Deadly guppy illness.

[Holly89]

I brought home two male guppies to put in my 10 gallon tank only 9 days ago. Well... One is dead and the other seems to have the same illness.

Tank is cycled and housed a Betta for about 4 years. He passed away suddenly with no signs of illness. (Old age?) I did a huge water change and got the guppies about 2 days later. Water parameters have been in check. Zero ammonia and nitrites. 5 to 10 nitrates. 76 degrees.


My orange guppy died today after refusing food for three days and having clear/white string hanging from his anus. His belly was bloated. When I looked at him after he passed, his anus looked swollen and bright red. (Should have taken a picture, but it's too late now.) He had been quarantined for the last two days.

Now the blue one has the white string hanging, but currently will still eat. Not bloated. Any ideas what this might be? What can I do?

Happy I decided to start with just two...

 

[Holly89]

Anyone? The blue one isn't eating today and looking to be headed the same direction as the orange.

At this point, I'm just hoping to know what this was so I can properly clean my tank after this one goes.

 

[angelcraze]

Sorry, I can't really say just based on stringy white poop, it's sometimes a sign of internal parasites, but also a symptom of constipation or just not feeling well. The red butt could be prolaspe from trying to expel poop, or from parasite damage. See, i'm really no help. If they did have a parasite, the move to a new tank could stress and weaken their system to the point the parasite took them over, or it could be normal stress from switching tanks and just weak specimens.

If the blue one passes, I would keep the tank barren for a bit (a month?) and continue with siphoning and water change maintenance. If you want to start right over, soak everything in bleach and use dechlorinator after. 9:1 water/ bleach is the regular ratio for disinfecting aquarium things.

 

[Holly89]

Thank you. I'm thinking it is parasitic. I made a trip to the Petsmart I got them from today, and their guppies all look bloated with many dead. Corycats in the same tanks dead too.

I picked up some API General Cure and I'm going to try that after a large water change. If he doesn't make it, I've got plenty of time to completely start over and fishless cycle while I find a better place to get fish.

 

[angelcraze]

GC is metronidazole and praziquatel. Good for a lot of parasites, just not nematodes (worms). Sorry to say, but I don't see a lot of success treating a situation as progress as this. But in the case it is a nematode, you'd need a dewormer in the water like Levamisole, Flubendazole or Fenbendazole in the food. More just for info because if it is a worm, it needs to find a host in a certain amount of time to survive. No hosts, no parasites (for those that don't go dormant, IF some go dormant).

 

[Holly89]

So I didn't use any medication in the tank afterall. Guppy started eating again, but stopped again. He had a white spot on his mouth last night. This morning.... it's clearly Columnaris. It ate away at his mouth overnight and he looks awful.

I think I'm going to euthanize him later. Bleach and start over completely.

 

[angelcraze]

Oh no. That was the last fish?

 

[Holly89]

Yes. I had only bought two guppies since the tank had only housed a betta previously. Planned to slowly add more fish. I didn't want to overload and have more than my cycle could handle.

Happy I waited for the rest now.