Guppy Fry With Clamped Fins

guppylover86 · Jul 19, 2012

Hi. I have a small tank that has guppy fry in it. Just fed them and noticed 2 of them have clamped tail fins. I have taken them out of the tank but know what do i do? is it contagious or are they born with it? Any help is greatly appreciated!!

fluttermoth · Jul 19, 2012

How big is the tank, does it have a cycled filter and have you tested the water?

comocrayfish5 · Jul 19, 2012

i would do some water changes

guppylover86 · Jul 19, 2012

Thanks!The tank is 2.5 gal it is filtered and i tested the water and everything is fine(liquid test kit)I will start some water changes. also there are only like 7 fry in the tank.

comocrayfish5 · Jul 20, 2012

my friend has a 2.5 gal for her fry and sometime she has these weird outbreaks of sickness, same symptoms. she does water changes every day for a while and the fish are back to normal. its amazing what water changes do! i am hoping for the best with doing water changes for my sick goldfish (slight dropsy). they say salt will help so i am putting that in, which might be good for your tank too :good:

crazyforcordoras · Jul 20, 2012

Personally i would use a bigger tank, i used a 10 gallon for a fry tank. Much more disease resistant, and you can keep more fry in it.

guppylover86 · Jul 20, 2012

@comocrayfish5 I went to a lfs yesterday and I was talking to the owner about my fry and she also advised salt, she actually gave me some salt blocks to add to the tank for free. I am going to try and get a bigger fry tank for any future babies, when I got the female guppy she was already preggers and I did not know that. I am new to the fish world and advise anyone to read before they buy because alot of lfs will tell you anything to get you to buy the tank and fish all at the same time...at least that was my experience...I am stuck in the middle of a fish in cycle with my 5.5 gal tank right now

comocrayfish5 · Jul 20, 2012

i do agree that a 10gal would be an ideal size for now, but if you cant get one just stick with the water changes once/a few times a week

Akasha72 · Jul 20, 2012

I change about 50% of the water on the fry tank daily. I lose the odd one now and then but in general they turn out healthy and grow very well.

For some reason fry do better with daily water changes

guppylover86 · Jul 21, 2012

Thanks everyone! Have been doing the water changes and all my water stats are fine. They look pretty good, still only the 2 with the clamped fins. How often should I feed them? Right now I crush up a very small pinch of flake food 2-3 times a day. It is really not a whole lot each time they pretty much finish it all in a couple of minutes. I was reading on here and saw where if they eat too much their head will explode?1?? I don't want any exploding babies... :no:

Akasha72 · Jul 21, 2012

guppylover86 said:
I was reading on here and saw where if they eat too much their head will explode?1?? I don't want any exploding babies...

WHA!!

I've never heard anything like it before!! I have no idea where you read that but I would say it is absolute rubbish.

Feeding 2-3 times a day is perfect. You can feed them finely crushed flake as you are doing or you can feed them a specialist baby food - either way, so long as they are eating and growing it sounds like they are doing just fine.

My fry eat TetraMin baby. They also get a tiny bit of Hikari first bites now and then (for a change more than anything) and recently I tried them on some frozen food. It was Artemis I think. It's tiny tiny bits not much bigger than fry food and they loved it.

It sounds to me like you are doing all the right things. Just keep up with the water changes and all should be well