missgingersnap

I have a group of 5 guppies and 2 of them spend most of their time at the top. They aren't gasping or anything...just floating at the top with their tails wagging. My ammonia is 0, nitrites 0 and nitrates between 10-20. I have an airstone so there is lots of water movement. They look completely normal aside from just sitting there at the surface. Everyone else in the tank is swimming around happily. Any ideas what could be wrong? Oh and my spare tank is being used as a QT tank right now. I bought some new fish tonight so I don't have a hospital tank available for a week. Thanks guys!

shadowavenger

Are they males or females? if they are females they may be pregnant and could be lethargic due to that. My molly was like that when I first got her and she gave birth soon after and was perfectly fine afterwards.

missgingersnap

They're males or at least I think they are.

David593

mine hangs around near the top and is going stong. He has been with me about half a year now... May just be their personallity. Don't know a whole lot about guppies, but mine does that.

missgingersnap

I've had these two for a few weeks now and they just started doing this. They used to swim all over like the others so I thought it was kinda strange.

ray_sj

Are their fins opened up as normal (not held close to their body)? Do they eat normally?

I've had guppies do this. Sometimes it means they're stressed by something. Other times, it's just been their normal behavior. If they do it constantly, I would keep an eye on them. Healthy guppies should be active fish, swimming around, and scavenging for food. At least that's been my experience...

missgingersnap

They don't seem to be eating like usual but there isn't anything that could be stressing them. Everyone gets along in my tank. There are no bullies in the tank and the water params are good. I'll keep an eye on them and see what happens.

Shawnie

my guppies seem to always be at the top too when I come in their room..(who knows where they are when Im not watching) and I think if the water parimeters are good, they just want you to feed them and are begging LOL ....maybe pm jonah for some suggestions..hes a breeder for awhile and maybe has more info

Dozey

If he does please do share. I purchased 4 female guppies 2 weeks ago they were put into my q-tank. After the first week one started this same behavior but otherwise showed no other signs of illness or stress. Fins looked good, she was eating etc. But sadly she passed a few days later. Going into week 2 now I just noticed a 2nd guppy demonstrating the same behavior. I hope the outcome will be different this time but I don’t have high hopes.

Shawnie

im sorry for your loss dozey
I too lost some last week but my LFS lost their entire stock...could yours have been bad from purchase maybe?

Dozey

As my only choice of shopping is large chain LFSes this is always a possibility. I’ve pretty much accepted that I will likely have to treat most of my new fish for one thing or another but when they look otherwise healthy but still die it’s impossible to know what to treat them for.

I have of course Googled this and haven’t been able to come up with any answers beside the usual “water parameters” suggestions, which of course don’t apply here.

missgingersnap

Sorry you lost one dozey. I'm afraid the same will happen with mine although one of them is looking much better this morning and the other is swimming around a bit more but not swimming all that well. I lost 3 last week from a bad batch from my LFS too. I keep reading that they overbreed the fancy guppies causing them to be prone to disease and just not as healthy as they should be. I'm not sure if that's true or not. I never have luck when I buy guppies from the chain stores either. Most of them die on me.

Dozey

Yeah it always bums me out loosing fish but sadly I’ve come to the realization that the fish I buy from my 2 choices of LFSes (Big-Al’s & Petsmart) have about a 50% fatality rate.

I’ve had slightly better success with Petsmart by they have almost no selection of stock. Big-Al’s has a slightly higher fatality rate but they have an amazing selection.

It’s really frustrating as it’s taken me months now to try and stock my aquarium. I quarantine all fish for a minimum of 3 weeks but I also keep them quarantine for 3 weeks from date of the last fatality.

Lucy

Something to think about.....someone with a lot of knowledge about guppies advised me to buy from reputable breeder. They noted that the strains of guppys sold in most stores and are so weak that most will die quickly.

Dozey

I don’t doubt that for a minute and believe that could very well be the case with many species of fish. Regrettably I don’t know any local breeders or I most certainly would be turning to them for my stock.

TedsTank

we had a terrible problem here in Southern MD with buying guppies. They would always die within 2-3 weeks. The problem was water parameters....not mine, but from the distributer to the fish store. I believe they were always shocked and finally died. My sloution was to always buy very, very pregnant females....they would give birth, and all the babies would live!!! I think for the few days they were in the mom they would very slowly be adapted to the water, so at birth all was perfect.

Does this make sense?? It worked.

The store stopped carrying guppies cause everyone was loosing them!! I suggested they find another distrbuter, check the different water parameters...but anyway they went belly up too.

Dozey

TedsTank,

Makes more sense to me then buying fish and hoping 50% of them survive.

ray_sj

If I believe the "hanging guppies" are sick and they have no other obvious diseases (parasites, etc), I have had some luck moving them to a Q-tank and treating them with Maracyn and Maracyn 2. I suspect in these cases, they have an internal bacterial infection.

After having similar bad luck with pet store guppies, I resorted to breeding my own supply. I ordered some from a good breeder on aquabid. The good news is, they had fry immediately. And, like TedsTank, all the fry are incredibly healthy. I think I lost 1 out of 24 fry in the last 2 months. Bad news is, the original trio that were shipped to me did not fare too well during shipping, and have been treated in the quarantine tank this whole time! Hopefully, they'll make it out of the q-tank soon...

Dozey, do you have any local aquarium clubs? Sometimes these clubs have auctions or swaps where you can get fish from other members. Just another alternative to consider..

0morrokh

I have found the same....I have tried several times buying guppies, platys, and variatus from various local stores (including a lfs that normally has very healthy fish) and the only one I've ever had last is a single platy fry that was born in my tank. All the rest have gotten sick and died, some immediately and some after several months. I believe a lot of the livebearers around here carry tuberculosis or something similar...most I've lost had similar symptoms. So I just don't buy livebearers from stores any more.

Missgingersnap-I would quarintine the suspect gups just in case they are carrying a disease. Are they bloated or losing weight? Is their spine curved so their tails hang down?

Jonah

My mollies like to congregate at the top of the tank when resting but not the guppies, 0morrokh makes a good point to check and see if their spines are taking on a curved appearance and did MissG say whether she had inspected their gills?

Even if the params are fine for the tank if the gills are inflamed that would point to flukes or some other parasite, and would encourage the gupps to go to the top where there is more oxygen in the water.

missgingersnap

I'm going to have to look into breeders or maybe try breeding them myself. I just don't really have the room for an extra tank. On a happy note, my two guppies are looking really good now. I just got home from work and they're back to swimming with their buddies and looking more lively. I saw some gorgeous guppy babies at a pet store the other day but most of the adults in the tank with them had ragged tails so I didn't get any. Would the babies be healthy do you think? I keep thinking about them...they were so unique looking.

0morrokh

I would never buy fish from a tank with other sick fish, too risky.

missgingersnap

I figured as much but they were so darn gorgeous! lol

Jonah

The ragged tails could just be from nipping in the crowded conditions they are kept in. On their own they do not always mean disease. One of my best ones came with a chewed up tail but a lot of time in a good tank with stresscoat cured him of that while in Qt

missgingersnap

Hmmm....maybe I'll wait until my newest fishies are out of the QT tank and pick up a couple of those babies. Couldn't hurt if I QT them right? How long should I QT them for? I can usually only last about a week before I get really antsy to put them in my main tank. I think my main tank is pretty full now but a couple of tiny guppies are a light bioload aren't they? lol I swear....I'm as bad as a 2 year old!

Jonah

lol we all get like that, but I would qt for at least 2 weeks to be safe