Sick guppy? Please help

[DaniTani]

Hello everyone,

Brand new to fishkeeping here. My daughter has been begging for fish and we finally gave in. Had her do a tonne of research to learn how to take the best care of our new pets. We have all as a family tried to go into this knowing what we can to make sure our fish have happy healthy lives.

However, she is devastated as her favourite fish, a guppy named Vox, is really not looking good. He's a blue albino guppy. He had a beautiful shimmering tale that is now all clamped together. We've been testing levels for three days (since we noticed the problem) and ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are coming up zero. Yesterday we did a 50% water change. This evening when we got home, we noticed the end of his tail is red and there seems to be a lot of red under the skin closer to the front of his body. He really looks like he's suffering now and I can't figure out what is wrong to try to help him.

I have included pictures, but its hard to get clear ones. His tail is thin and straight and there's a red dot on the end.

We have plants in the tank (10gal), 4 other guppies who seem to be doing fine, a mystery snail, and a red cherry shrimp.

Unfortunately, we don't have any extra tank or anything for a quarantine. Didn't really know that was a thing until trying to research this problem.

Thank you to anyone who can help.

Edited August 6 by DaniTani

[Tlindsey]

On 8/6/2024 at 12:34 AM, DaniTani said:

Hello everyone,

Brand new to fishkeeping here. My daughter has been begging for fish and we finally gave in. Had her do a tonne of research to learn how to take the best care of our new pets. We have all as a family tried to go into this knowing what we can to make sure our fish have happy healthy lives.

However, she is devastated as her favourite fish, a guppy named Vox, is really not looking good. He's a blue albino guppy. He had a beautiful shimmering tale that is now all clamped together. We've been testing levels for three days (since we noticed the problem) and ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are coming up zero. Yesterday we did a 50% water change. This evening when we got home, we noticed the end of his tail is red and there seems to be a lot of red under the skin closer to the front of his body. He really looks like he's suffering now and I can't figure out what is wrong to try to help him.

I have included pictures, but its hard to get clear ones. His tail is thin and straight and there's a red dot on the end.

We have plants in the tank (10gal), 4 other guppies who seem to be doing fine, a mystery snail, and a red cherry shrimp.

Unfortunately, we don't have any extra tank or anything for a quarantine. Didn't really know that was a thing until trying to research this problem.

Thank you to anyone who can help.

If you purchased your guppies from a lfs and not a experienced breeder then it could easily be a genetics issue. Most guppies sold to big box stores and some lfs come from fish farms where they are mass produced. This causes issues with health and diseases. 

I suggest getting the sick guppy out of the aquarium. I would buy a small tote not expensive from Walmart if your in the US. Fill the tote up with water from the aquarium. Place the infected guppy in the tote and add a teaspoon of salt per gallon. @DaniTani

 

[Colu]

How long have you had the fish. as  you have zero ammonia nitrite nitrate your tank might not be fully cycled you can get swing's in your pH how did you cycle your tank and have seen any nitrates I would test your pH KH and GH as guppies do best in hard alkaline water with a pH of 7-7.5 if your KH is to low they can get a lot of health issues what temperature the tank @DaniTani

[the-bees-of-autumn]

On 8/5/2024 at 11:34 PM, DaniTani said:

Hello everyone,

Brand new to fishkeeping here. My daughter has been begging for fish and we finally gave in. Had her do a tonne of research to learn how to take the best care of our new pets. We have all as a family tried to go into this knowing what we can to make sure our fish have happy healthy lives.

However, she is devastated as her favourite fish, a guppy named Vox, is really not looking good. He's a blue albino guppy. He had a beautiful shimmering tale that is now all clamped together. We've been testing levels for three days (since we noticed the problem) and ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are coming up zero. Yesterday we did a 50% water change. This evening when we got home, we noticed the end of his tail is red and there seems to be a lot of red under the skin closer to the front of his body. He really looks like he's suffering now and I can't figure out what is wrong to try to help him.

I have included pictures, but its hard to get clear ones. His tail is thin and straight and there's a red dot on the end.

We have plants in the tank (10gal), 4 other guppies who seem to be doing fine, a mystery snail, and a red cherry shrimp.

Unfortunately, we don't have any extra tank or anything for a quarantine. Didn't really know that was a thing until trying to research this problem.

Thank you to anyone who can help.

Howdy! 

First off, let me say I'm super impressed at the time and care your family has taken to make sure your fish are looked after. That's awesome! 

Looking at your beautiful fish, I don't immediately have an illness that comes to mind, though I'm only a year into fishkeeping myself. I'd echo what others are saying with a few added possibilities/solutions:

1. Clamped fins are often an indicator of stress caused by an illness, not an illness itself. Sometimes it can even be just stress. The easiest solution could be that Vox is getting chased or bullied and is stressed/sick because of that. Are there any other males in the tank that are chasing, nipping, or sparring with Vox? I've never had guppies but from my time owning platys I know the males can fight over EVERYTHING. 

2. What's your water quality like, and do you use a dechlorinator? Tap water has chlorine/other metals in it if you're using your cities water supply. It's okay to use for fishtanks, usually, but you should dechlorinate your water all the same. I like the one API sells, personally. If you're on well water, like I am, treating fresh tank water for heavy metals is still recommended. Follow the dosing instructions and add after each water change.

3. How long have you cycled your tank for? There are great articles on tank cycling that explain this better, but essentially "cycling" a tank involves kickstarting the ammonia in your tank, allowing good bacteria to grow and basically beat back the nitrate/ammonia/nitrite. Along the same line of thought, while cleaning your tank and doing a 50% water change is the correct thing to do, I have found cleaning too much too soon can rid the tank of good bacteria build up. How often do you change the water? Do you clean the filter as well? What's in your filter media? 

4. At the end of the day, sometimes fish get sick for no apparent reason. If you bought Vox at a chain fish store, it's not uncommon for fish from there to be stressed, have low immune systems, and illness. If nothing works and Vox passes away or has to be put down, you and your daughter should be proud of how well you are taking care of him and his buddies. 🙂

-I also have only one tank. I use a designated medium sized glass tupperware bowl for dosing and observation. 

-Just spitballing, I would look into methylene blue. I don't know exactly what's going on with your little friend, but I have used methylene blue myself for a fish with cotton wool disease and it worked great. Some people swear by it, others have mixed results. Methylene blue has been used for everything from dropsy to fungus to mouth rot. It is SUPER stainy though, so maybe help your daughter with it. Salt baths are also great, just make sure you dose correctly. 

Good luck! I hope Vox feels better soon!

[DaniTani]

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry to report that vox got worse and worse and ended up passing away. I think he suffered quite a bit and I feel so guilty.

Unfortunately red spots have started appearing on a few other guppies, and, now that I'm more aware, one seems to be starting to have a clenched tail and some have a red streak in their bodies that I'm not entirely sure were there before. 

Having said that, I'd like to do the quarantine thing and add aquarium salt. I did some looking around and it seems that, since I live in Canada, there is really no access to fish medicine here.

My new question: if I don't have a tank and I move them to a tote, how does that work with no heater, filter, good bacteria, etc.? Is that OK? There would be 5 guppies in it.

I would add salt to the tank itself, but we have a shrimp and a snail and aquarium plants.

[Sacah]

I also lost some guppies when I first started, despite doing all the research. They died within a week of getting them, so it does feel like there is bad stock in a lot of stores. It's also very hard to see problems because the guppies are so small, so you are doing well to notice.

If the bucket is about 15L you can do 2 50% water changes a week to keep the water quality good without a filter. What is the room temperature, especially over night, where the bucket will be?

Start with salt in the bucket, if that doesn't work, you can hail mary it with methylene blue, I don't live in Canada, but found this place offering it, so it's probably available elsewhere https://aquaristsacrosscanada.com/products/methylene-blue

Also as the Bees mentioned, do you use dechlorinator on your tap water first, and how long did you cycle the tank for?

[DaniTani]

Thank you for your reply. We do use the dechlorinator. We cycled the tank for about 4 weeks with 2 minnows. The minnows still seem to be in good health.

Edited August 11 by DaniTani

[Colu]

Red spots and streaks can be a sign of a bacterial infections as your in Canada and treatment options are limited what I would get a small 50 watt  heater add it to a tote with some water from the main tank and some of the cycled media from your main tank with an air stone and treat with aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 1 gallon for 7 days just remember to only put back in what you take out so if you do a 1 gallon water change put 1 table spoon of salt back in as salt only removed though water change just test daily water change as need and add back in the appropriate amount of aquarium salt @DaniTani

Edited August 11 by Colu