Guppies eye fallen out, need help

[animal_man1738]

Around a week ago, I bought about 3 guppies from my local pet store. I have a 55 gallon tank, cycled, with 3 yoyo loaches, 10 various tetras, 3 raspboras and 2 mollies. Yesterday, I noticed that one of my guppies didnt have its left eye, instead it was a disgusting red hole. Its skin was also scabbing and peeling off, and the fish is now yellow instead of white/purple. Despite this, it still swims normally and eats food. I tested the tank, the ammonia is safe, so is the nitrates and nitrites and chlorine, and the pH is what I normally keep it at. I keep the tank at 80 F. Any suggestions- should I hospitalize the one guppy, or leave it be? I don't want this to happen to my two other guppies.

 

[Colin_T]

Can you post a picture of the fish?

Some loaches will attack fish at night and the guppy might have had its eye eaten by the loaches.

Some tetras are renown fin nippers and will chew the tail and fins on fish like guppies and male Bettas. What type of tetras do you have?

Rasboas, most loaches, and all tetras need to be kept in groups of at least 6 (preferable 10 or more) of their own kind.

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Mollies and guppies come from hard water with a GH (general hardness) above 200ppm for guppies and 250ppm for mollies. They should also have a pH above 7.0.

Most tetras, rasboras and loaches come from soft water with a GH below 150ppm and a pH below 7.0.

You can usually find the GH, KH and pH on your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you then take a glass full of tank water to the local pet shop and ask them to test it for you. Write the results down in numbers when they do the test. And ask them what the test results are in (eg: ppm, dGH or something else).

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Do you have many plants in the tank?
Plants give the fish somewhere to hide at night and can help reduce stress during the day. A good plant to try is Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta). It is a floating plant but can also be grown in the substrate. It grows rapidly and provides good cover for the guppies and tetras.

 

[animal_man1738]

Thank you so much for ur help
the tank has a bamboo plant which I added somewhat recently, also has a small leafy plant that I bought at my local pet shop (not sure of the name). Is there any way to make the loaches less aggressive, to prevent this from happening? This is the first time this has happened, and I have had loaches for a while. I have included a picture of the guppy if it helps.

 

[animal_man1738]

Thank you so much for ur help
the tank has a bamboo plant which I added somewhat recently, also has a small leafy plant that I bought at my local pet shop (not sure of the name). Is there any way to make the loaches less aggressive, to prevent this from happening? This is the first time this has happened, and I have had loaches for a while. I have included a picture of the guppy if it helps. View attachment 90541

I have 3 red eyed tetras, 2 penguin tetras, 3 long finned tetras, one cardinal tetra, and 2 glo fish tetras

 

[Colin_T]

You can feed the loaches after turning the tank lights out. That way they will be full during the night and less likely to go after the fish. Increasing the number of loaches can sometimes help reduce aggression but most of the time it's lack of food that causes this.

Red eye tetras are renown fin nippers and cause problems when kept with slow moving fish or fish with long fins. This made worse when there are only a few of them in the tank.

I am not sure what species the long finned tetras are but if they are black widow/ black skirt tetras, they have the same bad habits as the red eye tetras. If the long finned fish is the stripey one in the picture with the guppy, that is a zebra danio and they are pretty peaceful but need to be kept in groups of 10 or more. They also like cool water, around 20-24C.

Personally I would get rid of the red eyes tetras and possibly the long finned tetras depending on their species, then increase the number of the other tetras you have so there are 10 or more of each species.
eg: get 10 more cardinals, 10 more glowlights and 10 more penguin tetras. And maybe grab 3 more loaches.

If you really like the red eyes and long fin tetras then get 7 more of each species so there are 10 of them.

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Have lots of plants in the tank so the fish have somewhere to sleep at night and somewhere to hide during the day if any of the fish get boisterous.

Some good plants to try include Ambulia, Hygrophilla polysperma, H, ruba/ rubra, narrow Vallis, common Amazon sword plant, Water Sprite.

The Water Sprite grows on the surface but can also be grown in the substrate. The other plants should be planted in the gravel.

Have the tank light on for about 12 hours a day and see how the plants do. If you get lots of green algae on the glass then reduce the lighting by an hour and monitor the algae over the next week.

If you don't get any algae then increase the lighting time by an hour and monitor it over a week.

If you get a small amount of algae then the lights are about right.

 

[animal_man1738]

You can feed the loaches after turning the tank lights out. That way they will be full during the night and less likely to go after the fish. Increasing the number of loaches can sometimes help reduce aggression but most of the time it's lack of food that causes this.

Red eye tetras are renown fin nippers and cause problems when kept with slow moving fish or fish with long fins. This made worse when there are only a few of them in the tank.

I am not sure what species the long finned tetras are but if they are black widow/ black skirt tetras, they have the same bad habits as the red eye tetras. If the long finned fish is the stripey one in the picture with the guppy, that is a zebra danio and they are pretty peaceful but need to be kept in groups of 10 or more. They also like cool water, around 20-24C.

Personally I would get rid of the red eyes tetras and possibly the long finned tetras depending on their species, then increase the number of the other tetras you have so there are 10 or more of each species.
eg: get 10 more cardinals, 10 more glowlights and 10 more penguin tetras. And maybe grab 3 more loaches.

If you really like the red eyes and long fin tetras then get 7 more of each species so there are 10 of them.

-------------------------
Have lots of plants in the tank so the fish have somewhere to sleep at night and somewhere to hide during the day if any of the fish get boisterous.

Some good plants to try include Ambulia, Hygrophilla polysperma, H, ruba/ rubra, narrow Vallis, common Amazon sword plant, Water Sprite.

The Water Sprite grows on the surface but can also be grown in the substrate. The other plants should be planted in the gravel.

Have the tank light on for about 12 hours a day and see how the plants do. If you get lots of green algae on the glass then reduce the lighting by an hour and monitor the algae over the next week.

If you don't get any algae then increase the lighting time by an hour and monitor it over a week.

If you get a small amount of algae then the lights are about right.

Thanks so much, this is very helpful. Ill try to build up the population of my tetras over the next few weeks and get some plants for the tank.