Platinum guppy has damaged tail fin and is hiding away

[tkoalas]

Request Help. My platinum guppy is acting odd. See below for full explanation. Any insight would be helpful. Currently, the guppy in question has been moved to a quarantine tank in case he's being bullied by the other guppies or in case of fin rot.

Tank size: 5 gallon (currently in 1/2 gallon quarantine tank)
tank age: 6 months
pH: 7.2
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 8
kH: Not tested
gH: Not tested
tank temp: 80°F


Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): My platinum guppy is acting irregular. He hiding away rather than swimming with the other two guppies in the tank (fancy guppies). He looks like he lost some weight and swims a little irregularly, too. In the past, he's swam happily and excited with the others, playing just like a guppy does. So this is irregular. His rear fin has lost a bit of its color at its end (might have been that way, though, not sure) and has what appear to be two small gashes through it. His midsection also looks irregularly chunky and his tail end looks awfully slim. Also, this may be regular, but his gills look reddish/pinkish. That might be the regular color of them, but figured I would mention what I see.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 5 gallon

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Fluval prefilter sponge, quilt batting (polyester), Fluval BioMax, fine quilt batting (polyester, for finishing).

Tank inhabitants: 1 platinum guppy, 2 fancy guppies

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): none

Exposure to chemicals: none

Digital photo (include if possible):

 

[Colin_T]

Treat the fish for gill flukes and intestinal worms asap. Section 3 of the following link has information about deworming fish. Feed the fish 3-5 times a day for the next month. This will hopefully keep it alive while thew deworming medication does its job. Do big water changes and gravel clean the substrate every couple of days while feeding more often to keep the tank clean.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

The damaged tail is either from bites or being caught on something in the tank, possibly plastic plants. If the tank is clean and the fish looked after, the fish should recover without any issues.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

 

[tkoalas]

Okay, thanks! That helps a lot. I ordered some PraziPro from Amazon, but it won't get here until Wednesday (May 10th). Is there anything I should do in the meantime? The only pet supply store here is PetSmart. They have Praziquantel tablets for cats, but nothing for deworming am aquarium. Should I get some sort of medication otherwise than Prazi in the meantime, or am I all right waiting?

I wish there was someplace I could go to get this locally. Unfortunately, there just aren't many options. Let me know if you have suggestions of what to get or do, or if I shouldn't use PraziPro and should instead use something else.

 

[tkoalas]

Treat the fish for gill flukes and intestinal worms asap. Section 3 of the following link has information about deworming fish. Feed the fish 3-5 times a day for the next month. This will hopefully keep it alive while thew deworming medication does its job. Do big water changes and gravel clean the substrate every couple of days while feeding more often to keep the tank clean.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

The damaged tail is either from bites or being caught on something in the tank, possibly plastic plants. If the tank is clean and the fish looked after, the fish should recover without any issues.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

Will API General Cure work? I can get that at PetSmart.

 

[Essjay]

API General Cure contains praziquantel, which is in PraziPro, and metronidazole which treats internal protozoan parasites.

For flat worm (eg tapeworms) you only need one since they both contain praziquantel.
For intestinal protozoan infection, you need API General Cure.

But neither treat round worms, a common infestation in fish from far east fish farms. You need levamisole for that. Or flubendazole which treats both round and flat worms and with flubendazole you don't need PrazoPro or General Cure.

 

[tkoalas]

Thanks for the advice. I tried treating the water with API General Cure, but either I was too late treating it or it was something else. He died, but I don't know why (I can guess based on what you said, but I am unsure what exactly it was). The other two guppies aren't showing any signs of illness, so hopefully they continue to be healthy.