penguin1

hello, I just set up my first tank. I have a fancytail guppy that I just noticed is breathing heavily and has a small red growth on the end of it's tail fin. Can anyone help?

Birdo

Hmm, that is an odd one. Can you take a picture of it? Perhaps that can help the members see what it is.

penguin1

I'll try

Lucy

Hi penguin welcome to Fish Lore

I'm sorry your guppy isn't feeling well.

Unfortunately, your tank is over stocked. Please consider taking some of your fish back or getting a larger tank. A guideline for small fish is 1" of adult fish per gallon of water.
You can keep the guppies or the platies or the glo fish.
I'm not sure if a smaller mixture of the 3 kinds of fish are compatible, hopefully someone else can answer that for you.

Are you testing the water? If so what are your readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrates?
If you don't have a test kit, the API master kit is highly recommended. Avoid the strips, they're just not accurate.

I suspect your guppy may be feeling the effects of ammonia.
Ammonia is produced by left over food and fish waste, it is deadly to fish. You need to begin daily water changes of about 50% until your tank cycles.

I see you don't know about the nitrogen cycle.
Here's a basic explanation:
First your ammonia will rise, in a few weeks you'll see the nitrite levels rise and the ammonia levels start to drop.
After a few more weeks you'll see the nitrate levels rise and the nitrite levels drop.
Ammonia and nitrites are toxic to your fish.
So until your cycle is complete, you need to keep the levels down with daily water changes.
When you having readings of 0 on both ammonia and nitrites with some nitrates showing, your cycle is done.

Prime is a water conditioner that will help neutralize the ammonia.

I know it seems like a lot, but I hope it helped. Good luck.

sirdarksol

First of all, Welcome to Fishlore! We'll do our best to help you and your fish get through this.
There is one likely possibility that I can think of: ammonia poisoning. Not sure what the growth would be, but red spots are often burst capillaries from the ammonia. Do you know what your ammonia reading is?
Unfortunately, your tank is overstocked and, with it not being cycled, would have built a toxic level of ammonia in a few hours.
For some beginning reading, check this page out: http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
It explains the nitrogen cycle. In short, what happens is that, over time, bacteria will build up that consume ammonia and excrete nitrite (less toxic than ammonia). Then, bacteria that consume nitrite and excrete nitrate (far less toxic than either ammonia or nitrite) will build. Unfortunately, this takes weeks to happen.
Ideally, you want to complete the process before introducing fish, and then introduce fish slowly.

My suggestion would be to return at least most of the fish, if not all of them. I'd say the GloFish would be the number 1 choice to go, if for no other reason than they likely cost you a pretty penny, and they are not likely to survive the current setup.
If you can return them all, we can walk you through cycling your tank, and then stocking a 10g tank (4 guppies, on their own, would be a good amount for a 10g).

If returning the fish is not an option, then I would suggest getting a product like Prime or Amquel and dosing the tank. That will detoxify the ammonia (a temporary solution). Combined with daily partial water changes (at least 25%), this will help keep the ammonia levels down while the bacteria build up in the tank.

Sorry about the flood of info, and good luck with everything. Keep the questions and info coming, and, as I said, we'll do our best to help.

Edit: Ninja'd twice in a row. Blast!

Birdo

http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

Here is the link to the nitrogen cycle explanation for more details! Welcome to fishlore! Whoops he already gave it to you sorry didn't see that!

sirdarksol

Hah! But I got to ninja Birdo in return!

Lucy

What's ninja'd?


Penguin, keep us up to date and please ask any questions you might have.

Birdo

I think ninja'd means he posted the same thing I was going to post, before I posted it. That's what I gathered.

penguin1

wow, thanks for the info. I took some pics of the guppy they are up now. I netted it and found out that it must have been food or something stuck to the fin. I dont know if I can return them since I got them from Wal-Mart. And I had no idea about testing the water til today but I will go tomorrow and get a test kit and whatever else I need. I live in a really small town in WI so there is nothing really close but Wal-Mart. So I just change out 50% of the water and replace it. Do I need to put anything else in?

Lucy

You need a good dechlorinator to treat the tap water like Prime to help neutralize the ammonia. I don't think Walmart carries it. Stress Coat is a good dechlorinator and I'm fairly certain you can get that at Walmart. Their new formula says it help with the ammonia too.

Yes, just change out 50% of the water and replace it with treated tap water that's about the same temp as your tank water.

Did you get the 10g kit from walmart? I have 2 of those.

One other thing, don't replace the catridges in your filter as often as the box says, just rinse it in used tank water when it gets really dirty. Most of the bacteria will be forming on it, so you want to keep it until it falls apart. My oldest tank is 10 months old and I've never replaced the catridge.
If it has carbon in it, in a couple of weeks, make a slit, dump out the carbon throw the carbon away. It expires and when it does, it can release the toxins back into the water.

Walmart should take the fish back, after all, they sold you too many. It's ashame the salesperson probably didn't know any better.

penguin1

No, the lady who helped me worked in sewing/crafts so she had no idea about anything. I bought the tank used from my neighbor so everything was used and I just rinsed the carbon filter and bought brand new filters for it. And yes, I have seen the stress coat at wal-mart. Aww, I am so bummed. I really wanted to keep all my fish. I already had one platy die who was pregnant, she died the day after I bought them.

penguin1

by the way, can you tell what sex my sick fancytail is? I can't tell I'm guessing it's a he. They all have long tails. And the sick one stays mainly at the bottom.

Lucy

I know how you feel, I bought the 10g thinking of all the fish I could get. Eh, I have 6 in one of mine and they're very happy.

You do know what happens to people who buy a tank and realize it's too small?
They develop a disease called MTS, suffered by many people on this forum.
MTS=Multiple Tank Syndrome.....the over whelming urge to go buy another bigger tank! lol

I'm sorry, I can't help with sexing the guppies, maybe post your question on the guppy section of the forum with a pic, someone will be able to help you.

penguin1

Yeah, I'm really considering another tank! I love all my pretty fishies! I do have a one gallon also, but it's currently housing a clam. I don't want the clam to die and pollute the water and kill all my fishies. Thanks for the info and I'm going to change the water asap, I have some sitting out, btw what do you mean by treated tap?

penguin1

Oh and also, my tank, rocks and filter are all previously used and had had fish in them before. does this count in the cycling process?

Lucy

Ah....MTS already? lol That was quick. With a 20g you'd still be slightly overstocked so, you should look at a 25g for all your fish.
That'd be great, then you can keep them.

Sorry, by treated tap, I mean water treated with a conditioner (dechlorinator like Stress Coat)

Lucy

Unfortunately not if they've been dried or gotten cold.

Oh, if your neighbor still has an established tank, you can ask them to cut a peice of filter media for you and add that to your filter. That would help seed the bacteria and give you a boost.

Edit: One of our members, Alessa just wrote a terrific beginners article, maybe it'll help you.

http://www.fishlore.com/aquariummaga...um-startup.htm