Fish Are Dying...pls Help!

[Meggie :)]

One of my female guppies just gave birth a little less than a week ago...a day and a half after she dropped she died. I noticed that her chest was almost like a triangle...kind of like it dipped down to an angle and then back up...kind of hard to explain. And she was pooping white and hiding in the plant, being very solitary, etc when before she was very active. I called my LFS and they said that it was probably just constipation. I tried feeding her peas, but she didn't eat. She died the next day. Well yesterday I noticed that another one of my preggo guppies had the same symptoms. I am doubting that it is constipation now. Does anyone know what I should do? I would treat the tank for internal parasites as a precaution, but I have 12+ baby guppies in the tank less than a week old and I would hate for them to die because of the treatment. I do not have another tank for the time being as a hospital tank or anything.

The tank is ten gallons. It has 2 female balloon mollies, 2 grown female guppies (prob one by tomorrow ), 4 sghost shrimp, and 12+ guppies less than a week old. I have had the tank for more than 3 and a half years. Haven't had chemical problems since the cycling, but I can't tell you the exact water parameters. But I keep the water temperature around 78 degrees. I do 15% weekly water changes and 30-35% monthly ones. All of the fish have been in my tank for than 3 weeks because I just had a case of ick that wiped out my whole tank within days...even though I was treating it. (3 of the shrimp survived so I kept the tank running with just them in it for a few weeks, still treating for the ick so that I could safely add in more fish).

I don't know what to do anymroe...pls help!

 

[KittyKat]

You need water test results, because the amount of ammonia shrimp produce does not compare to what fish would, so your fish have most likely gone through a full fish-in cycle already.

What do you feed your fish, how often? It really does look like constipation from the photos.

 

[Meggie :)]

I feed them omega one fish flakes...I just tested my ammonia and nitrite last week and they were at 0.

 

[KittyKat]

How often do you feed your fish? Are those flakes meaty or not?

 

[Meggie :)]

I feed them usually once or twice a day...but not very much. People say feed them what they can eat in 5 minutes...mine finish eating in less than a minute. Every once and a while I will skip a day on feeding them...I don't know what you mean by meaty? But the ingredients are whole salmon, halibut, seafood mix (including krill, rockfish, and shrimp), wheat flour, wheat gluten, fresh kelp, and a bunch of vitamins. And I have tried feeding them algae flakes but they don't really eat them. Every once and a while I will feed them blood worms...like once a month usually

 

[KittyKat]

I think you can make quite a few improvements to the diet then. The flakes you name do sound "meaty" to me (salmon, halibut, krill, rockfish, shrimp.. there's nothing algae or vegetable like out of those) and frozen foods are also "meaty". Yes, fish do prefer these, just how I like steak.. but eating steak will not do me any good in the long term, just how that food is not any good for your fish on its own. In fact, if I ate only steak, I think exactly the same thing would happen to me as is happening to your fish.

Firstly, I would change the feeding regime a bit:
* as much as they can completely finish in 30 seconds, once per day
* two days per week absolutely no food at all

Then, after a week or so, start introducing the veggie flakes once every other day, as much as they can completely finish in 30 seconds (on top of meaty flakes). Once or twice per week, feed boiled, deshelled, squished, frozen peas instead of veggie flakes. At this point change to no food on only one day per week.

In the long term, you should be feeding a 50/50 or 75/25 mix of meaty foods to veggie foods, and not feeding on one day per week. Frozen foods should replace the meaty food for that day. Peas should replace the veggie foods for that day and make sure you feed peas at least once per week.

 

[Meggie :)]

thank you so much! I have "Sally's seaweed salad" algae...is that okay for the veggie flakes? They are big strips of algae but you are supposed to tear it up a lot. or should I go buy veggie flakes? And also, do constipated guppies get really bloated in their chest really fast and get almost a "triangle corner" to their chest where it dips down? I would get a picture but she won't come out of the house...(part of the decor) I can barely see her. And do constipated fish poop white? and not eat? It's just weird because I've never had this problem before for 3 and a half years and suddenly one guppy gets it then the next day another guppy has it

 

[KittyKat]

thank you so much! I have "Sally's seaweed salad" algae...is that okay for the veggie flakes? They are big strips of algae but you are supposed to tear it up a lot. or should I go buy veggie flakes?

I can't imagine guppies eating neat seaweed.. for the moment, use the peas instead of flake. For the long term, I would switch to a generic flake instead of the stuff you have.. so if you're going out to buy some food anyway, try a small tub of unbranded or any generically branded "tropical" or "goldfish" flake. Then, you can use the remaining meaty flakes as bi-weekly treats to improve colour. If you're feeling adventurous, I can recommend Hikari's Micro Pellets or Micro Wafers on top of the normal flake (pick one which is best suited for size), which you can alternate with normal flake, for variation and, hopefully, a more complete diet. Peas once per week are still a good idea to prevent problems.

And also, do constipated guppies get really bloated in their chest really fast and get almost a "triangle corner" to their chest where it dips down?

I have seen this happen before, but that's more commonly a result of food which expands after it is eaten (which yours is not).

And do constipated fish poop white? and not eat?

Yes, they sometimes do.

It's just weird because I've never had this problem before for 3 and a half years and suddenly one guppy gets it then the next day another guppy has it

It could have been caused by anything as little as change in temperature or the exact quantity of food you give.

 

[Meggie :)]

okay she's getting worse by the hour.. And I can't get her to come out of the house...and now to make things even WORSE is that I think she has FIN ROT....I have horrible luck with fish...i'm starting to thing that all of this is my fault because I'm doing something wrong and killing my fish But that's weird because I just treated the tank with melafix when I added her and the other new fish (and it also treats fin rot) should I treat again? I'm going to visit my grandparents for almost two weeks but my dad has to stay home for work ...i could ask him to do a bunch of water changes and treatments but i don't want him spending half his time on my tank

This is what she looks like as of right now...she just keeps getting more bloated

 

[This Old Spouse]

Isn't white poo an indication of a bacterial infection? Is OldMan47 out there to give an opinion?

 

[KittyKat]

She also has finrot, so I would dose a generic anti-bacterial/anti-fungal medication which does not kill the filter. I prefer to use eSHa 2000.