Please help identify guppy disease!

[Gigi]

I don't know what to do anymore. I tried looking on you tube and Google but can't seem to find the right decease. I finally got my hands on blue topaz guppies. I first ordered 1 male and two females. From the start they did not look to well. (had to come through post). At first I thought it was stress. The male and a female died allready. At first they ate fine so I thought I could get them through. I ordered again a batch and 2 females seem to get the same as the last surviving female. They are in a separate tank hence why I put them together for quarantine. Today the last female from the first batch is looking worse and I don't think I can safe her anymore so I put her away from my other guppies. At first it started with I thought was finrot. Since the tale began to lose color and began to be damaged each day. I gave aquarium salt treatment but it does not seem to work. The skin also looks wierd. Like skin peeling of but no blood. Today I noticed a red dot on the tale. Maybe blood or a fungus with no fuzz. I don't think it's a parasite since I don't see movement but I realy want to safe these guppies and any advice will help. PS : most will use antibiotics and cure parasites but in my country you can't find them in pet stores. I do find common fish cures here in stores so if I can identify which I may be able to help them. 

[Lennie]

On 4/23/2023 at 11:07 AM, Gigi said:

I don't know what to do anymore. I tried looking on you tube and Google but can't seem to find the right decease. I finally got my hands on blue topaz guppies. I first ordered 1 male and two females. From the start they did not look to well. (had to come through post). At first I thought it was stress. The male and a female died allready. At first they ate fine so I thought I could get them through. I ordered again a batch and 2 females seem to get the same as the last surviving female. They are in a separate tank hence why I put them together for quarantine. Today the last female from the first batch is looking worse and I don't think I can safe her anymore so I put her away from my other guppies. At first it started with I thought was finrot. Since the tale began to lose color and began to be damaged each day. I gave aquarium salt treatment but it does not seem to work. The skin also looks wierd. Like skin peeling of but no blood. Today I noticed a red dot on the tale. Maybe blood or a fungus with no fuzz. I don't think it's a parasite since I don't see movement but I realy want to safe these guppies and any advice will help. PS : most will use antibiotics and cure parasites but in my country you can't find them in pet stores. I do find common fish cures here in stores so if I can identify which I may be able to help them. 

Can you please share your water parameters? How long your tank has been setup, is it cycled? 

What is your water temp, ammonia/Nitrite/nitrate, gh, kh, ph?

What type of an aquarium salt treatment you applied, for how long, what was your ratio? 

These questions may help to get a better answer.

@Colu @Odd Duck

[Gigi]

On 4/23/2023 at 10:21 AM, Lennie said:

Can you please share your water parameters? How long your tank has been setup, is it cycled? 

What is your water temp, ammonia/Nitrite/nitrate, gh, kh, ph?

What type of an aquarium salt treatment you applied, for how long, what was your ratio? 

These questions may help to get a better answer.

@Colu @Odd Duck

Aquarium has been cycled for 6 months. Had other guppies in there before I moved them to my other aquarium. PH is 7. But I'm afraid I don't know my kh and gh. Ammonia 0,nitrite 0, nitrate zero since I did a water change yesterday. I do weekly 50% water changes. I used red sea salt from my local pet shop. 1 teaspoon for 1 gallon and let them in for 30 min. I did test the water they came in and they were the same except a little higher on ammonia. Still I does not look like ammonia burns. Problem is they won't tell me if they got it from another country or not so I'm not sure what the water parameters were before they came here.

On 4/23/2023 at 10:32 AM, Gigi said:

Aquarium has been cycled for 6 months. Had other guppies in there before I moved them to my other aquarium. PH is 7. But I'm afraid I don't know my kh and gh. Ammonia 0,nitrite 0, nitrate zero since I did a water change yesterday. I do weekly 50% water changes. I used red sea salt from my local pet shop. 1 teaspoon for 1 gallon and let them in for 30 min. I did test the water they came in and they were the same except a little higher on ammonia. Still I does not look like ammonia burns. Problem is they won't tell me if they got it from another country or not so I'm not sure what the water parameters were before they came here.

Also temp is 25 degrees celcius

[Colu]

 kH and GH are very important to livebearers if they are to low you can get a lot of heath problems and deaths due to lack of minerals I would recommend getting a test kit for GH and kH if you don't have one update with the results @Gigi

[Odd Duck]

What were the parameters before the water change?  Do you have chlorine or chloramine in your water?  What do you use as a dechlorinator and what dose?  Any chance your municipality has dosed chlorine/chloramine higher than usual?  What is your filtration, tank size, stocking list?  Is it a planted tank?  How heavily planted?  Pics of the entire tank can sometimes be helpful.

I know it’s a lot of questions but every bit of information helps us give you better advice.  If you would kindly check the suggestions in the “Diseases” section on how to make a post about sick fish, it lists the information you should include so we can give you the most appropriate advice.

Your salt dose is low enough that guppies can stay full time in water with that much salt. That is essentially 1 tablespoon per 3 gallons (30 grams salt = 1 tablespoon).  I usually dose a bit lower to start but will go up to that dose with minimal worries except for plants and some very salt sensitive fish (some scaleless fish, for instance).  For a salt dip (which I’m NOT necessarily recommending here), I dose 1 tablespoon (30 grams) per gallon and soak for 10-15 minutes, usually.

I can’t see your fish well enough in your pics to draw any conclusions except that fish hanging out at the surface need more oxygen - adding even more aeration might help, but I suspect with the history you’ve given that there may be some gill irritation from a chlorine/chloramine or ammonia surge.  That surge may be gone, but some damage may have been done.  Now it’s possibly just a matter of supportive care and waiting for the fish to heal as much as possible.  More aeration anytime fish are persistently at the top.  I suspect possibly your biofiltration isn’t quite at the capacity needed (did you maybe overclean a filter?), or your municipality has done a shock dose of chlorine or chloramine.

[Gigi]

On 4/27/2023 at 8:50 PM, Odd Duck said:

What were the parameters before the water change?  Do you have chlorine or chloramine in your water?  What do you use as a dechlorinator and what dose?  Any chance your municipality has dosed chlorine/chloramine higher than usual?  What is your filtration, tank size, stocking list?  Is it a planted tank?  How heavily planted?  Pics of the entire tank can sometimes be helpful.

I know it’s a lot of questions but every bit of information helps us give you better advice.  If you would kindly check the suggestions in the “Diseases” section on how to make a post about sick fish, it lists the information you should include so we can give you the most appropriate advice.

Your salt dose is low enough that guppies can stay full time in water with that much salt. That is essentially 1 tablespoon per 3 gallons (30 grams salt = 1 tablespoon).  I usually dose a bit lower to start but will go up to that dose with minimal worries except for plants and some very salt sensitive fish (some scaleless fish, for instance).  For a salt dip (which I’m NOT necessarily recommending here), I dose 1 tablespoon (30 grams) per gallon and soak for 10-15 minutes, usually.

I can’t see your fish well enough in your pics to draw any conclusions except that fish hanging out at the surface need more oxygen - adding even more aeration might help, but I suspect with the history you’ve given that there may be some gill irritation from a chlorine/chloramine or ammonia surge.  That surge may be gone, but some damage may have been done.  Now it’s possibly just a matter of supportive care and waiting for the fish to heal as much as possible.  More aeration anytime fish are persistently at the top.  I suspect possibly your biofiltration isn’t quite at the capacity needed (did you maybe overclean a filter?), or your municipality has done a shock dose of chlorine or chloramine.

Don't worry, indeed a lot of questions help to find a better answer! This tank was empty and is planted, with a lot of moss and stem plants and long root floaters. I always use seachem prime, since I have a lot of trust in that brand. I have taken my fish to the vet since I needed to be there anyway. I found out that they had a serious bacterial infection. The cause probably was due to stress from the moving, and (I did not know this) when you open the bag, which I did to climate them to my water, can cause for an amonnia spike in the bag they were transported in, which caused them to be infected since the stress lowers their immune system. They gave me instructions to use medication with antibiotics and bacterial killer. I did put airation in there because they said the medication can remove oxygen. Tomorrow should be my last day but sadly the last one died two days ago... I still do the medication in case my aquarium got infected. I'm sad it happened but I learned something new, and next time I will buy guppies I will use a slate stone for my kh. I was amazed by how fast it all goes with bacterial infection and it was my first time I had this happen. 

[Gigi]

On 4/28/2023 at 7:19 AM, Gigi said:

Don't worry, indeed a lot of questions help to find a better answer! This tank was empty and is planted, with a lot of moss and stem plants and long root floaters. I always use seachem prime, since I have a lot of trust in that brand. I have taken my fish to the vet since I needed to be there anyway. I found out that they had a serious bacterial infection. The cause probably was due to stress from the moving, and (I did not know this) when you open the bag, which I did to climate them to my water, can cause for an amonnia spike in the bag they were transported in, which caused them to be infected since the stress lowers their immune system. They gave me instructions to use medication with antibiotics and bacterial killer. I did put airation in there because they said the medication can remove oxygen. Tomorrow should be my last day but sadly the last one died two days ago... I still do the medication in case my aquarium got infected. I'm sad it happened but I learned something new, and next time I will buy guppies I will use a slate stone for my kh. I was amazed by how fast it all goes with bacterial infection and it was my first time I had this happen. 

Also I don't think it's the filter since the filter is for a 100l aquarium and mine is 60l,i always clean the filter in aquarium water when I do a water change. And the filter has been running 6 months with other fish before I moved the fish to my comunity tank so my guppies could be alone, and had no problems there. 

[Odd Duck]

@Gigi Sorry for your loss, but it sounds like you were at least able to get some answers and maybe be able to minimize future losses.

I’ve switched to the “plop and drop” method for shipped fish.  I float long enough to temperature stabilize, then pour fish and water through a net into a bucket, then plop the fish right into the tank.  I have very high pH water so slow acclimation is potentially more risky if there is significant ammonia/ammonium present in the bag.

I still acclimate from my local fish store since there isn’t time for the water to get toxic during my drive home and they have similar parameters.