Guppy Sinking Like A Stone, Help

[scooby132300]

Morning all

I have woke this morning to find one of my guppys keeps sinking, literally like a stone! His belly looks a little fat but apart from that i see nothing wrong and all my other fish are fine. He was ok yesterday this has only happened overnight, any ideas on what i can do?

Thanks in advance
Nicola

 

[dstev]

Sounds like his swim bladder has gone. You can buy a treatment from your LFS, not sure how effective it is though, sounds like its pretty advanced in your case.

 

[scooby132300]

Ok i will get some in vain anyway and see if i can help him, what is this swim bladder and what are the possible causes of it going? I have lost a few guppys lately but they have simply disappeared, i have no idea whats happened

 

[dstev]

Ok i will get some in vain anyway and see if i can help him, what is this swim bladder and what are the possible causes of it going? I have lost a few guppys lately but they have simply disappeared, i have no idea whats happened

The swim bladder is the internal organ that the fish uses to move up and down the water i.e. to control its buoyancy. Not sure what the causes of it going are, could be a disease from poor water quality, ensure you are doing water changes regularly. As for them disappearing, check all your plants and behind any ornaments you have if you think there are any missing, sometimes they are hard to spot. Also do you have anything that is likely to eat the guppy's once they have died? Any decent size catfish, loach or shark may do this as could many other species.

Hope that helps!

 

[WILDER]

Meds only work on swim bladder if it's a bacterial infection of the swim bladder.

Causes of swim bladder are.
Bad water quality, poor diet, to many dried foods, bacterial infection, internal parasites, injury, birth defect, unstable temp.

What do you feed the fish.

 

[scooby132300]

I feed them tropical fish flake food,
as for what fish i have to be honest i dont really know, most of them i rehomed because they needed new homes, the names of the ones i know are:
2 male guppys (i did have 10 guppys)
2 angel fish (i know they are meant to attack guppys but they havent touched them)
5 neon tetras
1 common plec
the fish i dont know they names of are:
2 red fish which look a little like mollies but are small with fat bellys
1 shark looking fish which has a black top half, white bottom half and an orange stripe running down the middle of the two colours, he interests me but seems to be attacking the 2 angel fish, strange because they were in the same tank in their old home, all i have done is rehome them

 

[scooby132300]

edit - shark looking fish has had to go because he was frightening the other fish and i have just rehomed 2 kissing gourama's? sorry dont know how to spell that

 

[WILDER]

How many gallons is the tank.
What are your water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

Need to improve the fish diet with more frozen foods and veg.

Feed some shelled peas.
Cook frozen peas for a few minutes, let cool down and pop out of shell. chop into small pieces and add to thet tank.

You lucky that the angel fish haven't eaten the neons, as they eat them in the wild.

 

[scooby132300]

ooo thats strange, i knew they may go for the guppys but didnt imagine they would touch the neons, al keep an eye on them but all seems calm for now. Thanks for the advice regarding their diet, novice idea to think they would just be fine on flake food forever, al vary it a bit now. Dont think it will save my poorly guppy now but hopefully will prevent future mishaps, thanks a lot x

 

[WILDER]

To many dried foods can lead to constipation and swim bladder problems.

Peas are good for constipation and swim bladder.
I would feed peas at least twice a week.
Also soak there food in the tank water before you let them have the flake food.