What Killed My Lyretail Guppy?

I’ve had my male guppies since October and I lost my first today. He has been swimming jerky for a few days and I noticed he looked kind of lumpy yesterday. Water temp is 78°, ammonia and nitrites are 0, nitrates are 10, ph is 7.2. It’s a 38 gallon tank with guppies, tetras, danios and 3 corys. Today I found him minutes after he died and he was all bent up like crazy and had a dark spot inside his abdomen. I’m including pics to show both. The rest of the fish look ok and are acting normal besides one female guppy who has looked tired and hollowed out since her last batch of fry a month ago. Ideas? Will anyone else catch something?

 

Anybody want to look at this guppy for me? Please?
Hunter1

 

That looks to me like an injury from something.

 

Anybody want to look at this guppy for me? Please?
Hunter1

Thanks for the help!

 

Thanks for the help!

I can’t do much but calling on fishlore friends I can handle. I’m so sorry you lost this little one. Is there anything it could’ve gotten injured in, on, behind?
And I was trying to call on more peeps but I lost my connection. Again.
How is the other one that was not acting right?

 

That looks to me like an injury from something.

I agree. I was initially wondering about a broken spine but what on earth from? It’s such a chill place with only friendly fish... The other day, I called ahead to the LFS to have some bladder snails set aside to feed to my pea puffers however when I picked them up they were in fact not bladder snails at all but mystery snails, all bigger than the puffers themselves. I tossed a few in the puffer tank to see if they could breach the trap doors on them and then put the rest in the community tank. I was wondering if maybe he found a dead snail and engorged himself on it, only because the guppies were generally curious with the newcomer snails and because he was lumpy so maybe from overeating(?). I can’t for the life of me think of anything else, but something obviously went horribly wrong for him, and quite suddenly too. A thorough inspection showed zero surface wounds as well. Looked a rough way to go, but the silver lining would be that if it was an injury, he should be the only loss.

 

I had hubby look too and he says it looks like an injury as well.
And good luck with the snails.

 

Sorry to be kind of gruesome, but to me it looks like he got smashed and broken in half..., which would most likely only be caused by something mechanical like a filter. That doesn't look like any disease I've ever seen. Regardless, sorry for this unfortunate loss!

 

I can’t do much but calling on fishlore friends I can handle. I’m so sorry you lost this little one. Is there anything it could’ve gotten injured in, on, behind?
And I was trying to call on more peeps but I lost my connection. Again.
How is the other one that was not acting right?

Thanks again. I’ve maybe seen your posts, reaching out for others before to help where you can’t. You are kind, thank you. But no, not at the moment. It’s only some fake and live plants because I have removed the large decor for some cleaning this week. Normally I have a cave and some large rocks but they got a little algae covered recently so I’ve removed them for the last 4ish days to tidy it up a bit.

 

Sorry to be kind of gruesome, but to me it looks like he got smashed and broken in half..., which would most likely only be caused by something mechanical like a filter. That doesn't look like any disease I've ever seen. Regardless, sorry for this unfortunate loss!

Thank you! Sharp eyes on this one rainlemongrass! He’s awesome.

 

Sorry to be kind of gruesome, but to me it looks like he got smashed and broken in half..., which would most likely only be caused by something mechanical like a filter. That doesn't look like any disease I've ever seen. Regardless, sorry for this unfortunate loss!

The openings are 2mm slats on the penguin filter. He’d never be able to get in. He’s been swimming off for a few days but his spine was straight, I’ve been watching him closely. And all I have is a heater, an air stone and that filter. I’m honestly stumped.

 

I can’t do much but calling on fishlore friends I can handle. I’m so sorry you lost this little one. Is there anything it could’ve gotten injured in, on, behind?
And I was trying to call on more peeps but I lost my connection. Again.
How is the other one that was not acting right?

As for the girl, I’ve been expecting to find her dead for a while but she’s hanging on. Her abdomen is concaved and she hardly eats. She’s had a couple hundred babies now and the males ignore her completely now. I suspect she’s just aged from all the pregnancies. She used to be quite an aggressive swimmer and feeder but now she’s slow and uninterested. Not sick though as far as I can tell. I can post a picture tomorrow for your hubby to look at if you’d like to give me some insight on that as well. Maybe a food I can give to supplement the nutrients lost in pregnancies or something?

 

Please post a pic. My Big Momma died about a month after her last bunch. Only three ended up making it. Miss my Momma.
But let’s see if we can help your old lady.

 

Please post a pic. My Big Momma died about a month after her last bunch. Only three ended up making it. Miss my Momma.
But let’s see if we can help your old lady.

She’s hard to see with the black tail against a dark background but you can tell her abdomen is super flat. She used to be the chubbiest of the bunch, I had her for 2 months before she started having babies, back when she was much smaller. It’s weird to see her so frail looking. Her tail looks good though. No nips and a nice big fan, with a strong black colour, not fading.

 

She’s hard to see with the black tail against a dark background but you can tell her abdomen is super flat. She used to be the chubbiest of the bunch, I had her for 2 months before she started having babies, back when she was much smaller. It’s weird to see her so frail looking. Her tail looks good though. No nips and a nice big fan, with a strong black colour, not fading.

Is she eating?

 

Please post a pic. My Big Momma died about a month after her last bunch. Only three ended up making it. Miss my Momma.
But let’s see if we can help your old lady.

And I’m sorry to hear you lost your girl. The guppies are for my young sons to watch and enjoy as well as myself. “Save the babies!!!” always brings excitement as they count the fry we would catch and release into the mesh breeder box. She was always a ferocious eater of any of her own or others fry. We had a few fights her and I over many a fry.

 

Is she eating?

Yes. But not with the same enthusiasm. She used to eat like each meal was her last, nearly jumping clear out of the water. Now she just skims around.

 

Yes. But not with the same enthusiasm. She used to eat like each meal was her last, nearly jumping clear out of the water. Now she just skims around.

Poor thing. Have you tried special treats? Extremely finely chopped green peas? Blood worms?

And I don’t know why but my guppies don’t see their fry as food. I had to get my danio back to help! Lol

 

Poor thing. Have you tried special treats? Extremely finely chopped green peas? Blood worms?

And I don’t know why but my guppies don’t see their fry as food. I had to get my danio back to help! Lol

No, I haven’t but I can try tomorrow. I’ve got blood worms for the puffers. I can do peas. I only have frozen atm, should I steam them before I chop them?

My other girls don’t eat them, but she goes wild when the fry are born. It even makes her blood hungry and she nearly choked on a month old fry until it wriggled back out of her mouth. That was a touch too disturbing for me. Her last batch she ate all but the 5 I caught. She ate until she was so full that they started falling back out of her mouth a while later, all mangled fry, spines broken. It was also borderline traumatizing. I get fact of life but that was a little extreme!!

 

No, I haven’t but I can try tomorrow. I’ve got blood worms for the puffers. I can do peas. I only have frozen atm, should I steam them before I chop them?

My other girls don’t eat them, but she goes wild when the fry are born. It even makes her blood hungry and she nearly choked on a month old fry until it wriggled back out of her mouth. That was a touch too disturbing for me. Her last batch she ate all but the 5 I caught. She ate until she was so full that they started falling back out of her mouth a while later, all mangled fry, spines broken. It was also borderline traumatizing. I get fact of life but that was a little extreme!!

True motherhood. Evil little thing.
Glad you mentioned the frozen peas. I put the amount I need in a bowl and fill with water. Then let them thaw enough to peel them. Super easy so why have I not done mine yet? And you can hold one in your hand and run it under the water for just a few seconds then peel and chop. I’ve got a pint to peel so I’d best get busy.
Keep us posted? Please?

 

Back to the original topic.

That fish is mangled. With no big fish in the tank, and a fish proof filter, I can’t tell you how but I have no doubt that is trauma, not an illness.

Tail looks mangled as well.

You mentioned a pea puffer?

Wasn’t in the guppy tank?

I really don’t think disease or over eating.

 

This is a long shot, but could he have been crushed under something? A fallen rock ornament or something?

 

This is a long shot, but could he have been crushed under something? A fallen rock ornament or something?

My thoughts.

But you said it first

 

Back to the original topic.

That fish is mangled. With no big fish in the tank, and a fish proof filter, I can’t tell you how but I have no doubt that is trauma, not an illness.

Tail looks mangled as well.

You mentioned a pea puffer?

Wasn’t in the guppy tank?

I really don’t think disease or over eating.

Thanks for the reply. I have a separate pea puffer tank, so they can’t hurt anyone. I am still stumped. I didn’t have anything besides plants in the tank at the time, I’d removed everything the week prior and he was out of harms way during the cleaning. I’m always paranoid careful when I’m moving things around because I have a plecco in there as well and he won’t move for anything unless it’s his idea so I’m always watching to make sure no one is hiding anywhere when I’m working in the tank. I took one look at his sideways floating body and wondered right away how he could have broken his spine. His tail was still perfectly intact. He was a lyretail with a completely colorlesstail except the orange and yellow streaks at the top and bottom of the tail fin.