Help Guppy Splitting Apart

[pippoodle]

ORIGINALLY POSTED IN LIVEBEARERS BUT THIS IS URGENT NOW

juwel 180ltr
stock as per siggy
nothing new added
live plants bogwood and coconut caves
stats ammonia 0 , nitrite 0 , nitrate 10 , ph 7.2 temp 24-26 varies with lights on



hi there

one of my females gave birth to 60+ fry 6 weeks ago she has gradually been getting bigger as expected
but she has been extremely large and squared off for 2 weeks now , shes also had the opening they have when they are about to give birth for the 2 weeks and has been doing evcerything they do before giving borth the hiding in plants etc
she's now very lathargic and when the males constantly chase her she just lays on the floor panting , she has damaged her gills (just a bit pink, no other symptoms)from getting stuck under a heavy piece of bogwood trying to escape the males
when i came back from the school run this afternoon she was floating on the top of the tank so i gently moved her to the baby net thing

she has recovered quite well in there and took some food but shes still not right

heres some pics you cant quite see her opening in the pics but its there clear as day , the fish are not overfed they are fed once every other day with enough they can eat in 2 mins , i dont especially feed the baby fish in the tank they eat what they can find and thats it , the corys and shrimp get fed the same time as the fish

the fish have been endulging on new borns at the moment as although i am quite heavily planted they still manage to find them as there have been 8 births (platys and guppys) in the past week

any help would be appreciated

JUST TOOK THESE PICS NOTICED SHES GOT A LARGE SPLIT ALONG HER TUMMMY

 

[nosoup4you]

Wow, that's something I've never seen before. If you have any epsoms, you might try that to draw out any accumulated fluids. I had one that went around with her vent open for a week and a half but she leapt to her death before I could try to save her.

 

[pippoodle]

i've not got any epsom and i got a horrible feeling shes going to be split open by the morning and there will be 100 babies in the breeder OMG the film Alien springs to mind
tank lights have been off for several hours to keep her calm even though shes too lathargic to be stressed , i turned the lights on to check on her and found the split

 

[nosoup4you]

As morbid as this sounds, if she does happen to die you can take a razor and split her abdomen and remove the fry. From the looks of her they should be well developed. Sorry, I don't know what else to tell you. Poor girl.

 

[pippoodle]

i know its horrible isnt it she was soo large last time which was her first lot of fry like i said she had over 80 live fry 6 weeks ago , i'm going to stay up with her for another hour and then go to bed so hopefully she will last until the morning and not die over night

thanks for your help hun i feel so sorry for her

 

[pippoodle]

just a quick update she's splitting even more but still alive

 

[nosoup4you]

Oh no, that's horrible...

 

[kribensis12]

She can live like that for weeks. A black convict did that at my school. He got a internal Bacterial infectoin, and it just ket getting worse. My teacher didnt treat it. His stomach was graudally spliiting open till his insides fell out and he died . It was horrible. Looks like the same is happening to your guppy.

 

[LauraFrog]

Right. Have you got any clove oil? If you take 2.5 cups of water (metric) and add 1 drop of clove oil, mix well, then add the fish, this is an anaesthetic solution. She will go to sleep within a minute. You cannot leave her in this solution for more than two minutes, although she can be out of the water for part or all of this time. Putting her in clean (tank) water will revive her within five minutes.

If her vent is open there is a reason why the fry are not coming out, possibly one that is deformed or overgrown is stuck in which case it will need to be removed with tweezers. From the first shot, the side-on, it looks as though there might be several trying to come out at once. If they are alive (which I seriously doubt) you will kill them removing them, but it's the only way the mother will have a chance. If you cannot find one, gently opening the vent further with tweezers may help. Squeezing very gently to release the fry is a possibility but it may make the split worse.

I have never attempted stitches on a fish, and it would probably be very difficult with scales and a fish so small. If you think you can try then use nylon thread. I wouldn't do it until some or most of the fry come out.

I suppose there is the option of trying to enlarge the vent by cutting it, but this would probably perforate the bowel and result in death by infection, even if it worked so that the fry could be born. Personally if this remained the only option I would euthanise the mother.

If she is in some distress remember that the clove oil is also a euthanasia solution although usually more is used for euthanasia (but if you leave her in the anaesthetic concentration for five or ten minutes she will die). If she dies but does not split open all the fry will die as well unless you get to her quickly with a razor blade or sharp kitchen knife. Try to cut in from the split along towards the vent, this will open the bottom of her oviduct and the fry will come out the bottom.

 

[nosoup4you]

How is the poor girl?

 

[JustKia]

Any update?
Hope she's doing OK

 

[malakye]

I don't envy what you are going through with your poor fish pip. How is she now?

 

[wilchil64]

Poor fish, hope she's ok. And poor you, having to deal with this.

 

[pippoodle]

sorry for no update i cant get out of bed at the moment hubby has got me the laptop my MS relasping
when hubby got up at 9am in the morning yesterday the fish was still alivebut she had what looked like a 6 week old baby fish head hanging out of her birth tube it was really big but all white and rotting , she also had the red marks on her side similar to septicemia , her split was longer so he cooled a jug of water down in the freezer to nearlly frozen and euthanased her , he didnt bother trying to release the baby fish . its such a shame to lose her she was a lovely blonde fish with a sort of bright neon yellow scissor tail .
i've got some of her babies from 6 weeks ago so at least thats something , poor girl couldnt let her suffer any more

thanks for all your help and concerns everyone , the children gave her a good little funeral and sent her to fishy heaven (via spoecial button on wall beside loo)

suzy (she was my 3 yr old Lacy's female guppy)

Thanks Sarah xxx

 

[ccskitten]

I'm sorry for your loss Sarah. It sounds like you have had a couple of very scary days.

RIP Suzy