Guppies In Trouble?

[guppoholic]

Recently I had my male guppy, Chocolate, pass away. The day before, he was perfectly fine, hitting on all the ladies, but the next day he was laying on the gravel motionless. He would wiggle a bit, then stop, wiggle a bit, then stop, etc. Finally, he stopped moving, so I had to dispose of him...

The next week, my male guppy, Demitri, started to swim oddly, with his body vertical. After checking my tank to make sure my guppies were okay, I left for a play, only to return to find Demitri stuck to the filter! My father thought he was dead, but when we got him off, he swam a bit, but did not look healthy. His top fin was destroyed, and his tail was badly mangled, his body now an "s" shape.

In hopes of improving his condition, we put him on the other side of the divider in the tank with the fry, so he would not get picked on. He only used his pectoral fins to maneuver around, but mostly stayed over by the heater.

I've done 25% water changes weekly, occasionally bumping it up to 50%, and I recycle and sift the water every other day, but he does not seem any better. The water parameters are okay, temp is at 74 (I cannot increase the temperature, because it's not adjustable), no ammonia, low nitrates and nitrates, and the pH is at 7.4.

I just don't know what is wrong.... Also, I've noticed my guppies are flashing every now and then, even one of my month old fries.

Any idea of what is wrong and/or how to treat this??

 

[MoonCat]

Poor guppies!

This site seems helpful.

Guppy Troubleshooter

Good luck!

 

[Leopard danio]

I dont know whats wrong with your guppies mine have done the same thing befor but my last guppie male I bought has lived only having a chewed up tail because I have bloodfin tetras but i found out after i got them that they were fin nippers witch really sucks.

 

[ChelseaLake]

Yikes! I'm so sorry to hear about your guppy babies! It sounds like maybe they got infected with something. Is your temperature okay? Did they have any missing scales/lesions/foaming/fin rot/anything?

 

[DragonFish71]

What do you mean by you "recycle and sift" the water? Are you putting old water back in or are you using fresh dechlored water?

As for the water parameters being "ok", we need a bit better info, exact readings please.

And: what size tank, how many fish, what kind of filter, what type of maintenance do you do on your filter (cleaning/changing media)?

 

[guppoholic]

There has not been any difference with the fry, and thankfully they've stopped flashing.

As for the water, I recycle the water every other day, to clean out excess food and waste, and use fresh water once a week.

The nitrate level is at 11ppm, nitrite at 2ppm, temp at 74, pH at 7.4, and there is no ammonia present.

The tank is a 10 gallon, with now 58 babies (we're setting up a 29 gallon right now, letting the water cycle for the older ones), and I have 12 adults. It's become a bit crowded... Yikes.

As for my filter, it is a Tetra Whisper Power Filter, and I buy the filter cartridges that come with the time tab that tells you when it is time to replace the cartridge. Every two weeks I clean the actual filter, removing it from the tank to rid of build up on it.

 

[guppoholic]

Also, the guppy Demitri, he's swimming better, although I woke up today to find a big tumor-like growth on his side. It makes his body retain the "s" shape, and is looking like a white pimple. There had been a bump there for a while, but I wasn't sure what it was, and I still am not sure .

I've done research, but none of it fits his condition. He has an appetite and chases after the babies, but what if he's seriously sick and could pass it on to the others?

I don't like the thought of destroying him, but I wouldn't want sick babies or my other guppies sick. Any idea of treatments? Could it be a parasite of some kind?

The tumor thing is the only symptom, besides swimming vertically with his tail down. No sores, protruding scales, inflamed gills, funny looking feces, external growths, etc......

 

[ejaramillo01]

The level of Nitrites to 2.0ppm is too high for the fish. This level of nitrites could be the reason for your fish to die. Something is not going well with the cycle.

Ammonia 0ppm and Nitrates 11ppm is ok, but for whatever reason the Nitrites are not converting to Nitrates.

My suggestion is to keep doing PWC as needed to drop thye Nitrites to a maximum of 0.25ppm... And hope that the cycle progress and start to control thye Nitrites by itself.

Also how are you cleaning your filter cartridge? The best way to do it is to rinse it with tank water, NEVER use tap water because the chlorine in the tap water will kill the good bacteria present in the cartridge, and can stall your tank cycle. Just rinsed with tank water enough to remove the gunk, but I would recomend you not to clean it as often as you do, maybe once a month or every 6 weeks is enough.
Never replace the cartridge, even if the manufacturer directions said to change it, unless gets destroy or falls apart, but the cartridges could last months some even more than a year.

Hope this helps

 

[guppoholic]

The filter cartridges are disposable, only meant for a few weeks, then put a new one in. That's the purpose of the time tabs, to tell when to dispose of them. Otherwise, the water wouldn't be getting filtered as well as it should.

 

[GuppyLover]

I had problems with my guppies and cardinal tetras getting stuck in the filter so I cut pantyhose and put it over the filter only problem is its not very good for filtration because it doesn't alow the filter to get the bigger bits of plant/waste. I am trying to find some sort of netting to put around it so those things can go through the holes.

 

[ejaramillo01]

No.. that replacement of cartridges is a missunderstanding..... the reallity is that the cartridge holds the majority of the good bacteria, just rinse it with tank water and puit it back.

 

[meegosh]

No.. that replacement of cartridges is a missunderstanding..... the reallity is that the cartridge holds the majority of the good bacteria, just rinse it with tank water and puit it back.

That is correct. Keep the filter media in and just rinse it in tank water when you do your weekly water change.

I'm not sure what you are doing when you say recycle the water but that is not needed by any means. As ejaramillo was saying, something is wrong with your tank's "good" bacteria. How long has the tank been set up?

You need to use your test kit, hopefully a good liquid one, as a guide and do water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites below .25ppm.

Once the tank gets established - ammonia 0, nitrites 0 - you should only need to do weekly water changes.

Sent from my Droid using Aquarium Advice app

 

[guppoholic]

The tank has been set up for 3 months now.

As for recycling, I siphon the water, cleaning out the gravel, to remove excess waste and food, since we have pantyhose on the filter now. Then I use a net to filter the water and pour it back in, so that the water stays the same, just less full of excess junk.

The pantyhose really doesn't help filter the bigger stuff, although the power of it is less, so the 3 month old fry on the adult side do not get "sucked up".

We went to Petsmart yesterday to get a better reading on the water, and they had said the nitrates were a tad too high, so i did a 50% water change, and added Melafix, a natural medicine that helps with many fish ailments. Hopefully that will help!

 

[meegosh]

There is no need to be doing that "recycling". You are just dumping dirty water back into the tank. The net will not filter out everything, just large pieces of debris.

You should just be doing weekly water changes and replacing the water with FRESH, dechlorinated, water.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Just wanted to backup meegosh on that. He's correct.