Skinny Guppies Dying Off One By One

Recently for the past few weeks I’ve had at least 1~2 guppies die on me each week. Of those dying guppies, they appear to be skinny, drooping from the tail, uninterested in food, breathing heavily, and are almost stationary instead of being active. I have 10 guppies that are fine, and 2 of them are sick. I don’t know if this is a parasite, disease, or water chemical problem....

Number of fish: 12 guppies
Number of Nerite Snails: 20+
Tank size: 10 gallon
Water Temperature: 25°C~ 27°C
What I have for the tank: Heater, HOF with carbon stones, airation stone, also live plants and snails.
Number of sick fish: 2

I can’t afford a test kit to test the water parameters and I’m scared to add medication into my tank because I have snails... what should I do??

I was referring to this guide but I’m so limited since with the snails (( I’ve only been doing water changes 50% every week, adding dechlodrinator, nutrition/ vitamin, and aquarium salt each water change.

I think I may have cured the guppy "skinny" disease.......

Help please... I don’t want any more of my fish to die!! Tell me if i’m doing anything wrong.

 

I'm sorry for your losses.

Sounds a lot like a case of internal worms to me. Unfortunately guppies are very vulnerable to this disease, and it can spread between guppies.

I can't reccomend any specific medication as the medicine I use is UK specific, but check your lfs or order internal worm treatments online. Hopefully you will see improvements.

Best of luck

I'm sorry for your losses.

Sounds a lot like a case of internal worms to me. Unfortunately guppies are very vulnerable to this disease, and it can spread between guppies.

I can't reccomend any specific medication as the medicine I use is UK specific, but check your lfs or order internal worm treatments online. Hopefully you will see improvements.

Best of luck

Oh, and for the snails, some medications are snail safe, it should say somewhere on the packaging if they are. If you can't find a snail safe one, you could move your snails to a temporary bucket for a couple weeks until you are sure you've done enough water changes to get the medicine out again.

 

I’m sorry you’re going through this.

Do you have a petco or a petsmart near you? They will test your water for you for free. Some locally owned fish stores will do it too. Just make sure you get them to write down or tell you the exact numbers. They often just say the water parameters are “fine” when they most definitely are not. Also, are you aware of the nitrogen cycle and is your tank cycled?

My guess is that water quality is stressing them out and making them succeptible to illness even if it’s not the direct cause of their deaths, as 12 guppies and 20+ snails in a 10 gallon tank is unfortunately very overstocked. Also, if you got your guppies from a pet store, they are usually very poorly bred and not hardy.

 

I’m sorry you’re going through this.

Do you have a petco or a petsmart near you? They will test your water for you for free. Some locally owned fish stores will do it too. Just make sure you get them to write down or tell you the exact numbers. They often just say the water parameters are “fine” when they most definitely are not. Also, are you aware of the nitrogen cycle and is your tank cycled?

My guess is that water quality is stressing them out and making them succeptible to illness even if it’s not the direct cause of their deaths, as 12 guppies and 20+ snails in a 10 gallon tank is unfortunately very overstocked. Also, if you got your guppies from a pet store, they are usually very poorly bred and not hardy.

Good spot! I didn't realise they had 12 guppies in a 10 gallon That is likely the cause of disease.

 

calamanaris is the cause

 

I will try to pick out all my snails into another tank to medicate my fish... and I was overstocked cause my female guppies gave birth so I didn’t know what to do with the fry. Another female gave birth today too... population is going out of control.

By the way if I medicate my tank every 7 days and then stopped if they show no more signs of illness how many weeks or water change % must I do so that the water is safe to place back my snails?

 

How do you have so many nerite snails?

 

How do you have so many nerite snails?

They probably came with the aquarium plants that I bought, I didn’t even notice them there until months later. Also, they’ve been laying a lot of eggs recently. Is it bad? I’ve started doing 20% water change everyday now because of these symptoms. :/

 

They probably came with the aquarium plants that I bought, I didn’t even notice them there until months later. Also, they’ve been laying a lot of eggs recently. Is it bad? I’ve started doing 20% water change everyday now because of these symptoms. :/

If they are nerite snails the eggs should’nt hatch because they only hatch in brackish water. How big are the nerite snails?

 

I will try to pick out all my snails into another tank to medicate my fish... and I was overstocked cause my female guppies gave birth so I didn’t know what to do with the fry. Another female gave birth today too... population is going out of control.

By the way if I medicate my tank every 7 days and then stopped if they show no more signs of illness how many weeks or water change % must I do so that the water is safe to place back my snails?

I would say once medication is finished then maybe 25% every other day for a week, then 25% twice weekly the following week. Just an estimate. Or you could add some activated charcoal which would draw out the medicine for you.

 

If they are nerite snails the eggs should’nt hatch because they only hatch in brackish water. How big are the nerite snails?

The snails are probably no bigger than my finger tip, so possibly half a year old? I’m not really sure, but they laud a lot of eggs near my filter.

 

Are you sure they're nerite snails?

And water quality is your #1 priority, so it's important to get a test kit. You can get it way cheaper on amazon than you can in stores.

 

The snails are probably no bigger than my finger tip, so possibly half a year old? I’m not really sure, but they laud a lot of eggs near my filter.

Can you take a picture of the snails? They sound like pest snails to me

 

Can you take a picture of the snails? They sound like pest snails to me

They look like this but extremely small......... yeah they don’t look anything like nerite snails now that I did a side by side comparison. Are they the reason why my water condition or why my fish is in bad health?

It looks like bladder snail or pond snail.

If they are pest snails... should I just add the medication and kill them all off? They haven’t really been eating my plants, the only thing that made me curious was why they haven’t been eating algae growing in the tank.

 

The snails will definitely contribute to the waste in the water, but so are the numbers of guppies. I would suggest removing the female guppies to a separate tank if possible. They will continue to have fry for a while since guppies can store sperm, but at least they won’t sontinue breeding. Also, removing any moss or fine leaved plants like hornwort or anacharis will help the population control because if the fry don’t have sheltered areas to hide then the adult guppies will eat them.

If you do medicate, I would suggest just doing it with the snails in the tank still. Some may die but it’s unlikely that they all will. That said, I strongly urge you to check your water parameters before adding medication. The symptoms you describe sound a lot like ammonia or nitrite poisoning, which is due to overstocking. In that case, medication will not help and can just stress the fish further. If you can test your water and let us know the parameters, then we can help you decide if medication is necessary or not.

 

They look like this but extremely small......... yeah they don’t look anything like nerite snails now that I did a side by side comparison. Are they the reason why my water condition or why my fish is in bad health?

It looks like bladder snail or pond snail.

If they are pest snails... should I just add the medication and kill them all off? They haven’t really been eating my plants, the only thing that made me curious was why they haven’t been eating algae growing in the tank.

They are pest snails not nerites. They eat fish food that you feed. If you feed less their population will go down. I don’t think that’s why your fish are sick

 

The snails will definitely contribute to the waste in the water, but so are the numbers of guppies. I would suggest removing the female guppies to a separate tank if possible. They will continue to have fry for a while since guppies can store sperm, but at least they won’t sontinue breeding. Also, removing any moss or fine leaved plants like hornwort or anacharis will help the population control because if the fry don’t have sheltered areas to hide then the adult guppies will eat them.

If you do medicate, I would suggest just doing it with the snails in the tank still. Some may die but it’s unlikely that they all will. That said, I strongly urge you to check your water parameters before adding medication. The symptoms you describe sound a lot like ammonia or nitrite poisoning, which is due to overstocking. In that case, medication will not help and can just stress the fish further. If you can test your water and let us know the parameters, then we can help you decide if medication is necessary or not.

Can I just add that I had a pest problem with the same snails and over the course of 2 weeks, the medication I needed killed all the snails off. I've now been 4 months snail free

 

the snails are good 4 tanks how often do u feed

 

Before this goes off topic, I would want my tank to be snail friendly. Though if these snails are nothing but trouble (compared to nerite snails) I will be willing to add the medicine and kill them off and then get nerite snails next time I’m at the pet store.

@FscCyning
I’ll be sure to get testing kits then. My dad’s been fussing to me I don’t need them cause they are so expensive. Also, I can’t ask the pet store around here for free check up since I’m not exactly in the US..... :/ I’ll bring a sample of my tank water with me anyways to see if they will accept to test my water.

 

test kits are a good thing to have but its a good idea to ask the shop to test your water 4 u

 

Back when I wrote that thread in 2014 I was having issues that I could not solve. I had reached a point where I was reading stuff online and trying new meds and just nothing seemed to work.
I had a disease where my fish would get skinny and then go tail down, and then float. I could never figure it out, and I tried de-worming them, nothing worked.
I thought I had "cured" it (trust me, it was not camlanus, I de-wormed them) only for it to come back. I tried prazipro, fenbendazole......
Now that I think about it, I think it may have been capallaria nematode. Its a tiny gut parasite worm that can only be cured by levimasole. Prazipro can't kill roundworms!
If your guppies are wasting, but there are not symptoms of camallanus like the red worms coming out its rear, it may be capallaria.

 

The snails will definitely contribute to the waste in the water, but so are the numbers of guppies. I would suggest removing the female guppies to a separate tank if possible. They will continue to have fry for a while since guppies can store sperm, but at least they won’t sontinue breeding. Also, removing any moss or fine leaved plants like hornwort or anacharis will help the population control because if the fry don’t have sheltered areas to hide then the adult guppies will eat them.

If you do medicate, I would suggest just doing it with the snails in the tank still. Some may die but it’s unlikely that they all will. That said, I strongly urge you to check your water parameters before adding medication. The symptoms you describe sound a lot like ammonia or nitrite poisoning, which is due to overstocking. In that case, medication will not help and can just stress the fish further. If you can test your water and let us know the parameters, then we can help you decide if medication is necessary or not.

Thanks for your response. I’ll get a test kit I guess... i’ve been raising my fish without a kit and there’s always death which is completely frustrating since I just want a healthy aquarium. Also... I don’t think I have extra tanks for the babies... it’s crazy I might as well get another small tank just for them. If I do, do I need a filter for that tank? I only have 1 hof...

Back when I wrote that thread in 2014 I was having issues that I could not solve. I had reached a point where I was reading stuff online and trying new meds and just nothing seemed to work.
I had a disease where my fish would get skinny and then go tail down, and then float. I could never figure it out, and I tried de-worming them, nothing worked.
I thought I had "cured" it (trust me, it was not camlanus, I de-wormed them) only for it to come back. I tried prazipro, fenbendazole......
Now that I think about it, I think it may have been capallaria nematode. Its a tiny gut parasite worm that can only be cured by levimasole. Prazipro can't kill roundworms!
If your guppies are wasting, but there are not symptoms of camallanus like the red worms coming out its rear, it may be capallaria.

Thanks for explaining. So just find medicine with levimasole?

 

Its just a suggestion. It can't hurt to try. 1/4 teaspoon per 100 gallons, take carbon out and turn off lights