dhenn

Hi all,

I'm back with a new problem for one of my daughter's guppies. One of the yellow ones (picture attached) came up with a bloody mouth today. This is the best picture I was able to get but it's all around where the lips are (above and below). It's eating and swimming well.

It's a 10 gallon tank stocked with 4 guppies and a mystery snail (she really wanted it when the algae popped up a few weeks ago). It was a brown algae and we cleaned it off the glass by rubbing down the sides of the tank with a filter pad as we were changing it out. The algae hasn't come back on the glass. It's still in the gravel but hasn't seemed to bother the fish at all (she's been vacuuming about 1x/week).

Here are the numbers:

nitrate - 20
nitrite - 0
Hardness - 75
chlorine - 0
Alk - 40
pH - 7
ammonia - 0

It's the fish on the left (hope you can see it ... actually looks redder in person).

Any help you can give is (as always) greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Denise

Attached Images

BloodyMouthGuppy.jpg (312.9 KB, 28 views)

Shawnie

is it blood or a color change? the pic doesnt show blood...sometimes as they grow, they go through alot of color changes....what test kit are you using? usually red blood streaks are ammonia but you have none...so it could be a change in their color naturally...are they eating good and acting normal? goodluck with them...and whenever I have a doubt with my fish, I do the old water change with some prime....

dhenn

Hi Shawnie,

Yes, she did a 20% water change with treated water. We use the strips (yes I know they might not always be accurate but if they're not accurate, they're VERY consistent). She's 13 and the tank is in her bedroom. I really don't want her messing with chemicals.

It looks like blood to us. It's bright red on the fish (which didn't show up well in the pic) and around the entire mouth area.

The 2 guppies in the pic were pretty darned close to identical in color when she brought them home in July. She told me she hasn't seen it eat but I thought I did. It does appear to be swimming normally....at least as of right now.

Guess we just keep an eye on it? Is there anything else we should maybe be looking for in the tank that would signal to us a potential cause?

Thanks for your help!
Denise