Guppies Dropping Like Flies

[horsepie1]

I've had my 5 gallon tank set up for around 3 months-I just recently got a new batch of guppies from my local pet store. I bought 3 females and a male. I came home on March 25 and found that my female guppy was dead and she had a cloudy sunstance near near gravid spot. Then March 26th (Thursday) my very pregnant guppy died shorty after giving birth( im guessing) and i found 9 fry. I moved them to a new bowl and 4 of them have died. All my fish seem to have a dark virus invading them (you can mainly see it in the females becuase they are tranparent like) in my females the virus looks guess like algea on there ribs. Then they start swimming lopsided and die. Then I lost two more guppies. I gave some to my friend as an early birthday presnant about a week before this all happened. Then one of hers i gave her proceeded to die. Then another which was perfectly fine and healthu 20 minutes before. My guppies are showing no symtoms till right before they.. HELP HELP HELP

 

[Colin_T]

they have a bacterial infection. You can try treating with Tetracycline based medications which you will have to get from a vet. Or you can try salt treatment whereby you add 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt or swimming pool salt (aquarium salt) to the tank. If the fish continue to die after 2 days you add another 2 heaped tablespoons of salt.
Sometimes you can save them but often you cannot.
If you use salt make sure there are no corydoras catfish or discus in the tank because they don't like salt.
If you use the salt treatment leave the salt level high for a couple of weeks and then if the fish are ok you can start doing daily 10% water changes to dilute the salt level. After a couple of weeks of 10% water changes you can increase the size of the water change to 20-30%.

New Guppies should always be quarantined for at least 2 weeks (preferably 4weeks) before they are added to a new tank. That way if they are carrying any diseases they get sick in the quarantine tank and your other fish stay healthy.