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Guppy sitting at bottom of tank


EmJay
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I have a female guppy who prefers to lay at the bottom of the tank. She can swim, eat and I've seen her poop, none of my other fish are effected at all so I don't think it's stress or anything. I had her in my bigger 32 gallon and moved her to a smaller 5 gallon as it has sand substrate vs gravel to lay on. She swims around just fine but just prefers to sit at the bottom. At first I just assumed it was to get away from males, thus me moving her away from them but nothing's changed so I'm not sure. 

 

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Edited by EmJay
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Has she always been like this or is it a recent thing? And what are your water parameters?

Seems like weakness, exhaustion or lethargy to me. Usually, if I see a livebearer habitually resting on the ground, it's a sign that it might be the beginning of the end for her (seems to mostly happen in females. Giving live birth is very taxing on the body).

You did good in moving her to a quiet and gentle quarantine tank. Give her lots of R&R, feed her very sparingly, but with good high protein food when you do, maybe add 1 tbs aquarium salt to the water if you don't have too many sensitive plants in there and keep an eye on her to see if you can spot any other symptoms of illness. At the very least, you've made her last days more comfortable.

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It's kind of a recent thing, probably 3 weeks now. She's actually been improving while by herself, seems like the males really made her hate it. I see her more and more swimming but of course when I come closer she sits at the bottom. I'll probably just let her stay by herself.

Is adding salt with snails and shrimp okay? 

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5 minutes ago, EmJay said:

Is adding salt with snails and shrimp okay? 

In low levels, they should be okay. If she's improving, I wouldn't break out the salt just yet. Glad to hear she's moving around more! Maybe the R&R is helping.

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