Ive been looking at my male guppy and for a day or two now he has been keeping to the surface of the water, ive just been in to see him and his tail is all droopy, its like his backend is sinking and hes tryign to stay afloat. is there anything wrong with him? And anything i can do to help him?
Ive just done a video of him and uploaded him to youtube waiting for it to be processed will link when i can
Last edited by kaystar; July 29th, 2009 at 03:33 PM.
I'm sorry your guppy isn't feeling well. His tail does looked clamped and he seems to be struggling
Are they still in the 6.6?
Do you know the readings for ammonianitrite and nitrate?
It would help if we knew the readings.
If your parameters are ok (0 ammonia, 0 nitrite with 5 to 10 nitrates) It would probably be a good idea to move him to a quarantine tank so they others gups don't pick on him.
Personally, I think 3 guppies need a larger tank than 6.6. They're pretty active little fish that can get aggressive with one another.
At the least, it looks like your guppy is stressed. The fins are being help close to the body, or "clamped", indicating stress. It also looks like he has some fin rot, which is the whitish edge on his tail.
Is this tank cycled? What are the water parameters?
I don't really trust the readings from strips....do you have an ammonia test?
Do you have a q tank you can put him in? Fish will pick on a weaker fish and I'd hate to see that happen.
I dont have an ammonia test no but i will pick one up tomorrow. I dont have a smaller tank no I dont think hes being picked on he was really active when we got him and got on with the other two fish fine
Ive done another video of him, the other one he was more active as the others came to see what i was doing One of the other fish did spook him at the end thats why he swam quite fast then. Oh and sorry about the tv in the background
Will edit with video when its finished uploading on youtube
Last edited by kaystar; July 29th, 2009 at 04:58 PM.
Hi Kay
I do hope that your guppy gets better.
I had a guppy who went droopy a few weeks ago, and was OK but not himself for a few weeks. The medicine we put in didn't make too much difference, and then yesterday he dropped to the bottom of the tank. Tonight the mollies started to peck at him so we had to put him out of his misery. Hope we did the right thing. Fish are so small that I think once old or poorly they can't often get better. Also - you don't know how old they are when you get them, I think mine had just reached his end, he was my alpha male while I had him.
Let me know how you get on - I do want to keep my other guppies as long as possible!!
Faith
I got Interpet's anti internal bacteria, fish health treatment. On the side of the pack it says "for loss of appetite, listlessness, darkening of colour" and all that seemed to apply. He had no white spots, or rot type symptoms and had been really happy for a few months.
To be honest - I didn't know what else to get as there wasn't anything specific wrong with him, he just stopped swimming straight, and went droopy, lost his bright purple colour and let his tail flop.
I got that brand as my local shop is maidenhead aquatics and that seemed the brand they stocked. It's all guesswork.
Hope that helps.
Faith
I'm not real sure medicating a fish is a good idea if you don't know whats wrong with it.
Listlessness and loss of appetite can be a symptom of a few things, ammonia in the water, parasites to name a few.
As Lucy said, you shouldn't ever medicate a fish unless you don't know what's wrong exactly. Using anti-bacterial treatments can sometimes make bacteria more resistant the more you use it, so I'd only ever use it in extreme circumstances when you know the diagnosis of what's wrong with the fish.
Fin clamping is often a sign of poor water conditions. Ammonia can be a large cause in this, however, internal parasites, bullying from other fish and various other problems.
Ooooh, ammonia that high is pretty toxic to your fish. I'd recommend doing some 30-40% water changes ASAP and adding Prime to detoxify the ammonia until it comes down to 0. If you continue the water changes, it will make the water safer for your fish until it completes the cycle.
Oh, no wonder he's acting that way, that level is very toxic.
You'll need to start doing daily water changes to get the ammonia down.
Since the reading is so high I'd suggest 50% now and 50% tonight.
Tomorrow start 50% once a day. Use Prime as your water conditioner. That'll detox the ammonia for 24 hours between water changes.
Keep doing daily changes until your readings are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites with 5-10 nitrates.
You're using strips?
It would be a good idea to invest in a good liquid kit like the API master kit.
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I dont think hes being picked on he was really active when we got him and got on with the other two fish fine
