iloveengl

Marty (my orange guppy) has been having trouble for a few weeks. He's always a bit listless, when he eats he is not as ravenous as the others, and for this past week, he's been isolating himself and from time to time he would bloat up. The problem is that these symptoms would only last for a few hours a day and then the rest of the time he would be his usually guppy self.

The params seem perfect - ammon/nitrite - 0, nitrate - 5, water is dechlorinated.

The other fish in there have never exhibited these symptoms before & everyone seems happy healthy all the time except poor Marty.

Well, today I have home from class and found him in the corner & his scales have slightly pineconed (they weren't this morning)!

I'm going out right now to buy a QT tank ( I should've got one sooner!) so that I can separate him because I'm not 100% sure it is dropsy, but I don't want to risk the others getting it.

I've read about treating it (25% water changes & medication available, remove carbon filter, etc.), so I guess I'm just here because I need some support. Marty was one of the first fish I've had & this is just crushing me. George (another guppy) is Marty's buddy & George hovers around Marty now like he's offering encouragement. I keep crying. I'm go get that QT right now. I'll go back out tonight and get anything else if I come back to any suggestions. Mind you, I only have a super walmart available until tomorrow morning when I can run to Petsmart for any specialty stuff.
Sorry this is so long. I'm just really upset.

Lucy

I'm so sorry your guppy isn't feeling well.
There's not much you can do once they pine cone. You can try fasting and feeding a bit of frozen thawed shelled pea if he'll eat it.
There are some meds that claim to help with dropsy, not sure if they actually owrk or not.
You might want to google epson salt baths, though that can be pretty stress for the fish.

Good luck.

iloveengl

I just can't figure out why he's sick & how it got so bad when everyone else is fine. I had to turn the filter off because he was getting sucked into it and I didn't want him to tire himself out trying to fight the current. He's in a 5 gallon by himself & I turned the light off and gave him some aquarium salt. I guess I've acknowledged that he may not make it to morning, but at least I can make him comfortable. Poor little guy.

iloveengl

Okay, it's only been a few hours, but I swear he's seems better. When I checked on him, he was just sitting on the bottom, waving his little side fins, but he did come over toward me when I stuck face down to get a better look. I'm just happy he has the strength to swim a little. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I'm really rootin' for the little guy. He's just the sweetest little gup. He's the orange one in the background of one of my album pictures.

aquarist48

Hello Ilovee. So sorry to hear about your guppy. To prevent him from being sucked to the filter you can get a filter sponge (Aqua Clear filter sponges are good), slice an x in the top of it and slide it onto your intake tube. Or you can simply wrap the intake tube in filter floss. If you use the sponge it will also be good for your biological filtration and you can rinse it in siphoned tank water just like media from your filter.

Best of luck for a full speedy recovery.
Ken

iloveengl

Thank you very much Ken! I will order that right away (as soon as Petsmart opens). The filter is just too strong for a QT tank when I want to use it for hospitalization, so having sponges on hand would be really convenient when I need to slow it down.

Also, Marty has started swimming to different corners of the tank and is moving his tail around too. He really seems to be slowly recovering.

aquarist48

Glad to hear it Ilovee
Best wishes for you and your fish.
Ken

Lucy

I'm really glad to hear he's feeling better. Perhaps a bad case of bloat and not dropsy.
Sending good fishy wishes your way.

iloveengl

Thank you both for your kind support! Today, Marty is swimming around the little rock & plant formation in the QT tank (about mid-level in the water). I'll edit this later when I can get a better look at his scales, but this is like miracle recovery! Idk what it was Lucy; the pine coned scales was sure scary to see, though. I'm going to keep him in QT for a few days just to make sure he's ok & I'll feed him a bit of pea tonight.

Lucy

That's great. Sometimes if they're bloated it can look their scales are sticking out slightly. I hope the peas do the trick.

iloveengl

I don't know what happened. I came home and he was gone. I pulled him out and he looked normal - no bloat, no pine cone. His little mouth was wide open in an O though. I started bawling as soon as I saw that. It looked so friggin sad and like he was all upset when he passed. Dang it. I just thought he was getting all better. I don't even know what was wrong with him to start with. He was such a cute little guy. I hate how hard it is to lose these little fishies. RIP Marty.

Lucy

Aw, I'm really sorry. You're right it's a terrible feeling.
RIP little one.

aquarist48

Oh no! So sorry you lost him Ilovee.
Ken

coffeebean

im so sorry for your loss

bolivianbaby

I'm so sorry you lost Marty. RIP little guppy.

NanoAddict

I know the feeling. RIP Marty