the hurdle continues; now 3 guppies down, 1 poorly

Following from my previous thread, perhaps I'm not suited to keeping guppies. I bought 6 on Monday last week & by Tuesday evening one was dead & another quite close to it. He died overnight. I took them back to the shop, where a skin scraping was done & nothing showed up. One of them appeared to have lost some of his tail & I wondered if he had been damaged by the filter, but the part he was pressed up against is at the very top of the tank; there's nothing on the other side of it (just over the sponges).

Over the last 36 hrs I've watched another decline; movement decreases, he stays very close to the filter or hovers mainly at the absolute top of the water, sometimes sitting (hiding it seems) at the bottom. Very rapid side fin movement. Doesn't seem to be gasping. He too lost a substantial part of his tail.

What I did notice for definite on this one was the bloating - he seemed to get swollen around the front - the equivalent of around his ribcage (not too great on fish anatomy, sorry!). When I took him out of the water last night (found lying upside down at the bottom of tank) he left an orangey / red mark on the tissue. This happens to be the same colour as their food (TetraPrima).

This morning the 4th is looking 'off' - same behaviour, isolating himself at the top, tail looking sparser, swelling up around the 'rib area'. No movement towards food.


Water levels remain fine;
temp 25
nitrItes zero
ammonia zero
pH 7.6
nitrAtes between 5-10

I did a 20% water change again on Saturday, adding aquasafe to the water.

I have been giving them a volume-adjusted dose of ParaGuard since Wednesday, I don't see any difference except more dead fish.


Any ideas? All was going well until I added this lot . I don't know if they're reflecting a problem within the tank or if they are the problem. The other tank mates are all tetras & seem to be happy enough, thank God.

Hey fishiegirl,

I had the same problem i got 4 a month or so ago and with in 2hrs 1 was dead, the next day another was looking sick died and within the week 3 were dead.

I did test after test after test with all readings the same for weeks before and after, i took the dead fish back with a sample of my water to get tesed and nothing strange, the only thing that the deaths were put down to was that the ph maybe abit high for guppys and that the water hardness was high too.

Have you got the readings on how hard ur water is, because all ur other readings are the same as mine so you may have the same problem as i did....

I have one female left who had some fry a few days ago........

I got some plattys instead.... got some with great colours on them i have one that is yellow with black red and a blue shine of himm looks great.

Hope i have helped in some way

'hey!
You might of got a bad batch,, or as ackily stated the PH maybe a bit high! guppies like a PH of 6.5-7.5 try bring it down to around 7.. a good way to lower the PH is by putting in peat moss. Or Almond leaves also work, and i think Banana leaves might also work.
Also i think Tetra Blackwater solution works to!

The Ph wont kill them I reckon, I mean they will survive it. Its not extreme but not ideal,however these guppies are far removed from their natural habitats so I dont take too much notice of very specific readings on that front. The PH could be lowered I agree but its not whats killing your guppies.
Guppies these days are reared on a soup of antibiotics and mass exported commercially. You will often pick up a bad batch, put it down to experience. It can be hit and miss, the fact your tetras are fine indicates its specific to this batch of guppys and they seem to have gone down hill rather rapidly. The fact they are losing some of his tail is a slight concern regarding possible water issues on your tank or alternatively bullying.

The swelling up could indicate an internal bacterial problem and also the reddish colour on the tissue. When you view the guppy from the top, does its fins protrude, similar to a pine cone almost. If that is the case then I think your fish may have dropsy.(Unfortunately its highly unlikely they will survive and you may need to consider putting the poor fish out of its misery).

Gavin

He's dead. I found him upside-down but still struggling at the bottom of the tank this evening. Put the kids to bed & he was dead by the time I got back down.

My two remaining ones are looking good. Very active, interested in food. Tails looking good & no swelling.

Thats the same as myself my fry are growing and the female is fine its just a bad batch i guess coz our water results are very similar.

Sorrry to here about the dead fish hope the kids didnt see..........

My kids are quite pragmatic - it was the almost 6yr old who told me the fish was upside-down & clearly on its way out . No trauma.

I agree with the comments. It is hard to get good quality guppies in lfs. I have had my problems with them in the past like yourself. notch it up to experience.