Guppy Problems...

Paradise3

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I seem to have guppy problems... Are there any know guppy related diseases? I've lost 3 female guppies and 3 male guppies in the past month. The females were with my female mollies and the mollies are fine and both expecting babies, but the guppies died. Someone please explain.
 
When posting a request for help can you please include the following info

1. Water parameters. (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, PH, temp', Hardness etc)
2. A full description of the fishes symptoms.
3. How often you do water changes and how much.
4. Any chemicals and treatments you add to the water.
5. What tank mates are in the tank.
6. Tank size.
7. Finally Have you recently added any new fish?


You may cut and paste the template below and submit in your post:

Request Help

Tank size:
pH:
ammonia:
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
tank temp:

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

Volume and Frequency of water changes:

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Tank inhabitants:

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):

Exposure to chemicals:

Digital photo (include if possible):
 
I can't copy and paste since I'm on my phone.

SO EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS, IT'S ONLY THE FEMALE GUPPIES NOT THE MOLLIES.

Tank size: 15 Gallons.
PH: 6.8
Ammonia: 0ppm.
Nitrite: 0ppm.
Nitrate: 20ppm.
KH: 3
GH: Unsure.
Tank Temp: 26° C.

Fish Symptoms: Suddenly becoming lethargic and laying on the sand. Looks like they are constantly covered in air bubbles. Not being able to close their mouths fully and red but not swollen gills. Both my male and female guppies suffered the same symptoms but the males are separate and were kept with one male molly who is fine.

Volume and frequency of water changes: 3 Gallons Every 2 weeks.

Chemical additives or media in your tank: None. No treatments or anything.

Tank inhabitants: 3 Female guppies, 2 Female mollies.

Recent additions to your tank(living or decoration): 5 Male Endlers(Forgot to put them before).

Exposure to chemicals: None, unless a possible faint ammount of inncense smoke, and I mean faint because in a different room, counts.

Digital Photo(Include if possible): No photo's to include.
 
It honestly sounds like ammonia poisoning to me. I see your stats read that you have no ammonia, but with those tiny water changes and only every two weeks, I have my doubts that your tests are showing well.

You should be doing at least a 50% water change each week. Guppies are fairly sensitive to water parameters and don't do well in water that isn't really clean.
 
It honestly sounds like ammonia poisoning to me. I see your stats read that you have no ammonia, but with those tiny water changes and only every two weeks, I have my doubts that your tests are showing well.

You should be doing at least a 50% water change each week. Guppies are fairly sensitive to water parameters and don't do well in water that isn't really clean.

See the thing is, I've always, Always, kept my guppies like this... Never any different. I've bred guppies for years and have never had this. If the ammonia is affecting the guppies, shouldn't it be affecting the mollies as well? Mollies and guppies aren't too different except Mollies normally like a bit of salt which mine don't have becuse of the guppies. It was a liquid test kit (Salifert(or something) I think...) that the neighbour let me borrow. I was recommened to get a Salifert kit because they were good which is why I asked her if I could borrow it. Oh, I forgot to mention (Silly me, sorry 'bout that) that when I noticed the first guppy going I upped he W/C's to twice a week to try and save her and the others, but it didn't do anything.
 
Have you changed or added anything in the last month?

Nothing but 5 Male endlers which are all healthy and actively swimming with the mollies who were also living with the female guppies. My friend is saying ould the endlers have been carrying something that only affects guppies but I know of no known fish diseases that only affect guppies, plus there were the males who were in a different tank and only came into contact with the females for 2 and that was about 2-3 weeks before all this started.
 
Google Hemorrhagic Septacimia this is a disease that commonly affects guppies.
I have no first hand experience with it as such but a friend was experiencing similar symptoms in his guppies.
He lost 5 guppies in 3 days with pristine water and no other fish affected.
We put it down to bacterial infection and after research this was the closest thing we could find to explain the deaths.
 
To me the hardness and ph sound to low, as far as im aware guppys are fine with some salt aswell. When i first started fish keeping i had mollies in with the community, they bred and were typical mollies, as time went on they would become more prone to fungal infections and just seem less active than usual even when not carrying an infection. I believe my problem was caused by a few factors, mollies similar to guppys have been subjected to so much inbreeding that they are now a weeker fish and more prone to diseases influenced by stress which can be bought on by incorect water chemistrys, i moved my mollies into a seperate tank, added aquarium salts and increased the hardness to be inline with care sheet recomendations, the result was no more fungal infections and more active happy mollies, my next step will be to slowly remove the salt and see if just the change in water chemistry creates the same effect.

if im not mistaken guppys are generaly bred and kept in a General hardness between 250-300 ppm
 
Salt is not necessary for mollies or guppies. I do agree that hardness is something that guppies can handle and mollies need.

I have my guppies in an extremely similar situation to your water and they are thriving.


If I were you, I would remove the guppies from the tank, if at all possible to treat them separately from the rest of the tank, since they seem to be the only ones affected.
 
This is definitely an odd disease. I have heard of one guppy virus that causes a white ring, then they die. This, though, I don't believe matches any disease I can think of. The air bubble appearance sounds almost like velvet, but you don't mention rapid gill movement and I don't see why they'd be red - or why it would only affect the guppies. Maybe it's a rather rare guppy-specific disease? It is VERY unusual that it infects guppies, yet not the nearly identical Endlers or the mollies which are in the same genus.
I do have to agree, I don't think you should keep mollies in that set-up - especially if they're sailfins (are they sphenops?). Put them in a separate tank and add either baking soda or preferably aquarium salt, 6.8 is a very low pH for many livebearers (other than guppies, Gambusia, & Endlers) in particular mollies.
 
The redness and bubbling does sound like Hemorrahgic Septacimia.
It is internal bleeding so it would explain the redness and possibly the bubbles if they are blister like.
It is common in guppies but not exclusive to them as i believe bettas can also be affected by it.
 
Add baking soda or salt for the mollies!?!? The more the water is changed from your tap conditions the more dangerous every water change will be, because the water will have to match the tank water every time. Also, mollies DO NOT REQUIRE SALT! Mollies can survive in salty conditions, but they do not require it. They do, however, require HARD water.

The easier (and safer thing) to do would be to put some crushed coral into the tank. The crushed coral will slowly dissolve and slowly increase the hardness. (Adding baking soda will also increase the hardness, but extremely fast - far too fast for most fish to survive). Instead the crushed coral will continually dissolve. The lower the pH, the faster it dissolves. This will also raise the pH as it does so. When the pH is higher though it won't dissolve as fast. As far as continual maintenance goes, you just do more frequent, smaller volume water changes. When you notice the amount of the crushed coral decreasing, just add enough to make it the same as the original amount in the tank.
 
I wasn't saying just add some baking soda/salt into the tank, use a measured amount per volume of water in water when you are doing changes to raise gradually GH and pH to proper levels. Adding crushed coral means the tank pH and GH will increase, but it won't change the water you add until it's been in the tank for a time. In addition, every water change will probably decrease the pH drastically if the tap over there is 6.8 (I wish it was at my house), and a .3 change is enough to cause pH shock in relatively hardy fish.
 

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