Guppy with dropsy and fin rot? How to set up a hospital tank.

Hey everyone,

I believe one of my guppies may have fin rot because his tail seems quite torn and he seems to be a little bloated. I didn’t think that he had any diseases before and I though maybe he was pregnant because the fish store I bought him from said it was a female. I then realized it’s probably a male and some people said that the tears on his tail may be from nipping from the other guppies and that it’s normal in males. I have decided to set up a quarantine tank for him to recover. However my problem is that I have absolutely no idea how to do this and I really need help and advice on how to set one up. Unfortunately I do not have another aquarium to put him in, and I have researched how to cure these diseases and how to quarantine a fish, but no sources have proved useful. I read that you need a tank with no gravel and maybe a few hiding places, and that you need a thermometer, filter and heater. I don’t have the budget to buy those and I don’t want to buy them for this one purpose. I am also confused and completely lost on what food to feed him - most people say use antibacterial food but I don’t know what that is. And what medication should I put in there? The thing I’m worried about is what if I put something in there to help cure the dropsy but it affects the fin rot even more, and it isn’t good for the fin rot? I am a little younger and new to fish keeping and I am also quite attached to these fish. If one dies I will be very stressed out and worry about the health of others. I’m upset that I didn’t notice the symptoms earlier and I could have done something to prevent it. I am hoping that I can get some good advice and information from here as you all are very knowledgeable. Here is some info on my aquarium:

Size: 20 high
Temp: 78°
Ph: 7.7
High range ph: 8.2
Ammonia: .25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Companions: 4 cobra guppies, 2 glass catfish (getting 3 more soon), 3 Kuhli loaches, 1 barred spiny eel, 1 gold gourami, and I am planning on getting a nerite snail.

I am a little new to fish keeping so my knowledge on how to deal with a sick fish and keep the others healthy is very very limited. Please help and any advice would be much appreciated! I would like to set up a hospital tank as soon as possible hopefully today, so any advice for a quick setup? Thank you!!

 

I forgot to add some photos:

I also did a huge maybe 60% water change yesterday and vacuumed the gravel as well. I replaced the filter which was quite dirty and a little moldy, but I did change it a few weeks ago and I rinsed it in the tank water yesterday. The tank looks clean so I really hope that makes a difference. I kept the beneficial bacteria and I know that it is very important. For a quarantine tank I heard you could use epsom salt which luckily I have because I use it for my axolotl. Is this true to use epsom salt? Does it help with both dropsy and fin-rot??

 

Water changes are good. Getting aggressive with partial water changes is a good first step in dealing with any disease.

Be careful about cleaning too much of the aquarium at once. Hopefully you rinsed out the filter in tank water. If you used tap water that will disrupt the bacteria colony. If you cleaned everything else too, where it is "sparkling clean," You're likely to have created a mini-cycle which would cause an ammonia spike. Test for the next couple of days and do more water changes if ammonia and/or nitrite is 1 ppm or more. Mini cycles usually sort themselves out in a few days, but you have to watch close.

Your male guppy does look bloated. I know there are recommendations, but in my experience I've never seen a fish recover from bloat.

 

I don’t know. Hope you find a solution. Love his colors

 

I don’t know. Hope you find a solution. Love his colors

I love his colours too! All my fish always brighten up my day!

 

Water changes are good. Getting aggressive with partial water changes is a good first step in dealing with any disease.

Be careful about cleaning too much of the aquarium at once. Hopefully you rinsed out the filter in tank water. If you used tap water that will disrupt the bacteria colony. If you cleaned everything else too, where it is "sparkling clean," You're likely to have created a mini-cycle which would cause an ammonia spike. Test for the next couple of days and do more water changes if ammonia and/or nitrite is 1 ppm or more. Mini cycles usually sort themselves out in a few days, but you have to watch close.

Your male guppy does look bloated. I know there are recommendations, but in my experience I've never seen a fish recover from bloat.

I will continue to test the water. I ended up not getting a quarantine tank for him and went to a very good pet store that isn’t really well known, but the information I got there was superb. I bought a treatment for the water which is safe for the fish and is made to help with both bloating and fin rot. I am going to keep on eye on things and otherwise I may go back to the store to see if there’s anything else I can do. I am feeling a lot calmer now that I know that I am doing something to help him. Also this way by putting the treatment in the main tank it helps the other fish as well if they may have been sick and didn’t show any symptoms yet, otherwise it won’t affect them in the slightest. I did rinse the filter in the tank water, so don’t worry! By sparkling clean I meant I just rinsed the decor and got most of the algae off, as I have yet to buy a snail. The water was just really yellow and that was mainly due to the algae. Thank you for your very helpful response! I’ll keep an eye out for them and keep you updated to see if he recovers. Thanks!