natural way I could think of...introduced her into my puffer tank and she was no more within a minute or so.

Should I have more than one male in with my females? I am down to 2 females and one male in a 10g w/ 3 corys. I have an Aquaclear 150(intake capped with a sponge media) and a sponge filter in the tank so I am guessing I can overstock the tank because of the heavy filtration.

Any suggestions on how many(if any) more guppies I should add? I will try to upload a picture soon.

I was told that an easy way to put a fish to sleep is to put some aquarium water in a container and put the container in your freezer for 15-20 minutes. Take the container out and put the fish in it. The water temp will gradually put the fish to sleep. I find that the most humane way, but that's just my opinion.

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

better late than never--i think in the original post, there is too many fish in that tank--the 5 gallon--and is this a newly setup tank? if so, did you check your water chemistry when the outbreak occurred?