HELP! Fish advice ASAP!

[Emilyruthann7]

Difficult to pinpoint exactly without knowing the water parameters, particularly the water hardness.

I have a feeling it’s more to do with the water hardness and possible the water quality.

But that is a presumptive opinion without actually knowing all the water parameters and what else may be involved.

Guppies are a hard water livebearer species.
They will appear ok for a few weeks, then they may develop fin issues and clamped fins, basically due to the lack of mineral in the water. Then they die pretty fast. Guppies kept in soft water will definitely have a shortened lifespans in soft water, that is pretty much guaranteed.

Poecilia reticulata – Guppy (Lebistes poecilioides, Girardinus guppii ) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

All I know about my water hardness is It’s well water, which from my knowledge is typically hard water. Aside from this, does it appear to be TB or fin rot?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

All I know about my water hardness is It’s well water, which from my knowledge is typically hard water. Aside from this, does it appear to be TB or fin rot?

Fin rot, looks that way to me. Fin rot is caused by poor water quality.

What do you mean when you say “TB”?

 

[Emilyruthann7]

Fin rot, looks that way to me. Fin rot is caused by poor water quality.

What do you mean when you say “TB”?

Fish TB, which is what my sister suggested it may be. I’m not an expert on it but I know it’s dangerous, so that’s why I cam here. What do you mean by Poot water quality? As in levels or hardness? Could it be caused by stress/poor diet?

 

[Ch4rlie]

All I know about my water hardness is It’s well water, which from my knowledge is typically hard water. Aside from this, does it appear to be TB or fin rot?

That’s hard to tell, natural or reservoir fed well water can differ.

Even different states in US can have normally hard or soft water, from what I remember, coastal states tend to have softer water while central states have harder water.

A lot of this is down to rocks and how much dissolved minerals occurs in well water.

Impossible for me to tell whether you have soft or hard water, either you can get this from your water provider company or from testing the water yourself with the correct test kit.

And poor water quality is basically how often you change your tank water, generally speaking most members on here change at least 50% but nearer 70% of tank water once a week with routine filter maintenances, this helps to keep water clean and stocked with minerals as well as taking away all the debris and fish poop.

For example if you do overfeeding and/or low water changes then this can contribute to poorer water quality.

 

[Emilyruthann7]

That’s hard to tell, natural or reservoir fed well water can differ.

Even different states in US can have normally hard or soft water, from what I remember, coastal states tend to have softer water while central states have harder water.

A lot of this is down to rocks and how much dissolved minerals occurs in well water.

Impossible for me to tell whether you have soft or hard water, either you can get this from your water provider company or from testing the water yourself with the correct test kit.

And poor water quality is basically how often you change your tank water, generally speaking most members on here change at least 50% but nearer 70% of tank water once a week with routine filter maintenances, this helps to keep water clean and stocked with minerals as well as taking away all the debris and fish poop.

For example if you do overfeeding and/or low water changes then this can contribute to poorer water quality.

I change my water mainly that often. I have a sponge filter that I rinse off the sponges every water change as well. What do you suggest I do as far as everything goes - should I treat the guppies for fin rot in the quarantine tank? I’ve had guppies for over a month and haven’t had a problem until this past week... I don’t think it’s my water quality, honestly I fed them the same thing for the past two weeks and I read that Poor diet and stress can cause fin rot. Is this true?

 

[Ch4rlie]

Ok, first off, do not panic.We will try and help you.

That’s good it’s unlikely to be the water quality from what you describe.

Yes, poor diet may be a factor in some things, fin rot being one of many possible outcomes to poor diet, but usually it’s down to water quality for most keepers, though not always.

So possibly down to two things.

Water hardness. This is important, try and find out what you water hardness is from your water providers website. Or perhaps take a sample of water to your LFS and ask them to test the water for you if you do not have a test kit.

Second question, have you cycled your tank?
I do not know if you have, if so how did you cycle the tank?
And if cycled that’s great then that eliminates that’s from the equation.

We try to eliminate some obvious causes by asking these questions, some may be obvious to you but we do not know this, and jumping straight to saying TB is a bit of a leap, not totally implausible but would like to eliminate as much as possible first before saying anything more conclusive.

 

[Emilyruthann7]

Ok, first off, do not panic.We will try and help you.

That’s good it’s unlikely to be the water quality from what you describe.

Yes, poor diet may be a factor in some things, fin rot being one of many possible outcomes to poor diet, but usually it’s down to water quality for most keepers, though not always.

So possibly down to two things.

Water hardness. This is important, try and find out what you water hardness is from your water providers website. Or perhaps take a sample of water to your LFS and ask them to test the water for you if you do not have a test kit.

Second question, have you cycled your tank?
I do not know if you have, if so how did you cycle the tank?
And if cycled that’s great then that eliminates that’s from the equation.

We try to eliminate some obvious causes by asking these questions, some may be obvious to you but we do not know this, and jumping straight to saying TB is a bit of a leap, not totally implausible but would like to eliminate as much as possible first before saying anything more conclusive.

Thank you very much for the help and I came here because I know there’s a lot of helpful people who listen on this forum. Yes, the tank is cycled. I got a betta fish one day to put in a 5 gallon tank that my sister previously used in college, and it was cycled. Then I moved up to a 10 gallon, where I put in the gravel (without rinsing) and used the same filter and decorations to help it cycle. The betta was in there by himself for a bit until I added a couple Cory doras and neon tetras, then it cycled pretty quick.
I will add in that my sister is the fish keeper of the family and she drilled in my head to keep track of the levels, so I do and I do water changes often.
I’ll look into the water hardness... I live in central Massachusetts with well water. I was thinking it wasn’t the water because I’ve had guppies for over a month with no problem, they even had healthy babies. However once I started feeding them the same thing and when I added the two fish, I began to notice the fins getting split. This makes me think, if it is fin rot, then it’s because the two fish made it semi overcrowded and that brought stress, combined with poor diet, which again i heard can cause fin rot. Are we positive it’s fin rot? Have we ruled out fish TB? I’m only asking because my sister thinks it’s moving too fast to be fin rot. I’m not an expert on fish, I only started towards beginning of summer but I’ve done everything I can including research, frequent water changes and water testing to take good care of the fish.

 

[Ch4rlie]

That all sounds good, it’s great having a family member who knows a little of fishkeeping helping out.

And hearing of your tank being cycled is all good to hear, brilliant. So that’s ruled out for certain. One less thing to rule out.

No one here, especially not me anyway can claim to be an “expert” in fishkeeping, anyone who says they are experts casts serious doubts about that imho!

Any, I digress, it’s not too fast to be fin rot or TB, though I think it’s much more likely to be fin rot rather than TB, as the symptoms differs vastly.

Fin Rot - signs of symptoms are fraying fin edges, base of fins appear inflamed, edges of fin may have white or black edges or fins may also have white dots.
(if these white dots are also seen on the body it is possibly a symptom of ich)

Early signs of TB being fish being really thin, twisted spine deformation and missing scales and tissues and open wounds and blisters especially in top half of body. Abdominal distension is another clasign, along with, missing scales and open wounds and blisters on the top half of body to name but a few of the symptoms, this does not sound like the case here to be entirely honest.

And also not knowing the water hardness and water parameters makes it difficult to discount fin rot or water softness for guppies for certain.

So that’s the first few things we need you to provide.

Water hardness (usually supplies in different units such as mg/l, dH and degrees Clark) from your water suppliers.

Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate was well as pH may prove to be useful.

And then we can take things from there.

 

[Essjay]

Do you have the well water tested? If you do, the report could contain the hardness.

 

[Emilyruthann7]

That all sounds good, it’s great having a family member who knows a little of fishkeeping helping out.

And hearing of your tank being cycled is all good to hear, brilliant. So that’s ruled out for certain. One less thing to rule out.

No one here, especially not me anyway can claim to be an “expert” in fishkeeping, anyone who says they are experts casts serious doubts about that imho!

Any, I digress, it’s not too fast to be fin rot or TB, though I think it’s much more likely to be fin rot rather than TB, as the symptoms differs vastly.

Fin Rot - signs of symptoms are fraying fin edges, base of fins appear inflamed, edges of fin may have white or black edges or fins may also have white dots.
(if these white dots are also seen on the body it is possibly a symptom of ich)

Early signs of TB being fish being really thin, twisted spine deformation and missing scales and tissues and open wounds and blisters especially in top half of body. Abdominal distension is another clasign, along with, missing scales and open wounds and blisters on the top half of body to name but a few of the symptoms, this does not sound like the case here to be entirely honest.

And also not knowing the water hardness and water parameters makes it difficult to discount fin rot or water softness for guppies for certain.

So that’s the first few things we need you to provide.

Water hardness (usually supplies in different units such as mg/l, dH and degrees Clark) from your water suppliers.

Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate was well as pH may prove to be useful.

And then we can take things from there.

All I can figure out right now about my water hardness is it is natural well water, which most of the time is hard water.
Ammonia: 0.1 ppm (it’s always at 0.1, even after a water change, I’m not sure why I think its because I have a planted tank)
Nitrites: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 9 ppm
I did a 70% water change the day before two of my fish died, and this is when I noticed everybody’s fins were getting kind of bad which is more why I think it isn’t water quality.
As far as ich and TB, I checked for ich, as we’ve had it before and there are no signs of it. The only two symptoms that relate to TB that I’ve seen are a couple of my guppies are sitting at the top of the tank still, their bodies tilted at about a 50 degree angle. Also, on one of my females (in the original post there is a picture of her, orange and black tail) her tail seems to be disintigrating or falling apart almost which made my sister to think it was some sort of TB or a flesh eating bacteria.
I’ll do my best to figure out what the hardness of the water is, but it’s difficult for me to find space to go get it tested or get a testing kit. That is why I am so eager, so to speak, to figure out what it is. If it’s definitely fin rot then I am a little relieved as I am already treating them with Kanaplex. However I’m worried that some of their fins are too far gone to save. Currently, two of my guppies look like they will die soon, they are the two that are sitting at the top right now hardly moving.

 

[seangee]

They are not too far gone to save. This fish survived with nothing but 70% daily water changes and aquarium salt for 2 weeks. The tail was severed and as you can see got infected. She now has a normal caudal and dorsal fin.

Your fish does not look like it has TB or fin rot. There may be some infection but the original cause looks to be injury, usually caused by other fish or ornaments.

 

[Emilyruthann7]

They are not too far gone to save. This fish survived with nothing but 70% daily water changes and aquarium salt for 2 weeks. The tail was severed and as you can see got infected. She now has a normal caudal and dorsal fin.

Your fish does not look like it has TB or fin rot. There may be some infection but the original cause looks to be injury, usually caused by other fish or ornaments.

Their tails are progressively getting worse and quickly. What do you suggest I do?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

This fish of mine that had nearly her whole tail torn off when she got caught in the sponge filter as I removed it, and she was injured down one side too where she landed outside the tank. She was developing a secondary fungal infection on all those wounds by the next morning. Salt treatment and daily water changes saved her.

She had some scars on her tail, but she grew up to be my largest, healthiest female.

I can't guarantee that your fish will recover of course, but just want to add a voice that even when they look really bad, sometimes they can still recover.

Personally I would use aquarium salt and daily water changes, or an anti-bacterial treatment, which you're already doing. Also make sure to add an airstone, extra oxygenation is good when fish are battling an illness or you're using medication.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Large water changes with tap safe/dechlorinator are good for infections, fin rot and a host of other things.

Good water quality does far more for that than adding chemicals imho. Would not add any medications at this point until you have a better idea of what’s happening.

But certainly water changes and perhaps salt treatment may help in the meantime.

Edit - I see seangee and adorabelle wrote in with the exact same thing while I was typing this! Great minds think alike!

 

[Emilyruthann7]

This fish of mine that had nearly her whole tail torn off when she got caught in the sponge filter as I removed it, and she was injured down one side too where she landed outside the tank. She was developing a secondary fungal infection on all those wounds by the next morning. Salt treatment and daily water changes saved her.
View attachment 116306
View attachment 116307

She had some scars on her tail, but she grew up to be my largest, healthiest female.

I can't guarantee that your fish will recover of course, but just want to add a voice that even when they look really bad, sometimes they can still recover.

Personally I would use aquarium salt and daily water changes, or an anti-bacterial treatment, which you're already doing. Also make sure to add an airstone, extra oxygenation is good when fish are battling an illness or you're using medication.

Okay, thank you!