Not Sure What The Problem Is Exactly - Update P.13

[PrairieSunflower]

I have recently lost a male guppy to tail rot. He was brand new and it progressed insanely quickly. Unfortunately, I made a stupid mistake of sticking him straight into a tank with my other male guppies.

So... now I am having a problem... but thing is, I don't know what the problem is. I think I might have followed some bad advice. I was advised to do some big water changes daily to head off any others possibly getting fin/tail rot... which threw my water stats out of whack. This I was able to easily remedy by transfusing my tank with tank water from my female only tank... and the water issues have now been fixed.

Problem is... I still have one male who is swimming around partly clamped (no other symptoms, no lethargy, otherwise swimming as normal). And I have another male who is swimming in the bottom quarter of the tank (no other symptoms, normal level of activity except that he wouldn't normally swim only around the bottom).

I have no idea what is going on or what to do. There is no visible sign of disease, I had assumed I caused the problem by changing too much water.. so I thought righting that would bring around these two... but it hasn't. I have 4 other male guppies in the tank who are all behaving perfectly normally. They did initially flash before I got the idea to transfuse the tank with tank water from the other tank but that has been resolved with the water issue.

 

[DanTheFishMan11]

that is strange

 

[PrairieSunflower]

In case some pictures help somehow... I've taken the best one I can manage. Just a note, my tank's aerator makes very fine bubbles, so if you notice a dot on my fish its not ich its a bubble. I have thoroughly stared at each one of them looking them over for anything I could find.

This is the boy who swims around mostly clamped. (Just editted to add that he is a juvenile and only 3 months old so he doesn't have a full sized tail yet).

And this one is swimming around the bottom... it was hard to get a picture as he kept hiding from me.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Water changes wouldn't have caused you any problems unless you didn't dechlorinate your water. And I doubt adding water from another tank fixed anything TBH. Water changes are ALWAYS a good idea lol so you had some good advice. Soooo, I've got a couple of questions for you

So what are your ammonia and nitrite stats?
What temperature are you keeping your tank at?
What size and what stock is in the tank?
How long has the tank been running for?

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Water changes wouldn't have caused you any problems unless you didn't dechlorinate your water. And I doubt adding water from another tank fixed anything TBH. Water changes are ALWAYS a good idea lol so you had some good advice. Soooo, I've got a couple of questions for you

So what are your ammonia and nitrite stats?
What temperature are you keeping your tank at?
What size and what stock is in the tank?
How long has the tank been running for?

Ammonia and nitrite are 0 now, both had spike a bit after the two large water changes I did after my one guppy with tail rot died. So, I thought that somehow caused it. (I did big water changes twice of about 50-60%). I did another water change of about 20% the day after in the morning and nothing was improved so I did about 80% water change using tank water from my other tank and water stats have been fine since.

I haven't tested my tap water but I do daily small changes on my larger tank and everything remains stable there.

My tank is currently at 25-26c.

I have 6 males guppies, all juvenile between 3-4 months old, plus 3 assassin snails in a 60 liter tank.

I've had the tank running for just over 6 months.

Another note. I have removed some plants from the tank and replaced them with new ones at the same time that I added tank water from my other tank... which was after all my trouble started.

I've not done a daily water change today and not sure if I should go ahead and do one or avoid it today... if I should do one how big?

And I have not forgotten my dechlorinater at any point.

Editted to add.... would it be of any help for me to change my filter carbon even though its not been its 6 weeks yet?

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Great answers thanks

I'm not sure what caused your problem after the water changes but I am 98% confident that the water changes weren't the cause. We're the plants you removed rotting? That could have added ammonia and the removeal fixed it.

Everything you've said there looks fine to me, I wouldn't change your filter carbon. I wouldn't actually change ANY filter media unless it is so old it's falling apart in my hands. I would only ever change out the carbon media if you've added meds to the tank and need to remove them after the treatment is finished.

Does their poop look healthy? It is dark in colour and pretty solid looking? Stringy white poop can mean parasites.

My only other guess is that they are maybe still recovering from the spike you had previously.

Sorry I haven't been of much help, maybe someone else will have something to add

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Great answers thanks

I'm not sure what caused your problem after the water changes but I am 98% confident that the water changes weren't the cause. We're the plants you removed rotting? That could have added ammonia and the removeal fixed it.

Everything you've said there looks fine to me, I wouldn't change your filter carbon. I wouldn't actually change ANY filter media unless it is so old it's falling apart in my hands. I would only ever change out the carbon media if you've added meds to the tank and need to remove them after the treatment is finished.

Does their poop look healthy? It is dark in colour and pretty solid looking? Stringy white poop can mean parasites.

My only other guess is that they are maybe still recovering from the spike you had previously.

Sorry I haven't been of much help, maybe someone else will have something to add

Glad my answers are good... still have that "new fishkeeper" feeling when I get asked... like the teacher calling on me in class... even as an adult! HAHA

Their droppings are relatively the color of their food, nothing stringy or white. Before switching to guppies I used to have goldfish and seemed to have had every disease there is... almost... so that is why I am so baffled about my guppies... I just can't figure out why they aren't normal!

Oh and about the plants... no, they weren't rotting... they were just growing so much I could hardly see my fish as they seemed always behind the plants... plants had roots coming out of every bit of stem and it looked messy. Have replaced it with a sort of leafy grass like plant (that I forget the name of... saggit...something). It did stir up debris when I pulled them, but this was after the spike and was immediately cleaned and the tank water from the other tank put in.

I keep worrying that my fishies will die. 5 of the 6 are babies I've raised myself... so I'm extra attached to them.

 

[DanTheFishMan11]

the plant is sag and when i had guppies they did this and they were ones i had raised as well wich is strange but they didnt die until i had a 2 day power cut in my area wich was a year later

 

[PrairieSunflower]

The boy that was swimming around the bottom seems to have picked up this morning. He is around middle level and showing off his glory to his buddies.

But the clamped boy is unchanged.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

UPDATE

I'm happy to say, whatever the problem was, it seems to have righted itself now.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Great news! Maybe they were just knocked by the spike you had and needed some time to bounce back

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Great news! Maybe they were just knocked by the spike you had and needed some time to bounce back

I hope so, I don't like drama in my tanks... leaves me paranoid!

 

[PrairieSunflower]

NEW THEORY


Right... it just doesn't make me happy to not know what made my fish sick... and... well, its happened again... to the same two fish. But, this time I had a theory and have poked around on the internet and found a few forums posts from various boards speculating on the same thing.

Bloodworms... this is new to my fish and I've feed them bloodworms 24ish hours before both times they have turned ill. Online I've found people mentioning it seems to be a sensitivity or allergy for some guppies/fish. Have any of you heard of this? Could this be the issue? Should I toss my bloodworms and return to feeding them egg yoke instead? (as a once a week thing)

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

No idea, but it's easy to overfeed on BW I find