HELP flashing guppies in cycling 5g fish tank

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

Guppylover3x

Fish Addict
Tank of the Month 🏆
Joined
Jan 8, 2019
Messages
717
Reaction score
141
Location
UK
I bought 3 male guppies 5 days ago and I have noticed flashing on rocks and plants. One of the males top fin has been changing colour and turns black also I have noticed a more whiter edge to his tail. Another red guppy’s tail has developed a more blackish edge and the third guppy has developed a blue dot on both sides, this almost looks like a dot of blue ink along with a whitish top fin. I have heard guppies can change colouration when stressed I’m not sure if this is true or not. The tank was set up for 48 hours before adding fish and they were acclimated correctly for around 30 minutes. They are nipping at each other like male guppies do, one of the males has had his tail nipped yesterday which has unfortunately caused a split. I am hoping this doesn’t turn into finrot. I have been carrying out water changes the first 20% after the fish had settled for 48 hours, added filter boost, stress coat tap safe, along with evolution aqua pure aquarium that aims to break down ammonia and nitrates. Due to the flashing continuing I carried out a 50% water change yesterday still adding stress coat. They are currently in a 5 gallon tank (19 litres) with a heater, filter, air pump, and live plants. Any help is appreciated! Thank you.
 
Last edited:
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

If you can post some pictures of the fish it will help us work out what is going on.
Set your camera's resolution to its lowest setting so the images should be small enough to fit on here.

---------------------------
Check the fish for any small white dots on their body or fins. The spots/ dots will be about the size of a grain of salt. If there are no white spots then turn the tank light off and shine a torch on the fish. See if they have a gold/ yellow sheen to their body or fins.

If they have white spots/ dots then they have whitespot or ich. If they have a yellow/ gold sheen then they have velvet or Oodinium.

---------------------------
Because it is a new tank you should only feed the fish a couple of times each week. The fish will not starve but the less food going into the tank, the less ammonia that will be produced and the better it will be for the fish. Once the tank has cycled (in about 4-5 weeks) you can feed more often but keep it down until then.
 
Hi many thanks for your reply! I was thinking it may be ich because a few dots have appeared on one of the guppies as you can see from the attached photographs these don’t look like the sort of white spots you’d see with disease more like colouration. Please let me know if you require more photos their such fast swimmers I managed to get a few. I have currently fed around 2/3 flakes per day so far but now I know I will miss a feed today and cut down. Thank you!
 

Attachments

  • 54E83EC0-3721-4716-9D84-DB5310A8158C.jpeg
    54E83EC0-3721-4716-9D84-DB5310A8158C.jpeg
    192.7 KB · Views: 119
  • E00B69D8-379D-4D0F-B54C-5942216C86A1.jpeg
    E00B69D8-379D-4D0F-B54C-5942216C86A1.jpeg
    236.1 KB · Views: 121
  • 4EC0157A-7782-47EE-9579-0EBBD97B8CC1.jpeg
    4EC0157A-7782-47EE-9579-0EBBD97B8CC1.jpeg
    199.1 KB · Views: 119
  • 7EDC8192-5B20-419C-AB1B-D84A1DFBC171.jpeg
    7EDC8192-5B20-419C-AB1B-D84A1DFBC171.jpeg
    168.9 KB · Views: 121
  • 9C411450-08E9-43CF-A415-CD63A081515A.jpeg
    9C411450-08E9-43CF-A415-CD63A081515A.jpeg
    199.3 KB · Views: 116
  • D7630709-6508-4310-9053-690867A0B924.jpeg
    D7630709-6508-4310-9053-690867A0B924.jpeg
    231 KB · Views: 131
  • 6773D523-3BC4-4366-92A7-AC81B1FDA0E3.jpeg
    6773D523-3BC4-4366-92A7-AC81B1FDA0E3.jpeg
    240.9 KB · Views: 128
  • 25153CC2-EF41-466A-A51B-4DBB59959940.jpeg
    25153CC2-EF41-466A-A51B-4DBB59959940.jpeg
    216.3 KB · Views: 129
  • 1EEE4893-9207-4167-86F7-0A9A8AD1DA5D.jpeg
    1EEE4893-9207-4167-86F7-0A9A8AD1DA5D.jpeg
    192.4 KB · Views: 108
  • 7A602994-5EEC-4B61-8983-6A14464BC545.jpeg
    7A602994-5EEC-4B61-8983-6A14464BC545.jpeg
    298.8 KB · Views: 120
  • 5F31D8E5-DD93-48AD-9FD4-0E2C95D1062F.jpeg
    5F31D8E5-DD93-48AD-9FD4-0E2C95D1062F.jpeg
    186.8 KB · Views: 125
  • 4D926C3A-649E-467F-9235-6DF8AAE6F854.jpeg
    4D926C3A-649E-467F-9235-6DF8AAE6F854.jpeg
    191.1 KB · Views: 122
I have edited the post, apologies not sure why they didn’t work the first time.
 
Update - I have just checked water parameters
No3 - 25
No2 - 0
GH - 18
KH - 10
PH - 7.2
Cl2 - 0.8
 
Unfortunately strip testers don't include ammonia and this is the first thing to show up. You need to get an ammonia tester as soon as possible. Since the tank was set up only 48 hours before you got the fish you are doing a fish-in cycle, and ammonia will be going up quickly in a 5 gallon tank. Until you have an ammonia tester you need to work on the assumption that you have a fair amount of ammonia being made by the fish and do daily water changes of at least 75%. This will not harm the fish provided you add a conditioner (dechlorinator) to the new water, and warm the new water to roughly the same as the tank - checking with your hand will get the temperature close enough.
Once you have an ammonia tester, test for both ammonia and nitrite every day and do a water change every time you get a reading above zero for either of them.

The first part of this link explains what happens when fish are put into a tank. The rest is instructions on how to cycle the tank before getting fish, so as you already have fish you can ignore that part. http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/
 
Thank you for the feedback. I am currently waiting on ammonia test kit to arrive through delivery these should be here by Friday. The ones I have don’t seem to be working unfortunately so I have been unable to test. I am glad to be informed that I can do water changes of 75% per day. I will update soon, Thanks again appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Do you have a normal white light you can put on the tank when you take the pictures?
I can't ID anything under weird lights.
 
They are currently in a fluval spec so lighting is very bright. I have turned of the LED and taken some photographs however they are not brilliant and with flash on they wouldn’t keep still. The first pictures may be of more benefit. Thank you for your help.
 

Attachments

  • 753777C1-79DE-4211-8DBE-2226BFDF0E7B.jpeg
    753777C1-79DE-4211-8DBE-2226BFDF0E7B.jpeg
    81.3 KB · Views: 118
  • BB2B8D19-9EB2-465C-B427-F81FAC0678D2.jpeg
    BB2B8D19-9EB2-465C-B427-F81FAC0678D2.jpeg
    77.2 KB · Views: 115
  • 89B3A890-0B47-458C-9A65-4D7468D48D16.jpeg
    89B3A890-0B47-458C-9A65-4D7468D48D16.jpeg
    85.3 KB · Views: 121
  • 8B78A109-FA2C-4F66-AA70-FF96DB02BC69.jpeg
    8B78A109-FA2C-4F66-AA70-FF96DB02BC69.jpeg
    84.5 KB · Views: 114
  • 0FC7D547-4715-4F58-9F2D-B98B8F03057E.jpeg
    0FC7D547-4715-4F58-9F2D-B98B8F03057E.jpeg
    83.5 KB · Views: 118
  • 884074F7-5AC2-4022-97A9-7084B6ECD983.jpeg
    884074F7-5AC2-4022-97A9-7084B6ECD983.jpeg
    116.3 KB · Views: 114
  • 2E8866D2-32BC-4D35-A267-22EB87A6324D.jpeg
    2E8866D2-32BC-4D35-A267-22EB87A6324D.jpeg
    105.9 KB · Views: 119
  • CB178179-F436-42A6-BC70-21A447C641E4.jpeg
    CB178179-F436-42A6-BC70-21A447C641E4.jpeg
    151.3 KB · Views: 105
  • 4FFE1288-EA76-4785-88A1-DFAE21044E89.jpeg
    4FFE1288-EA76-4785-88A1-DFAE21044E89.jpeg
    126.5 KB · Views: 120
  • 81C7CFFD-594F-4475-9C73-33652124A657.jpeg
    81C7CFFD-594F-4475-9C73-33652124A657.jpeg
    146.4 KB · Views: 102
  • 27BC6A90-3103-4460-80D9-A8E88C13C5E0.jpeg
    27BC6A90-3103-4460-80D9-A8E88C13C5E0.jpeg
    90.6 KB · Views: 138
  • 9BEDED57-2DBF-4C06-BDD2-B9A605A88947.jpeg
    9BEDED57-2DBF-4C06-BDD2-B9A605A88947.jpeg
    190.2 KB · Views: 144
I have edited the last photos, please let me know if this is any improvement. Thank you.
 
They don't look like they have whitespot (Ich) but there are other protozoan infections that cause fish to rub on objects.

Costia, Chilodonella & Trichodina all cause fish to rub on objects. infected fish will develop cream, white or grey patches over their body.

----------------------
You can try adding salt to the tank.
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.
 
Hi, many thanks for your response. Would you advice to start putting in aquarium salt straight away? Also could the salt effect the guppies? I have heard they can be quite sensitive to salt. As stated I haven’t seen white patches as such but I have definitely been seeing some colouration change to white. Thank you again.
 
guppies are fine with salt.

if you think they have an infection then add salt now. Use the dose rate recommended above.
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top