Skinny Guppy / Black Colouring

Hi friends,

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 50 Gallons (not currently full so about 45 Gallons)
How long has the tank been running? Since December
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 25-26 Degrees Celsius
What is the entire stocking of this tank? 6 Neon Tetras, 2 Dwarf Loaches, 4 Guppies and about 40 Guppy Fry (more on this later)

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Weekly
How much of the water do you change? 25%
What do you use to treat your water? API Water Conditioner
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Substrate, no more than half the tank each time

Parameters
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API Full Test Kit and API Test Strips
Ammonia:0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7.3-7.4

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Twice daily
How much do you feed your fish? Pinch of Hikari Micro Pellets
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Hikari
Do you feed frozen? No
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? The four guppies (3 females, 1 male) arrived about 4 weeks ago
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? 1 week ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? The male is increasingly skinnier and no longer wants to eat. His swim style is best described as 'wobbling' but does get around the tank. We have noticed that black colouring is increasingly spreading on his head.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? Moved him into a quarantine tank (5 Gallons)
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No, looked heathy
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Wobbly swimming and not eating. Skinny.

Explain your emergency situation in detail.
We established the tank (Dec 2) and didn't add the tetras until Dec 29. We added the loaches along with the guppies at the same time, towards end of January. Tank best described as otherwise thriving (tetras happy/playful, loaches playful, guppies just released fry (Probably pregnant when we bought them). We noticed the male was getting skinner before the fry arrived, and seems to be getting worse.

This is our first tank(s) so first real issue to face.

 

Hi Archaiel

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for using the emergency template when writing your question.

Let me see if I read your question correctly?

First fish Dec 29 , that’s 27 days after the tank was set up ? And the fish have been in the tank for only a month and a half, ish.

Can you please confirm you added an ammonia source for the first 27 days?

Did you ever have nitrates in the water test?

Male guppies are much smaller than females and with those long fins wobbly swimming COULD be the best he can do .

I wonder if with just 12 adult fish if too much food is going into the tank. Seriously are you sure who else in the family might be adding extra food?
We all feed to much food , beginners are no different. You write of feeding twice a day. Stop doing that ( if humanly possible) . Just feed once a day 6 days a week.

I know now you have 40 plus fry that feeding suggestion is not ideal but trust me with 4 pregnant females dropping fry every 28 days you will soon have far too many fish.
The females will continue to drop at least 3 more batches of fry after the male is removed.

Its extremely unusual for a guppy not to eat.

A colour change could be nothing to worry about. It’s only been less than 3 weeks. He may just be showing his true colours now that he realises he is the top male/ only male.?

The 0 0 0 water test was that on the day of your weekly 25% water change and testing before the change?

If you could explain briefly how you established the tank it would help confirm the tank has a full working nitrogen cycle.

From just two pictures the male does not look skinny to me.

 

I don't see the problems you've mentioned in both pictures.

 

I am wondering if the males fins are now growing back bigger than when first purchased. When he was swimming in a group other fish may have been continually nipping them a bit smaller meaning he could swim more easily when you first got him?

 

Hi,

Thanks for the responses!

Can you please confirm you added an ammonia source for the first 27 days?

Yes, used API Quick Start and didn't pop any fish in there other than plants.

Did you ever have nitrates in the water test?

No, results have always been negligible to non existent for nitrates.

I wonder if with just 12 adult fish if too much food is going into the tank. Seriously are you sure who else in the family might be adding extra food?

Fed only by the two parents, so 99% confident!

Its extremely unusual for a guppy not to eat.

Indeed - this is mostly our concern. Definitely hasn't eaten for about 6 days now - the food we put in there for him he leaves and doesn't touch. He's definitely much smaller than he was a week ago.

The 0 0 0 water test was that on the day of your weekly 25% water change and testing before the change?

Before the change. We weighed up holding off on the change but there was a holiday block in there for a few days.

If you could explain briefly how you established the tank it would help confirm the tank has a full working nitrogen cycle.

Largely went off aquarium advice and the community posts around. We added substrate (gravel/pebbles), added plants (java grass, water weed), put some root tabs in for the plants and started with quick start. Waited several weeks, continued testing and added just the tetras to start with. Could see in the tank algae/bacteria starting to form on the outlets so felt confident with the tetras. Tetras started growing larger, seemed happy so bought the loaches (for our pest snail problems...) and added the four guppies.

All of the other fish flying around the tank looking pretty happy. No visible damage to any other fish, just old mate with his black head and lack of appetite.

 

As I read this you added bacteria in a bottle but no ammonia?
Quote
Yes, used API Quick Start and didn't pop any fish in there other than plants.

It would seem the bacteria from the bottle of API quick start was not feed anything for them to grow in numbers? Without adding an ammonia source any bacteria that may have been in the bottle had nothing to eat until the fish were added. The cycle was not growing. If any bacteria came from the bottle they had no food to multiply into the millions needed to build the colonies of bacteria.
I will not say too much about bottled bacteria and if it’s alive or even the correct type. It’s enough to say the cycle is very very new. Not seeing any nitrates is a bad sign. Nitrates are the poop from bacteria, the final stage of the cycle. Yes lots and lots of very well established plants can consume some nitrates but it’s not going to happen until the plants are very well established. Plants with leaves in the air and very fast growing stem plants MIGHT consume all the waste / poop / nitrate from bacteria but it’s extremely rear in a new tank.

The tank does not in my opinion have a fully functioning nitrogen cycle.

Now the really good news . It’s a 50 gallon and only lightly stocked. Don’t add any more fish . Slow down on the feeding. Do extra water changes and the bacteria will grow in numbers. There is wild bacteria in the air we breathe no need to add any more bottles of bacteria ( at this stage anyway?)

If you didn’t add ammonia then you are building the colonies of bacteria with fish in the tank . Check out the instructions for “ fish in cycling “ .

Basically lots of water changes and only minimal cleaning of hard surfaces. Don’t touch the filter.

 

Hmmmm! Interesting!

Outlet of filter is filled with algae and walls starting to film with algae also.

Good sign hopefully?

 

Hmmmm! Interesting!

Outlet of filter is filled with algae and walls starting to film with algae also.

Good sign hopefully?

Brown algae is a sign of high nitrites, and i doubt you have green algae growing yet, so no not necessarily.
Either way, do water changes and use prime as your declorinator. It will reduce the harm caused by ammonia or nitrites. I suspect that your tank is at least partially cycled.
I use "Fritz" Ammonium chloride. It comes in a white container, you can find it online. You cant really find pure ammonia anywhere at grocery stores, ive looked. They all have additives or scent agents.
99% of guppy problems come from stress from poor water, or shipping/handling.
Do water changes, make sure they are good and warm, the tank is cycled, and if you dont have life plants add some salt. It will do wonders for your guppies.
Ammonia burns gills and high nitrites causes brown blood disease. Salt can help restore gill function and the treatment if any for BBD is Methylene blue in a hospital tank.

Sounds like your on the right track by monotiring water parameters, i know when i was a noob i didnt even bother and kept wondering why my guppies died

 

Thanks. Main tank has brown and green algae and nitrates colour moderately tending towards 20ppm - ammonia and nitrites still 0

Male guppy still refusing to eat in Tank 2. :/

Oddly, found one of the females dead today (was swimming slowly yesterday). Water parameters still look and testing fine. No visible damage to it, so little weird

other two females swimming normally and all fry seem happy. Loaches and tetras still zipping around the tank (albeit grumpy ive moved to once a day feeding)