Hairy Guppy

[dortiz24]

This morning I went to feed my fish and noticed one of my female guppies looked swollen on her right side. Now yesterday she looked just fine. Nothing wrong with her at all, no odd behavior. Today however, her right fin is shredded completely and the surrounding area looks hairy. Like white little spiky hairs. The swollen area covers the majority of her right side.
I'm sorry I can't take pictures. My fiance is still out of town and has the camera with him.

Anyone have any idea what this is? Is it contagious, deadly?

 

[fourthtimelucky]

Yikes!

Could it be a fungus? Or some sort of parasite that has now left her body hard to tell without pictures but in the meantime I would get her in a hospital tank ASAP to prevent it spreading before you can get some pics up for a proper diagnosis.

Good luck!

Also, you might want to post in Emergencies, with your water stats, tankmates etc (see pinned thread at the top of that forum for the info needed).

 

[helterskelter]

it's a fungal problem you got there, mix 30grams of salt into 1 liter of water and dip her in that hor 30-50 seconds depending on how stresses she get's, and repeat 2-3 time every 3-4 days till she's better.
She will not like this treatment as it's quite harsh and she'll be stuck on the surface, it's very effective though with fungal problems.

Or if you can get melifix or myaxazin these will also help and you can treat the whole tank.

 

[dortiz24]

My water levels are good. She is a new fish. I got her a couple days ago. Could it be from another tank she was in?

 

[fourthtimelucky]

Yes.

Either she brought it from the other tank or the stress of the move has made her more susceptible to disease.

Pimafix is antifungal, Melafix for abrasions, finrot etc, you can use them at the same time though which would probably be a good idea if her fin is shredded. I used salt baths for my betta combined with these in his tank and that sorted out his finrot nicely.

You need to be careful about which salt to use though - make sure it does not contain anti-caking agents as these are harmful to fish. You might also consider a lower concentration for longer, 30g per litre sounds like a lot to me but that's just my opinion!

 

[Colin_T]

she got damaged by something in the tank and fungus has infected the wound. Fungus is in all tanks and only gets into open wounds on fish. Try the salt treatment and if it hasn't fixed her in a week then add some fungus treatment.