Bloated Male Guppy

[cowgirluntamed]

I have a 10 gallon tank with 7 male guppies. I had fed them only once a day but then switched to twice a day feedings with NutriDiet Tropical Flakes. The reason for the switch is that they are a bit more territorial than I thought they'd be without females and they are nipping each others tails.
 
Well, my yellow cobra guppy, TC, has always been a tiny bit more chubby than the rest. The other guppies like to chase him the most, always have(maybe him having a lighter colored body makes them think he's female?). Anyway, I tried peas two days in a row and I'm pretty sure he got some both times. But he's still really really fat. This has only been for a few days now that I've noticed this. He was also just sitting at the bottom of the tank when I noticed it but he hasn't done that now. No scales are sticking out. He only seems a tiny bit sluggish but not by much. He LOVES to eat still. He also still displays a bit too. Not sure when he(or any of them) has pooped last as I hardly ever catch it when they do.
 
I did feed a little flake food today and will try peas again. Should I just fast them and keep doing peas or should I seperate him? I have a 5 gallon I can set up for emergencies if I need to. Or could this possibly be a bisexual male/female guppy(not sure if there is a true name for it) that may have fry inside of him? I read a few threads that mentioned them....He definitely looks all male to me but apparently that doesn't matter sometimes. I don't want him to die, but not sure what the best route would be to go. When he eats he does seem to scoot at the very top surface instead of dipping down just below till he sees a piece. Could he just be swallowing too much air? I do eventually want to set up a much bigger tank for these guys and add females for them. But until then the 10 gallon is all I have for them. If you need any more info please let me know. He looks healthy except for being so fat! Also, here is a video I took to show it, hopefully you can see and sorry for the background tv noise! It looks better smaller as I took it with a cheap smartphone. Not a very good camera.
 

 
Thanks for any and all help! I'm just not sure what else to try since the first two things of peas didn't work.
   Kristen

 

[AmtotheBurr]

That video is super hard to make out the fish and his belly. /
Hopefully someone can help with your guppy question and I wish you the best

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Yeah...they just don't like to stay still..and it's a crappy camera on the phon...lol. And any time I get near the tank they go crazy thinking it's feeding time! And whoever deleted my accidental 2nd post...thanks!!!
  Kristen

 

[cowgirluntamed]

He pooped! I just happened to glance over there and saw he was pooping. At the very ends of it(both ends) looked white or green(pea maybe?) but in the middle(most of it), was dark brown. Hopefully that's a good sign! I may just try fasting for a full day and see what happens....hopefully he'll be ok!
  Kristen

 

[cowgirluntamed]

OK, I saw him poop again just now. I ended up turning the grateful a couple of degrees from 77 to 79. It was white stringy poo except right at the very top(where it was coming out). That was really thick and not quite as white as the rest was. I also fed some crushed up baby shrimp(not brine, something that came in a 3pck container of food from Walmart). So hopefully he's on the right track. Everybody else looks fine. So hopefully it's not parasites!
Kristen

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Anybody? I am going to put this guy in a 5 gallon hospital tank. I would like to try an Epsom salt treatment but I'm unsure how much to add. I don't believe it's parasites because he is still eating. After the last poop I saw(mentioned above) he seemed to swim a little better. But he's still very fat. The other guppies chase him a lot as I think they think he's a female since he's yellow. Anyway, any suggestions would be helpful!
Kristen

 

[guppiegirlie]

I wouldn't worry too much, he's maybe just a fatty!

Just keep an eye on him.

Do you have anything else in the tank with them? A few look like their tails are being nipped, males can be quite territorial, also if in the future you ate wanting to add females a ratio of 2/3 females per male maybe more in a big group like yours is best.

I personally would return two so you have 5 and see how you get on. Also try varying their diet.

You can get frozen or live foods from most LFS, mine love brine shrimp and blood worms.

And don't feed them one day out of the week. (I usually don't feed mine on water change day)

Other than being a bit off a chunk he looks OK from what I can see.

Keeps us posted on how he gets on

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Thanks guppygirl. They are nipping each others fins unfortunately. I plan on(not sure how long it will take) to get a 50 gallon tank and get them at least 2 girls a piece. And maybe some Cory cats and danios. Not sure yet. The only thing in the tank is a couple of before snails plus some pond snails. I know he's been chubby before but not like this. I may go ahead and separate him just in case so he's less stressed. Poor thing gets picked on a bunch. I'm going to get some daphnia and feed them that once or twice a week. I do also have blood worms for every once in a while. Thanks again!
Kristen

 

[guppiegirlie]

They will love a 50g, I have some little false julii Cory's they're such little characters!

Just beware that with a tank full of male and female guppys you're going to have a LOT of fry!!

Sounds like you have it sussed, good luck!

Hope the little guy is OK and you will have to keep us updated!

 

[cowgirluntamed]

None of the pet stores here had daphnia! Stupid people. Lol. Ordered some of that and spirulina brine shrimp and tubifex worms(freeze dried from hikari). And a sponge filter to replace the internal one I don't like on that 5 gallon. But it will have to work until I get the other in. So I haven't set him up yet but will in the morning after work. I think I may add 1/2 teaspoon of Epsom salt to that tank too just to see if it helps him. Don't think I'd go for more than one tsp. And no more than a week. I'll keep you posted! (As for fry for the 50, that's what I wanted the danios for. Maybe they will help keep population in check a bit more! Lol.)
Kristen

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Finally got him moved to his own five gallon. I let the cartridge(all I have at the moment, internal filter going to be replaced with a sponge filter when it comes in) soak in the main tank for an hour or so. Don't know if that helped. And I put maybe not quite half of original tank water in it and then fresh water. I'm going to let him acclimate for a couple of days and maybe then try half a teaspoon of Epsom salt if another pea doesn't work. Here are a couple of more videos that show him a bit better.

https/youtu.be/x8xS295CHNw

https/youtu.be/mTor_DVItAY


Hope those links work. Typing this from my tablet. I'll continue updating hopefully on his progress!

Kristen

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Well, so far he still has bloat. I had thought he had gotten a bit skinnier after eating a pea but wasn't for sure. Fasted him a day and then gave him one baby shrimp(not sure what it's called, it's not brine shrimp though I know that). And he got fat again. He's also been in epsom salt for 2 days now. Well, one and a half...I only put in 1/2 a teaspoon two days in a row so as not to put too much shock on him. He HAS pooped some and it's been white. But other than the bloat and white poop..he seems perfectly fine. Swims fine, albeit a bit awkwardly looking at times since he's fat though not much to really notice if you haven't been watching him a LOT like I have. Swims all over the 5 gallon tank now and even seems a bit more perky since he's not getting picked on by the rest. I ordered a better filter(sponge) for this tank and some different kinds of food which include daphnia. He still LOVES to eat. I am going to fast him I think until I get them and only give him very very tiny bits maybe every other day. So next Tuesday or Wednesday I'll probably do a good water change for him(50%) to start to get some of the salt out. Then wait a few days and maybe do another one again. And then just see where he goes from there. I can always repeat the treatment if nothing else and maybe actually do 1 1/2 teaspoons next time. (The tank isn't completely filled with this internal filter so I wanted to be careful on salt dosage.) If anybody has any other suggestions they'd be welcome because I'm at a loss! It doesn't seem like worms since he still wants to eat...I'm pretty sure it's not dropsy for that reason either and he doesn't look pineconed at all. Just fat. Not anything to do with his swim bladder because he swims just fine. Seems to be breathing fine as well. He moves around his tank good, maybe slightly less active since he's in it by himself now and not being chased. But he interacts with me and LOVES trying to challenge my little flashlight. Lol. Anyway, that's the update so far. I'll keep everybody posted. (Oh, and the only thing I could possibly think of is maybe he at a pond/bladder snail? They came into my tank with plants that I ordered. But he's not blocked, but could a shell be irritating his stomach or something? Heard on a video that too much mucous in digestive tract can cause white poop but wasn't sure.)
   Kristen

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Ack!!! I just saw a white worm gliding over the glass of the 10 gallon my bloated guppy came from! I was too mesmerized watching it that I didn't get a picture or anything. I'm not sure if it was a planaria as I didn't really look at its head. It glided like the pond snails do on the glass, was white, and also at one point partially came off glass and then went back on and glided again. It wasn't very long, maybe about as long as a cut fingernail(maybe a bit bigger). It wasn't thin and squiggly looking like pics/vids showed the detritus worms are, but not sure if this is planaria or something else? If you think I should post this separate from my bloated guppy I can but since I pulled him out of that tank I didn't know if that could be something causing the bloat? The rest of the guppies look fine. Before snails seem fine. What can I do??
Kristen

 

[cowgirluntamed]

He's still bloated...*sigh*. Eating though, swimming good. I got the daphnia so I'm tryin to give him a few of those a day. I've seen him poop some, but it's not the regular fish poop type. It's at least a light tan color now more than white. Should I just wait and see and keep him in hospital tank or should I try worming him? I had fasted him for a day and a half and I never saw him poop at all so I got scared and started feeding him again. The peas I've given him never did seem to work. The epsom salt didn't work either. Is there an internal parasite med that I could put in the tank and not soak food in? Or would I have to soak food? I don't really now what else to try really. He seems healthy except for the bloat and the poo being funky. (Oh, and the poo I've recently seen has been really tiny small, not the longer stuff that regular fish have).
 
Anyway, here are the tank parameters before I did my water change today.
5 gallon, one male guppy. Temp 79F. bare bottom. new sponge filter put in yesterday.(Only took the internal filter out today, but doubt it had much time to seed the sponge anyway, it was only a cartridge filter which is why I changed it.)
ph-8.2
Am-0.50
Ni-0
Na-10
KH-13
GH-25
 
Am and GH were why I did a 50%(if not a tiny bit more) water change today. With the unseeded filter I gotta watch him a lot better since this is basically a fish in cycle I guess though I was hoping that tank water I had started it with would have helped but I guess 1/3 a tank of it wasn't enough. And the epsom salt made it really really hard! I was amazed when I got THAT reading. Does regular aquarium salt get readings like that? I almost thought of trying some of that just to see if it would do anything. Aquarium salt was the only thing that got rid of the columnaris(or a fungus just like it) on my tetras. Only thing that worked :s.
 
So that's where I'm at right now. Still wanting to try to fix him! I'm not gonna give up unless he starts to.
  Kristen

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Did a 50% water change yesterday and today. Emailed api and asked them if they thought the general cure would work and also if I could use melafix and pimafix to see if anything would happen. The general cure I had to order so its on the way, the other two I have already. Started treating with those today to see what happens. Still seems to have white stringy poo but a longer piece came out of him today after I added the meds. I figured until I got the other stuff that it won't hurt to use these. And if these work, great! I'll still keep you guys posted on what happens. (By the way, after the last water change and before the one yesterday, I tested again and the gh was down to 20. So I'm hoping these last two changes took it down to normal range of 12ish. I have hard water.) Does anybody know if pimafix or melafix might change test results from the api test kit? I don't think it would but figured I'd ask just in case since I'm using them now.