Ammonia Poisoning in Male guppy

Hi! My guppy has red gills which apparently means ammonia poisoning, although I haven't seen any other symptoms in him. I'm currently doing a big water change and I plan to do a test and stabilise ammonia and pH I just have a few questions: Is there a chance of recovery (I only just noticed so I'm acting quickly)? and IS there anything else I should know about or do?
Thanks

 

A large water change is best. Do you have a ammonia test? What is your pH?

 

Yes, I just did a large water change. I do have an ammonia test, I'll do that now and my pH is 7.0.

 

Are you changing the pH? You said stabilize ammonia and pH.

 

No, pH is fine, just ammonia

 

No, pH is fine, just ammonia

What size tank, how many and what kind of fish and how long has the tank been running?

What is the exact ammonia level in the tank and what are you using to test?

 

29 litre (7.6 gallon)
5 male guppies (including the poisoned one)
5 months

Not sure on the ammonia. (see attached file) maybe a little more than 0 ppm. I'm using a master test kit API® | FRESHWATER MASTER TEST KIT sorry about image quality
also 5.0 ppm nitrate, is that bad?

 

If you can in the morning test your ammonia and nitrates. Your above picture looks like ammonia is reading zero ppm after your water change. Let’s get a base line on your nitrates as well. Nitrates can also adversely affect fish.
Plan to do some water changes over the next couple of days. Basically when in doubt, do a water change to see if fish improves.

 

Oh no! I'm going on holidays on thursday!
Nevermind, he should be healed up by then and I have someone to keep an eye on them

 

5.0 ppm nitrate is totally OK. Ammonia looks 0 to me also.

 

5.0 ppm nitrate is totally OK. Ammonia looks 0 to me also.

Oops. For some reason I misread or didn’t catch the 5ppm nitrate after the water change. That’s totally in a good range to keep it.

Anyone with more experience with guppies know whether some do in fact have red coloration for gills? Or if they go through color changes as they mature or go into breeding mode. Just curious really.

Sounds like the tank is pretty much where it needs to be water parameter wise…so is it time to press the don’t panic button? I’d say yes but hopefully more people will weigh in.

 

Oops. For some reason I misread or didn’t catch the 5ppm nitrate after the water change. That’s totally in a good range to keep it.

Anyone with more experience with guppies know whether some do in fact have red coloration for gills? Or if they go through color changes as they mature or go into breeding mode. Just curious really.

Sounds like the tank is pretty much where it needs to be water parameter wise…so is it time to press the don’t panic button? I’d say yes but hopefully more people will weigh in.

emeraldking is the guppy master. Maybe he has some insight on the red gills.

 

Is it possible that the red gills is just because there’s lots of blood flow close to the surface and the gill plate isn’t completely opaque? Guppies seem to have pretty translucent scales sometimes.

 

Red gills in guppies is mostly an ammonia problem. Eventhough the ammonia seems zero at this point, a guppy can still suffer from an ammonia peak from before. As already stated, a water change has already happened. So, the ammonia could've lowered because of that.
Red gills don't have anything to do with going into a breeding mode.
Guppies can still change color while growing up. But also when they are getting much older, a color change on the body is pretty normal.

 

Thanks for all your help, I did another test yesterday and I got a reading in ammonia of 0.40 which I understand is quite a bit. Is that right?
I got 7.4 pH, 0 nitrite and similar nitrate. He's gotten a bit better after a water change, but he still does the "gaping for air" thing at the water surface.
Any ideas?

 

Have you read up on the nitrogen cycle? After 5 months you should be fully cycled (ie your bacteria is eliminating any nitrates or ammonia) unless you are accidentally doing something that is sabataging your cycle.

 

Yep I'm read up on that, I haven't intentionally added anything that could offset it... I mean, I only add Melafix now and then for illnesses but nothing. else

 

Yep I'm read up on that, I haven't intentionally added anything that could offset it... I mean, I only add Melafix now and then for illnesses but nothing. else

Are you cleaning or changing anything with your filter? If so, can you describe what you’re doing?

 

No, I haven't changed anything with the filter