Red spots on guppy

[Mitch90]

Just got a quick question to see if anyone has experience of this problem I'm facing.

My female guppy started to have red blotches appear on her sides (pict attached). After looking at the other forum posts and answers, it kept pointing to either an ammonia or nitrate problem. This can't be the issue though as both those markers in my 110l tank are at the right condition. I even had it double checked at a store as didn't want to rely on the dip sticks. The only thing they said was slightly high was water hardiness where I could use a little more of the tap safe when doing my water changes but that it wouldn't have much of an impact on fish life.

I change my water weekly and hoover the stones etc to keep it all maintained. The fish doesn't appear to be acting any different than normal. Now posting onto this forum as I've noticed a second female guppy developing a similar blotch on her head.

Any advice on this as I do want to get more community type fish for the tank but not if there is some issue going on that might risk their welfare.

Thanks in advance

 

[Slaphppy7]

Get yourself one of these, and test your own water: https://apifishcare.com/product/freshwater-master-test-kit

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Essjay]

I even had it double checked at a store as didn't want to rely on the dip sticks. The only thing they said was slightly high was water hardiness where I could use a little more of the tap safe when doing my water changes

Scotland usually has very soft water, though that might not apply everywhere so i don't understand what the shop meant it was slightly high. Do your strips give a reading for GH, or hardness (same thing, different names)?

Any ammonia or nitrite in the water is harmful for fish. Are your readings zero?

 

[Colin_T]

The red spots look like bites but could be a bacterial infection. However, I would expect the bacteria to be varying sized not all the same size.

How long have you had the fish for?
Have you added anything to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?

How hard is the water (pH, GH, KH)?

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Post pictures of the other fish.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

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You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.