AGuppylover
I just added a male lyretail guppy to my 40 gallon freshwater tank. I have around twenty other guppies in there, and they all are doing fine with no signs of stress or disease. After acclimating it, (for around two hours) I released it into the tank but noticed immediately that it was acting strangely. Without warning, it started darting about ,crashing into everything and seeming to have no objective to were it was going. that only went on for a couple seconds, and then it fell to the bottom and rested at the base of a plant. It didn't try to swim much, but when he did it would swim in a tight circle around itself, twitching slightly while floating upwards. After a couple seconds it thrashed around again and fell back to the bottom. We put it into a quarantine tank, thinking it might have a nervous disease. It mostly stays still, floating at the water's surface and pressing up against the side of the tank for support. It seems to be gasping, and shivering constantly. We had to put a lid on the tank, because every so often it will have a episode, swimming uncontrollably and thrashing about, even leaping out of the water and sometimes out of the tank. I tried feeding it this morning, it looked fairly calm, every once and a while I notice it acting perfectly normal for a second. When it saw the food, it didn't make a move for it at first, but eventually tried, and it looked as though it had no control over which direction it was swimming in. it would swim backward and shiver, sinking to the bottom of the tank and then bobbing up to the surface. At first it wasn't so bad, but it seemed to escalate until it had another episode, and I had to put the lid back on to avoid it from thrashing right out of the tank. We got him from PetSmart, and I didn't see anyone else acting strange in his tank. I've done some research, but still no clue, maybe a bad case of Shivers? I have heard fancy guppies are sensitive to changes in water parameters, but I acclimated him properly, and I can't change the PH or hardness just for him. If the difference in water parameters is the problem, will he just get better on his own? Do you think it would be alright to let him out into the main tank? I just did a water test and my KH is 40 GH 30 PH 8.0 ( quick note on the PH I can't tell weather the color matches 7.4 or 8.0, but it has always been the same tone, so whichever it is know it is constant. I have never experienced a change in my PH reading.) Ammonia 0.0-0.25 Nitrite 0.0 Nitrate 5.0. I test roughly once or twice a week. I perform weekly 30% water changes and I am doing one today, so that is the highest reading of nitrate I get. I also change the water in the quarantine tank daily.
