knighty76

Hi all,

The saga with my guppies continues... for a more comprehensive history please see my other thread

Please help.. one of my guppies died. No idea why?

but in summary, my tank was fully cycled fishlessly and my water parameters are all good. I bought three guppies from a generic pet store one weekend, and by Monday morning two of them had passed . I later found out that the weekend before the store's filtration system had packed in overnight, the fish had all been found floating around gasping at the surface and the shop stopped selling for the weekend.. none of this mentioned to me when I bought my three the weekend after but it would seem their fish were weakened by this.

The one survivor from these three, "Oscar", has made it another week, but I don't think he's very well, and now he displays some disturbing signs of illness. All week he's had the habit of swimming right in front of the filter inlet, presumably against the current.. like a little treadmill. His caudal fin is showing some signs of rot.. it seems to have withered away at the extremeties and has lost it's shape, and is now showing darkness at the very edge. To this end I did some reading and at the recommendation of my specialist LFS added Melafix to the tank yesterday. Since then I have noticed he has started flashing against the gravel. Parasites now?!

I should add that I can't see any white spots on him at this point.

Not sure what to do. He's in my community tank with a few young Neon Tetras, a couple of Corydoras Sterbai and a couple of new Guppies (who are doing really well, no problems at all). I don't have a quarantine tank.. I'm new to this, and this is my first tank. I looked at Melafix because it is acceptable for use in your main tank without harming the other fish or your biological filter. If he's just got fin rot, could the Melaleucia be irritating him? If this is ICH, why the fin rot? Could the poor guy have two problems at the same time?

Any suggestions would be really appreciated. I've considered asking my specialist LFS if they have quarantine tanks and would consider taking him for a bit (I'd pay) but I'd be worried it wouldn't be worth their effort. If anyone knows how I can cycle a quarantine tank in a few days I'll get on to it!! Otherwise I understand that usual treatment for Ich is higher temp (around 82 deg F) and salt.. would this effect my other Guppies, Tetras and Corys?

Sorry for the long post, but it's a headscratcher. Thanks thanks thanks to anyone who can help at all!

Rich.

Lucy

I'm sorry you're having problems.

For ich, raise the temp to 83-4F leave it there for 2 weeks and vacuum the gravel to get all the spores out.
I'm pretty sure your cory won't tolerate salt, someone else might know for sure.

If your tank is fully cycled you can get a Q tank set up by using used filter media from your established tank to quick seed another tank.
I keep extra filter media in my established tanks i case I need to quick cycle a tank.

From what I understand, guppies from stores aren't very hardy. I had been advised by a reputable source to only buy from a conscience breeder.