Deworming Guppies - Their Reactions

[GuppyGoddess]

Hi,

One of my guppies has been thinning out and a few days back I noticed white stringy feces. In the tank, in addition to him are three other guppies: one preg female, one male teenager, and one smallish one.

After dosing the tank with Jungle's Parasite water cleanse and also feeding Jungle's parasite food, the one with the feces is having problems swimming. He's at the bottom of the tank and hovering vertically, so I guess he's not going to make it. The only time he swims up is when he sees me.

Question is, the other three are acting normal. Can I anticipate that they probably do not have worms or if they are infected, that they're not so much so that they'll end up later becoming very infested and dying too since they don't seem fazed by the medications?

Just for reference, the jungle food is fed 3 days per week for 4 weeks so I take it that it will help keep any worms from developing from eggs in the tank. I can add Levamisole to the water, also, just in case.

Thanks for help.

 

[WILDER]

Internal parasites can damage the swim bladder and other organs.
Once a fish is infested with internal parasites the damage has been done.
The med to late but you have to treat the tank to save the rest.
Try him on some shelled peas.


Yes you have to retreat to kill the young.
I would follow the med instructions.
I wouldn't any the levaimsole just now, I would do the full course of the jungle parasite med.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

Thanks. Last night (after posting I noticed) the one with the heavy festation was being attacked by the teenage fish. I took him out and put him back in about 20 minutes later and he swam around for a bit and then went to the bottom of the tank where again the teenager began picking at him. I took him out and euthanized him. He didn't seem like he was going to make it and I didn't want any of the other fish to eat at him (or have my son see him dying).

I'll keep treating the rest of the fish. They seem fine, but the preg one doesn't look as rounded as she did yesterday.

Since I'm in middle of treating the tank, I'm going to pick up another female today because then she can also be treated in case she has worms. The worse thing would be to treat the whole tank and then bring another fish who may have worms. I'd like to have a fully treated tank and then hope that the babies born are healthy.

 

[WILDER]

Bless Him. R.I.P.

Internal parasites can also cause bloating as well as looking skinny.
Also females can pass internal parasites onto there young when there inside them.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

Also females can pass internal parasites onto there young when there inside them.

Yeah, I figured the females would pass the parasites on. Hopefully by treating them, the babies will be treated. The LFS had a ton of small ones in stock. Teenagers for $1.00 and medium size for $2.99 and I bought three.

It'd be ideal to figure out why the fish keep getting sick and having to be euthanize, however, I doubt I ever will. If the worm meds don't work, as long as the parasites aren't passed into my other tanks, I'll just face the fact that guppies aren't for me, but keep replacing them for my son's sake. lol

(I use seperate syphon, etc., for the guppy tank, so fingers crossed that other tanks are clear)

 

[WILDER]

I never had any luck with guppys.
It's best really to find a good breeder of them.
Lfs bought ones don't seem to be in great condition.