Quarantine My Guppy?

So I posted about a guppy not eating a few days ago. Now he’s not only fasting but very listless. He’s mainly swimming still in a corner or hiding on the gravel in the cave. He doesn’t really react to anything, not to the other fish and he doesn’t even pay attention when I put my hand up to the corner he is swimming in. Should I quarantine him? I have a small travel tank a heater and an air pump and tomorrow my back up filter will be arriving, Will this work for a quarantine tank for a guppy?

 

Quarantining is one solution, but depending on the other fish in the tank, one thing you could do is slowly, and in increments, increase temperature (if the heater is adjustable) and do frequent water changes. Is there any physical deformations or noticeable changes on the body?

 

Quarantining is one solution, but depending on the other fish in the tank, one thing you could do is slowly, and in increments, increase temperature (if the heater is adjustable) and do frequent water changes. Is there any physical deformations or noticeable changes on the body?

No, he looks normal. My heater isn’t adjustable it turns itself on and off to keep a consistent temp. I do a water change every week of about 50% should I increase this?

 

No, he looks normal. My heater isn’t adjustable it turns itself on and off to keep a consistent temp. I do a water change every week of about 50% should I increase this?

To increase the possibility of recovery, I would do daily or bidaily water changes, 30% would be good. Make sure to ensure cleanest water, but also matching water conditions (temperature, hardness, etc)

 

Quarantining is one solution, but depending on the other fish in the tank, one thing you could do is slowly, and in increments, increase temperature (if the heater is adjustable) and do frequent water changes. Is there any physical deformations or noticeable changes on the body?

Why do you reccomend higher temperatures for lethargy without asking what the initial temperature is?
How is hotter water supposed to heal a fish?

 

I'd recommend looking at all the other fish closely. If they all seem OK, take the guppy out and try to cure it.

If other fish seem to have any symptoms, you might as well treat the whole tank. Something like ich is easy to diagnose. Other diseases are difficult, especially for guppies. I've delayed treatment because I wasn't sure what the problem was, and I didn't want to go throwing every medication in the book into the tank. I don't always nail it, but I never treat unless I have a guess about what I'm treating.

Are the fins clamped? Any external marks?

 

I'd recommend looking at all the other fish closely. If they all seem OK, take the guppy out and try to cure it.

If other fish seem to have any symptoms, you might as well treat the whole tank. Something like ich is easy to diagnose. Other diseases are difficult, especially for guppies. I've delayed treatment because I wasn't sure what the problem was, and I didn't want to go throwing every medication in the book into the tank. I don't always nail it, but I never treat unless I have a guess about what I'm treating.

Are the fins clamped? Any external marks?

The other fish are really happy and seem very healthy. There are no external marks but sometimes it seems like the fins are clamped.

 

Something else you'll need to consider is your QT needs to be cycled as well or it will not be beneficial and will likely kill the sick fish. What temperature is the tank at? Does this change at all? I know you mentioned the filter does it automatically without a setting but these can be faulty so hopefully you have a good thermometer on the tank

 

Something else you'll need to consider is your QT needs to be cycled as well or it will not be beneficial and will likely kill the sick fish. What temperature is the tank at? Does this change at all? I know you mentioned the filter does it automatically without a setting but these can be faulty so hopefully you have a good thermometer on the tank

No it's not cycled, is there anything I can do to get it cycled quickly? (I honestly didn't anticipate needing one, I knew about cycling before I bought any fish but I honestly went to the store for one fish a few weeks ago and now I have 9 :shy.

 

If you have a really well established tank you can take some of the filter media out and put it into the new filter but you don't want to remove too much from the old tank and risk throwing it into a minI cycle. Do you have any other tanks besides the one in your profile that you started last month?

I don't know if I'd seed a new tank with a tank that's only a month old so I would really try options that don't involve a QT first, you can always shove some extra media in your current tank for future that way when you need to put a sick fish in its own tank you can just grab that extra filter media and be ready to go with the QT.