starbaby

I have a potential guppy problem in my tank. I'm new to fish, so not sure what's going on. I have 4 platys, one female betta, 1 pleco, 1 ghost shrimp and 5 female and 2 male guppies in my tank (and a few snails that stowed away on some plants I purchased). I also have on new baby guppy in the last week. My 26 gallon tank has been up for about 8 weeks. I had an ammonia problem for several weeks, but all the numbers have been ok for the last two or three weeks. I have two guppies that have me concerned. One of the them I thought was pregnant, but I think she's well past the gestation period and her belly is just huge. She looks like she's hunched over significantly. She's eating well and acting normally otherwise. In the last few days another guppy who just gave birth appears to be sick. Her gills are red and she has a red spot on her body. Her tail won't fan out and she's wobbly when she swims. She's eating well, but just seems sick. None of the other fish seem sick. I feed them twice a day - tropical flakes and sometimes throw in some freeze dried bloodworms or daphnia or occassionally some frozen baby brine shrimp. In the last week I added some algae discs for the pleco which he hated, but the fish ate. The tank is maintained at 82 degrees and I do small water changes once a week. I just did a small tank cleaning of the gravel last week, mostly surface since I'm still trying to establish the bacteria in the rock. Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks!

Amanda

Welcome to fishlore!
What are your water readings exactly?
Is there a chance the betta attacked the guppy?
What type of pleco?

cherrybarbboi

hi! i read somewhere that if you over feed guppys they can get a sort of "potbelly". i dont kno about the red spot on the belly. maybe the betta attacked it. i think bettas are somewhat agressive and they are deffinently bigger than guppys

ABCDemily

Dependant on what kind of Pleco, it's in a far too small tank. It appears that you may be overstocked as it is. If it's a Bristlenose Plec, you're okay.
Female bettas are almost as notorious as males for fighting, especially as guppies have larger finnage. Apart from that you seem to be doing everything okay. The red gills can be a sign of ammonia posioning, however if only one fish is showing, and your ammonia levels are fine then I'd guess it's not.
Also, if guppies aren't dropping fry, it could be a sign of stress. They don't generally give birth unless they feel safe.
Good luck Starbaby.

starbaby

Thanks for your responses!

I thought about my betta being aggressive, but she hasn't been to any of the fish that I've seen except a little to the ghost shrimp. And all she does to the ghost shrimp is sort of get in his face, about a half inch away, swims away, goes back and then leaves the area. She's kind of weird - she was pretty chewed up and very pale when we got her, then got picked on by the other betta to the point where I took back the other betta so she'd live and now she's beautiful with full fins and gorgeous color. She could be attacking the guppy, but I haven't seen anything that would indicate aggression toward the other fish. One of my platy's is aggressive, but usually only to one of the other platy's.

I don't know what kind of pleco I have. I got one like the one my stepdad has in his aquarium (he has two over a foot long in a 90 gallong tank with about 20-25 african cichlids). I don't think he's a bristlenose, though. I was told he might outgrow the tank, but my plan is to get a much bigger tank this year. I didn't realize he'd double his size in a couple of weeks like he has.

As far as the numbers, I don't have my test kit, but my ammonia is now at ideal or safe, nitrates and nitrites are the lowest or second lowest reading, pH and hardness are high in our water. I don't remember the reading for hardness, but ph is usually around 7.5. I do use the conditioning salt and of course the stress coat for water changes.