Hello,
I'm losing a guppy or catfish a day to a mysterious issue that presents a bit like dropsy, but also not. Summary here, details and tank specs below. I would love any help that can be offered.
Briefly, half the guppies in my 20L started bloating 4 days ago. Because my QT tank was already occupied with brand new baby corydoras and one additional new guppy, I removed the shrimp and snails to separate buckets and treated the 20L with Aq salt using these instructions: Aquarium Salt: How to Use It Properly for Treating Sick Fish. Since then, all but three of the guppies have died, and one of the remaining ones is in rough shape. I want to suss this out before the last of the fish are gone, especially bc this morning one of the wee corys in the QT tank was also dead with a swollen belly despite no contact (that I'm aware of) between the tanks.
Tank specs and detailed version (template borrowed from Fishlore):
Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 20 gal long
How long has the tank been running? about 6 mo
Does it have a filter? Yes, Aquarium Coop sponge filter. The water level often dropped below the top of the spout though, resulting in less filtration than it should have been able to provide. I finally got a lid for it to prevent evaporation right before the guppies got sick. One of many things I didn't do as fast as I wished bc of chemo.
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? About 75F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) Before dropsy: 7 male guppies, 2 mystery snails, 1 nerite snail, 1 trumpet snail, about 12 blue cherry shrimp
Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Every 1-2 weeks
How much of the water do you change? 30-50%
What do you use to treat your water? Well water but I still use Seachem Prime
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Substrate
*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? I upgraded from a cycled 10 gal by bringing over the filter, media, and ornaments, and ran both filters for 1 month to establish the new filter
What do you use to test the water? API Master Kit, reading instructions every time
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
On Tues 7/2:
Ammonia: .25ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: btw 0-5 ppm, based on the color looks closer to 0 than 5
pH: 8.0-8.2 – this is what comes out of the well, I know it is high so I always acclimate new animals extremely slowly and as far as I can tell they thrive (ie reproduce)
GH: (coming out of the well) 17
KH: (coming out of the well) 11
Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Once per day
How much do you feed your fish? Enough for them to eat in about 2 min unless its a sinking wafer, then 1-2 so they're gone the next day
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Until a few months ago, mostly frozen brine shrimp or hikari algae wafers or shrimp cuisine. Since beginning chemo I ended up using tetra-min flakes bc it was less work than going upstairs to the freezer daily. But I wonder if that was bad for them as their color had faded a bit.
Do you feed frozen? 4-5 times a week (before and after chemo anyway)
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? I'm not sure
Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? The 4 sick guppies are from March and June purchases, and a set I adopted last November, age unknown.
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? 5 days ago, Friday 6/28
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Bloated bellies, reduced activity, lying on the floor a lot of the time as they got worse. One fish began to look like his skin was blistering or loosening on his back, whitened and knobbly.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? Activated charcoal pack in case of pollutants, Aq salt 1 tbsp/3 gal then upped to 1 tbsp/2 gal, plus fasting – just fed sparsely once for the healthy guppies to get a bit
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Bloated bellies, reduced activity, lying on the floor a lot of the time as they got worse, the one fish with the knobbly skin.
Explain your emergency situation in detail.
(Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)
On Friday 3 of 7 guppies presented with bloated bellies out of the blue. Did a 30% water change and treated with Aq salt 1 tbsp/3 gal. Next morning the bloating had gone down and activity was back up. By afternoon the bloating was back. Did a 10% water change and upped the salt concentration to 1 tbsp/2 gal (total, not additional). On Sunday morning, the bloating was down again although the sick fish remained a bit lethargic. The fish continued to look only mildly bloated on Monday but by afternoon 1 had died. Tuesday morning a second had also died after spending Monday huddling by the filter sponge. A fourth guppy began lying on the floor on Tues afternoon and was dead by Weds morning. The third sick one remains lethargic but is at least alive. All the guppies became a bit less active in the salt. I am wondering if it could be causing more problems than it solves at this point.
Note that there is one guppy from the same LFS in the QT tank with the corys because I got it a week ago and didn't want to bung it in the main tank without a quarantine period. As the corys were also in QT bc new, I thought it made the most sense. Now I'm concerned that guppy carried something in although all the fish are from the same store so who knows.
Attached: photos of two sick guppies lying on the floor yesterday (colorful one has since died) and of the dead cory this morning.
I would like to know:
1) PRIORITY: what else to try to save the the remaining habrosus corys in the QT tank? (The parameters are the same as the 20L except the pH is more like 7.9-8.0.)
2) what else to save remaining guppies in the 20L?
3) how long to leave the salt in the 20L before beginning water changes to reduce the salinity and to remove water that had dead fish and disease in it – could it be weakening the remaining fish at this point?
I know this is a lousy way to introduce myself to a new forum… been reading for several months and appreciate everyone already. Thank you so much!