Sick Guppy

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Lisbeth Oden

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Hello all! I have a sick guppy. Iā€™ve had a tremendously hard time getting this tank going. Yes I cycled it correctly. Yes all of my water levels are right according to my test strips as well as the pet stores. But Iā€™m still having die off. This guppy is the first one to show any physical signs before dying. Any ideas? See sore on back. Thanks
 

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Hello all! I have a sick guppy. Iā€™ve had a tremendously hard time getting this tank going. Yes I cycled it correctly. Yes all of my water levels are right according to my test strips as well as the pet stores. But Iā€™m still having die off. This guppy is the first one to show any physical signs before dying. Any ideas? See sore on back. Thanks
Hi and welcome to the forum :hi:

May I ask what the GH of your water supply is? Guppies are hard water species, so they naturally occur in harder water.

This information can be found through your local water supplier. Alternatively, if your test strips test the GH, you can post your result onto the thread.

They require a PH of a a minimum of at least 7+

Could you also provide information on your tank size, and overall stocking?

Best of luck.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

The fish in the picture has a bacterial infection. You can add salt to the tank and if there's no improvement after 48 hours then get some medication.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

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 4 heaped tablespoons 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, 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 will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

----------------------------
To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. 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.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum :hi:

May I ask what the GH of your water supply is? Guppies are hard water species, so they naturally occur in harder water.

This information can be found through your local water supplier. Alternatively, if your test strips test the GH, you can post your result onto the thread.

They require a PH of a a minimum of at least 7+

Could you also provide information on your tank size, and overall stocking?

Best of luck.

Thank you. And thank you for the welcome. My water is hard and according to my tetra test strips it is 150. My pH is right about 7.2

I have a 29 gallon tank. Iā€™ll have to get the specific dimensions for you. I currently have three guppies. I have a tetra whisper water filter. Thanks
 
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

The fish in the picture has a bacterial infection. You can add salt to the tank and if there's no improvement after 48 hours then get some medication.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

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 4 heaped tablespoons 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, 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 will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

----------------------------
To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. 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.

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

Wow all that math is making my head spin. Math was never my strong point LOL I have a 29 gallon tank. I only have three guppies in it.

Sorry if this is a stupid question but does kosher salt work?

Thanks
 
Wow all that math is making my head spin. Math was never my strong point LOL I have a 29 gallon tank. I only have three guppies in it.

Sorry if this is a stupid question but does kosher salt work?

Thanks
The best salt to use is aquarium salt. Api is usually the brand recommended.

Best of luck.
 
If you have time would you be so kind as to help me figure out how much aquarium salt? I have only guppies. Many thanks


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If you have time would you be so kind as to help me figure out how much aquarium salt? I have only guppies. Many thanks


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@Colin_T can assist with aquarium salt doses. Heā€™s truly a pro with this stuff.

Colin can you help here?

I hope your guppy gets better soon!

Keep us posted.
 
If you have time would you be so kind as to help me figure out how much aquarium salt? I have only guppies. Many thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thank you! I will. I get my water from the cistern so Iā€™m in the process of having it tested because Iā€™m concerned my guppies are acting a bit like Canaries in the old mines.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thank you! I will. I get my water from the cistern so Iā€™m in the process of having it tested because Iā€™m concerned my guppies are acting a bit like Canaries in the old mines.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Your PH seems fine for the guppies, the GH is usually a similar reading to this.

I doubt this is a water quality issue, however chemicals in the water donā€™t always show up when water is tested.

If youā€™re worried about anything in the water harming them or causing erratic behaviour. Adding activated carbon is recommended.

This should soak up anything thatā€™s not supposed to be there.

May I ask how often you do water changes and what your nitrates are at?
 
Your PH seems fine for the guppies, the GH is usually a similar reading to this.

I doubt this is a water quality issue, however chemicals in the water donā€™t always show up when water is tested.

If youā€™re worried about anything in the water harming them or causing erratic behaviour. Adding activated carbon is recommended.

This should soak up anything thatā€™s not supposed to be there.

May I ask how often you do water changes and what your nitrates are at?

Thank you for your kindness. After setting up the tank and doing a cycle, I added the fish. I had a big day off right away even though all of my numbers were correct. I think it was largely a bad batch from Petco. That was about two weeks ago. After the first week I replaced 5 gallons of the water with One of those big 5 gallon things from the grocery store.

Both nitrates are at zero
 
Thank you for your kindness. After setting up the tank and doing a cycle, I added the fish. I had a big day off right away even though all of my numbers were correct. I think it was largely a bad batch from Petco. That was about two weeks ago. After the first week I replaced 5 gallons of the water with One of those big 5 gallon things from the grocery store.

Both nitrates are at zero
What a shame, itā€™s always recommended you quarantine fish before adding them into an established tank.

But you werenā€™t to know they were a bad batch. Itā€™s easily done.

If your nitrates are at 0 you must keep your tank very clean and maintain frequent water changes.
 
Tetra Easy strips six in one
 

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What a shame, itā€™s always recommended you quarantine fish before adding them into an established tank.

But you werenā€™t to know they were a bad batch. Itā€™s easily done.

If your nitrates are at 0 you must keep your tank very clean and maintain frequent water changes.

It was a new tank without any other fish in it. I added five guppies and five tetras and Iā€™m down to three guppies.
 

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