Does My Guppy Have Shimmy?

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I have a guppy in a cycled tank, stats are fine.

one guppy doesn't spread it's tail fin out as much as the others, however all other fins are fine. It stays close to the surface and constantly looks like it's swimming fast, but it stays in the same spot and doesn't move.

How can I treat this? Also is it contageous?

EDIT: I don't think the guppy has it, I think it's due to over crowding in the tank

See here: Link

Incidentally I'm awaiting a bigger tank from the pet shop; they didn't have any in last week.

 

[WILDER]

How many gallons or litres is the tank.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats please.
What test kit are you using.

Also you are not allowed to leave links to ther forums I'm afraid.

Get you some info on shimmies.

Shimmies

Symptoms:

This disease is named for the curious behavior seen in afflicted fish. Fish will swim with an odd, shimmying movement of the body. If left untreated, the afflicted fish will become unable to swim and will sit on the bottom, listlessly shimmying. This disease affects mostly livebearers, and particularly Mollies.


Cause:

Cause unkown but may be due to a variety of numerous pathogens, including protozoan, bacterial, and fungal.


Treatment:

Isolate the fish in a hospital tank and increase the temperature to 85�F (27�C). Treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic. Also ensure that the water chemistry is within acceptable ranges. Livebearers' should always be kept in water that has a pH of 7.8 - 8.3 and a hardness of 15�DH+.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I moved him the other day to a separate tank and he's "unclamped" his tail fin. He's just sitting on the bottom in one spot looking like he's swimming. This morning he was following my finger around the tank which is a positive.

Another one of my guppies does the same but not all the time; except he doesn't sit on the bottom, he sits on higher up things within the tank but he does still do a lot of swimming around.


Tank is 7.5 gallons and I have 3 male guppies and 10 red cherry shrimp (I am going to get some more guppies, when I've sorted this problem).

 

[WILDER]

Your tanks overstocked so check water stats. It's the first thing to rule out.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Water stats are fine,

ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 15

(I may have got nitrate and nitrite wrong when I wrote it down; the safer one is the one at 15 and the bad one that we shouldn't have are 0). I just forget when it comes to writing it down lol.

 

[WILDER]

Hows are the fish?

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Sadly he died, but another one is doing the same. I don't think it was shimmy however.

The fish really picked up, and then about an hour later when I went to check on him again, he was dead.

I've got the other one in a breeding net.