Sudden Guppy Death - Could This Be Columnaris?

[rust81]

My 50L breeder tank has recently been home to 3 female guppies, 20 guppy fry and 2 baby bristlenose plecs (soon to be moved). I added a male guppy last weekend.

Over the past 2 days a female guppy has been hanging near the surface and was until yesterday eating. I put her into a breeder to keep her separated from the other fish. I got home tonight and although still alive, she looked in a bad way. Her body seems to have gone white and she has a white spot on her tail. She also seems to be red around the anus, so i decided to euthanise.

Looking at one of my other guppies, it also looks red around the anus and looks like it has the start of scepticemia (as there is redness at the start of her tail). Although the pic is bad you can see her spine looks deformed and a hint of redness.

My question - could this be columnaris? Would this have killed the 1st guppy? Will all my other fish have it, including the bristlenose??

 

[WILDER]

The whitespot on the tail did it have any red tinging to the spot.
Red anus dropsy to internal parasites.
R.I.P.

 

[rust81]

The whitespot on the tail did it have any red tinging to the spot.
Red anus dropsy to internal parasites.
R.I.P.

No red edging to the spot. If the other guppy looks like it is pregnant but has no gravid spot, and has a bent spine - i'm coming to the conclusion that this could be internal parasites i.e callumnaris. Thoughts?

 

[WILDER]

Fish can get bent spines with internal parasites.
Bleached out white colour can mean columnaris to exteral parasites.
Any signs of flicking and rubbing.

 

[rust81]

Yes there have been signs of flicking with the one with the bent spine, but not with the one that died.

I'm not sure whether to med and with what as i have fry and bristlenose in the same tank

 

[WILDER]

How often is the fish flicking.
I do think you have internal parasites, but if there camallanous worms the wormer plus dosn't work on that type of worm.
You could give it a try, soneone said it helped, check on the thread.
http/www.fishforums.net/content/Disease-...mallanis-Worms/

Are you sure the fish are not going pale due to the fact that the fish are dying.

 

[rust81]

The dead fish wasnt flicking.
The fish is flicking every now and then but more than what i would consider normal. I'll have a look at the thread

The fish did go pale as it was dying - is this normal then?

What else can i do? Will my fry be ok, or are they likely to catch this?

 

[WILDER]

I would be pale if I was dying its a sign of stress.
The internal parasites wants treating they pass on, even sucking another fish poo up they can get infected that way too.

A fish with flukes will look pale with excess slime, you can get internal flukes as well.

 

[rust81]

I would be pale if I was dying its a sign of stress.
The internal parasites wants treating they pass on, even sucking another fish poo up they can get infected that way too.

A fish with flukes will look pale with excess slime, you can get internal flukes as well.

Well the fry are in the breeder so wont have had the chance to catch the worms that way. So its likely that my bristlenose have this as well then as they are always hoovering up the floor

 

[WILDER]

Internal parasites can pass on the young from the mother inside.
Being in a net in the same tank not going to stop them getting infected.
http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/nematodes.shtml

 

[rust81]

Thanks for this Wilder. There doesnt seem to be too many options available to us in the UK, so i'm guessing i'll either have to let things run there course and see what happens, or attempt the sterazin treatment.

 

[WILDER]

That waterlife med is crap tryed it when my livebearers had internal parasites it never did a thing.
I was lucky was able to get hold of some flubenol but it been take of the uk market.
I would try the wormer plus or try and get some levaimsole.
http/www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/php/detail62_45492.php

 

[rust81]

Thanks for the link- i have just asked the sellers a question as to whether this is ok for tropical fish as the ad states its only ok with ornamental fish.

Other than that i'm just going to have to keep my fingers crossed!

 

[WILDER]

Ornamental fish means pet fish only.
It really means not to be used on troat and samon because of the food chain,