Guppies not looking too good.

[730.ii]

I've had these guppies for about 5 months from a friend. When he gave them to me, he notified me that these fish were already pretty old, around 1 1/2 years, and they were looking fine until this month, which is around the 2 year mark. One male has a clamped tail, my three others are looking fine and the female isn't looking too great either. I searched up the life expectancy of guppies and it said 2 years which is the age of my guppies now. Is it normal for a guppy's health to deteriorate like this near the end of their life expectancy?

 

[Robert Geelan]

Can you please upload a picture? That would help very much

 

[730.ii]

Can you please upload a picture? That would help very much

I can't seem to get a clear picture, but the female hasn't moved in a long time, all my males are swimming around normally, but one is very thin with a clamped tail.

 

[Robert Geelan]

OK, I So two things might be happening, she is in labor and is soon delivering, or She is soon going to die of old age. If she does not give birth by tommorow, the best thing to do is make her calm and happy, give her live food and treats, and if she is like this for too long, the best thing to do is to put her to sleep, by add clove oil with water but im not sure thats the mixture so look it up to make sure

 

[730.ii]

OK, I So two things might be happening, she is in labor and is soon delivering, or She is soon going to die of old age. If she does not give birth by tommorow, the best thing to do is make her calm and happy, give her live food and treats, and if she is like this for too long, the best thing to do is to put her to sleep, by add clove oil with water but im not sure thats the mixture so look it up to make sure

OK, thank you so much! I'm quite sure it's due to the old age, as all my fish were from the same brood, all brothers and sisters. Hopefully the remaining fish will live a little longer, but their time is almost up. Thank you for the advice!

 

[Colin_T]

If the fish have clamped fins, it's normally caused by a dirty environment that allows protozoans and bacteria to build up and affect the fish. A pH below 7.0 can also cause problems to livebearers (guppies, mollies, platies, swordtails), as can a general hardness (GH) below 200ppm.

You should check the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, GH and pH and post the results (in numbers) here.

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Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for at least a week.
*NB* Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media in a bucket of tank water. However, if the filter is less than 2 months old, do not wash the media unless the water flow is reduced.

If the GH is below 200ppm, you can add some mineral salts to increase it. Rift Lake water conditioner is the best way to raise the GH.

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You can add some salt to the tank to help kill protozoa and bacteria.
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

If you add salt, you need to add it to the new water when you do water changes.

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The following link has information about what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth knowing. I recommend printing it out and reading it in bed to help fall asleep.
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-to-do-if-your-fish-gets-sick.450268/