What are his chances?

[OliveFish05]

Hi. We had some guppies in a little 15 gallon porch pond type thing, and last night the temps dropped down to the 40s. I was not home last night until 2 am, so wasn’t able to throw a spare heater in before the temps had dropped. This morning, I inevitably woke up to all 4 laying dead on the bottom. Or so I thought. I went out to dispose of their bodies and one started feebly waving his tail. Like he was stiff, he looked dead, but his tail was ever so slightly trembling. I brought all four inside and acclimated them to room temp. The other three were very clearly dead, although we gave them several hours to see if they showed any signs of life. The 4th one though, he is definitely alive. Over the course of about 8 hours, he has gone from stiff and dead looking to swimming in erratic circles, and finally to keeping himself upright, swimming a little bit when disturbed. He’s not active and he hasn’t any appetite. What can I be Doug to improve his chances, or is it a lost cause?

 

[OliveFish05]

 

[Colin_T]

Give him time and keep the water clean and warm. He should survive. But don't raise the temperature too much too quickly or you can send him into shock.

 

[OliveFish05]

Give him time and keep the water clean and warm. He should survive. But don't raise the temperature too much too quickly or you can send him into shock.

thank you. It was heartbreaking to see them all laying there I hope this little guy pulls through. We’ve got abig 15 gallon planter with all sorts of aquatic plants waiting for him to go back to. The weather was SO nice and supposed to stay nice. I hate these cold snaps

 

[Rocky998]

Sorry for the loss of your three guppies... There was this guy on YT I like and he forgot to bring his chair on the patio in before a storm came... The wind came and blew it into his pond,smashing the heater into pieces. He thought most of his fish had died but as he removed the corpses and put them into a warm bucket of water, a lot were just in shock. His pleco survived but most of the guppies took a hit... You should name that guppy Lucky... That's what everyone names a trauma fish

 

[OliveFish05]

Sorry for the loss of your three guppies... There was this guy on YT I like and he forgot to bring his chair on the patio in before a storm came... The wind came and blew it into his pond,smashing the heater into pieces. He thought most of his fish had died but as he removed the corpses and put them into a warm bucket of water, a lot were just in shock. His pleco survived but most of the guppies took a hit... You should name that guppy Lucky... That's what everyone names a trauma fish

That’s insane! I was sooo surprised when I saw my guppy moving. I’m so sad about the others though. The two females were fat and pregnant

 

[Rocky998]

As man... So its not just those lives but the babies. That sucks. I'm so sorry Olive

 

[emeraldking]

Give him time and keep the water clean and warm. He should survive. But don't raise the temperature too much too quickly or you can send him into shock.

Gotta agree with this...

 

[GaryE]

I dealt with an African fish shipment one time when the transfer flight was delayed, and some fool left the well marked boxes out on the tarmac at -25. Some bags were solid ice when they made it to my city, and those fish obviously died, but it was remarkable how many of these fish survived. I approached it with no fear of shock - they went right into warmer water and they rallied really quickly. Going into warmer water has never been an issue in my experience.

 

[OliveFish05]

Thanks all! He is SWIMMING today! Rather than hovering on the bottom, he is swimming about under his water hyacinth!