How can I save this awful looking guppy?

Emergency template

Tank

What is the water volume of the tank? 19L, 5G
How long has the tank been running? 6 months
Does it have a filter? Yes mechanical air
Does it have a heater? Yed
What is the water temperature? 25.6C
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) X2 male guppies X1 female swordtail

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Weekly
How much of the water do you change? 30%
What do you use to treat your water? Interpret Ammonia Remover, API tap water conditioner, Tetra Nitrate Minus, a teeny bit of API pH proper 7.5.
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Gentle vacuum debris stirred up from the top of the substrate and do big gravel rinses every few months.

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API freshwater master test kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
On 19th Oct
Ammonia: 0-0.25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5-10ppm
pH: 7.8-8

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Once a day
How much do you feed your fish? 2-3 granules, 5-10 small flakes
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Lovefish pellets, FishScience flakes
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? Just over 3 weeks
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? 4 days ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Went from bloated to gaunt prior to this. Lost colour, developed a curved back/head was found floating with back coming into contact with air, slightly inbalanced.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? Fed a pea and isolated with tank divider which corrected balance and no longer has back sticking out of the water. However he still has bad colour, curved back, stays near top (although I suspect he may have been bullied into this territory by his alpha companion). Eats fine, but generally looks bad compared to before. Worried his stronger male companion will prevent him from eating / pick on him so would like to build up his strength before removing the divider.
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Appearance is weak. Behaviour now pretty normal and active at top of tank.

Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now) As above, how can I get him in better condition. Am I right to separate him from the alpha while he still looks frail? See attached picture of him a month ago (bottom) Vs now (top)

 

The only advice I have is to stop adding all the chemicals to ur tank. All u need is water conditioner when u do water changes. I'm sure its stressing them out and a stressed fish is way more likely to get sick. Also, if u can, u should upgrade to a bigger tank. A 5 gal is only big enough for very few kinds of fish and usually not more than 1 or 2. Swordtails need way more room than a 5 gal. What kind of filter do u have?

 

HI there. The filter is as described in the template, if that helps. Interesting to hear that about the chemicals, I thought the point of them was to reduce ammonia & nitrate which would make the fish less stressed? Why does the female swordtail need more room (its not got a long tail) the pet store sold it to me telling me it was a platy.

 

HI there. The filter is as described in the template, if that helps. Interesting to hear that about the chemicals, I thought the point of them was to reduce ammonia & nitrate which would make the fish less stressed? Why does the female swordtail need more room (its not got a long tail) the pet store sold it to me telling me it was a platy.

Platies, mollies, and swordtails all have high bioloads--they produce a lot of waste for their size and stress the water parameters. In smaller tanks they make it even more toxic. That's why they need larger tanks. 20 gallon and up, 30 gallon for swordtails because they can get up to 5 inches.


As for your guppy, its hard to say. Theyre so overbred that theyre prone to illnesses and such. It could even be a genetic issue that's only coming to light now. Though, there are a few nasty diseases that can cause symptoms like this too... one I'm thinking of isn't common in guppies but still possible is neon tetra disease...

 

HI there. The filter is as described in the template, if that helps. Interesting to hear that about the chemicals, I thought the point of them was to reduce ammonia & nitrate which would make the fish less stressed? Why does the female swordtail need more room (its not got a long tail) the pet store sold it to me telling me it was a platy.

The way to remove ammonia and nitrates is with water changes, not chemicals. The fish store just wants to sell stuff and also if ur tank is cycled there shouldn't be ammonia in the tank (it gets processed by the good bacteria and turns into nitrites then nitrates)