cjaprea27
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi everyone!
Recently, I noticed one of my two guppies started looking very sick.. he just wasn't eating as much and started hanging out at the bottom of the tank.. still occasionally moving, but not as much as usual. I did a ~30% water change and then another the day after. He seemed to perk up a bit, still not eating but swimming around more, but then I noticed he was sadly pineconing. The water parameters seem great - zero ammonia, zero nitrite, a little over 30 ppm nitrate (have been doing more little water changes since I found out). My fish (4 cory cats, 3 otos, 2 guppies) never showed signs of stress.. the tank is always around 75 degrees F, the filter (penguin 150) in a 10 gallon tank gives a great flow of water and tons of oxygen to the tank.. I mix up the types of food occasionally to give them something new.. I'm just not sure what I did wrong.
Dropsy has affected two of my betta fish that I have had before (one I had when I had the cory cats, the other lived alone - he was too aggressive). I'm starting to think it isn't really the water quality/ any type of bacteria that might have gotten into the tank, but maybe just the way the LFS is handling these poor guys in the early stages of their lives.
I added a bit of melafix and aquarium salt to the tank (catfish and otos appear to be very sturdy, and added only a teaspoon of the salt to the 10 gallon - not nearly as much as it says to on the box, so that the otos and corys don't get stressed). I've tried the epsom salt baths for my betta fish that had dropsy, but it didn't make things any better, and I'm starting to think I should have just euthanized him instead of prolonging the pain he had until he died... I've been trying to get some clove oil to euthanize this poor guy because I honestly don't think there is any chance of him recovering. His pineconing is not getting any worse (it is very subtle, with his eyes only a little swollen), but I don't want to take the risk of further stressing him and putting him in another tank.
What do you guys recommend? My clove oil order won't come in until tomorrow morning, and I don't have any hospital tank set up/ ready for him. The other fish don't appear to be stressing him out (I've been observing them all by the hour), but the other guppy interestingly appears to not be leaving his side.. he isn't showing any sort of sign of direct harm to him aside from occasionally trying to move him around to see what's wrong. He more so just stays above him, and looks at him all day (will leave his side occasionally when I put food in the water). I know it sounds rather silly but I just feel terrible putting him in a tank with little to no filtration/ a crappy emergency heater, away from the other guppy. I think that would just stress him even more, although I could never be sure.. I'd really appreciate your suggestions, as I'm extremely indecisive at the moment.
Thank you so much for your time
Recently, I noticed one of my two guppies started looking very sick.. he just wasn't eating as much and started hanging out at the bottom of the tank.. still occasionally moving, but not as much as usual. I did a ~30% water change and then another the day after. He seemed to perk up a bit, still not eating but swimming around more, but then I noticed he was sadly pineconing. The water parameters seem great - zero ammonia, zero nitrite, a little over 30 ppm nitrate (have been doing more little water changes since I found out). My fish (4 cory cats, 3 otos, 2 guppies) never showed signs of stress.. the tank is always around 75 degrees F, the filter (penguin 150) in a 10 gallon tank gives a great flow of water and tons of oxygen to the tank.. I mix up the types of food occasionally to give them something new.. I'm just not sure what I did wrong.
Dropsy has affected two of my betta fish that I have had before (one I had when I had the cory cats, the other lived alone - he was too aggressive). I'm starting to think it isn't really the water quality/ any type of bacteria that might have gotten into the tank, but maybe just the way the LFS is handling these poor guys in the early stages of their lives.
I added a bit of melafix and aquarium salt to the tank (catfish and otos appear to be very sturdy, and added only a teaspoon of the salt to the 10 gallon - not nearly as much as it says to on the box, so that the otos and corys don't get stressed). I've tried the epsom salt baths for my betta fish that had dropsy, but it didn't make things any better, and I'm starting to think I should have just euthanized him instead of prolonging the pain he had until he died... I've been trying to get some clove oil to euthanize this poor guy because I honestly don't think there is any chance of him recovering. His pineconing is not getting any worse (it is very subtle, with his eyes only a little swollen), but I don't want to take the risk of further stressing him and putting him in another tank.
What do you guys recommend? My clove oil order won't come in until tomorrow morning, and I don't have any hospital tank set up/ ready for him. The other fish don't appear to be stressing him out (I've been observing them all by the hour), but the other guppy interestingly appears to not be leaving his side.. he isn't showing any sort of sign of direct harm to him aside from occasionally trying to move him around to see what's wrong. He more so just stays above him, and looks at him all day (will leave his side occasionally when I put food in the water). I know it sounds rather silly but I just feel terrible putting him in a tank with little to no filtration/ a crappy emergency heater, away from the other guppy. I think that would just stress him even more, although I could never be sure.. I'd really appreciate your suggestions, as I'm extremely indecisive at the moment.
Thank you so much for your time
