What's wrong with my guppy/ tank?

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

Hello everyone

I'm afraid I'm not sure how to add a video on here, but I'll try to explain what's up with him.

Sorry if this is a bit long. But I appreciate the help.

My guppy started swimming very erratically yesterday and was swimming up and down from the bottom to the top several times (not all the way to the gravel but almost).
I checked all the water parameters and everything looked fine.
I still did a 30% water change (I hope it didn't stress him further).

That was yesterday, I just got home from work and he's only swimming in one spot around the top of the tank, not really moving much and he seems to be slightly covered in what kinda looks like a white coarse dust.. not in spots like ick, but just like he swam through "dust" and got it around his face head and sides. (It makes his outline look kinda frizzy on the picture I took)
He didn't look like that yesterday.
Also his tail is hurt! It's like a big chunk of tail has been bitten off or something. Could the pleco have hurt him?

Important to know:
I just got this tank a week ago from the Danish equivalent of Craigslist.
It had four guppies, one pleco and three amano shrimp.
The pleco and shrimp seem unaffected so far.
When I got the tank the lady told me that one of the four guppies died that morning.. she was SURE it was just age, but I was definitely going to keep an eye on the last three and I was NOT planning on adding any new fish for at least a month or two just to see if the rest of the guppies were well.

Well... they all seemed fine.. but when i left for work Monday morning I DID notice one of them seemed a little inactive. When I came home it was floating, dead, by the filter 😔
I looked it over and couldn't see anything out of the ordinary (nothing that looked like the white "dust" that my last guppy has)
The last two seemed fine. I checked the water and everything looked fine.
Tuesday I came home to another dead guppy! It didn't show any signs beforehand 😢
I checked it over, and it didn't have the white stuff either.
So now I'm left with a sick guppy and I don't know if or how I can save him.

Question 1:
Any guesses as to what it could be.
With the first two I thought it might be stress from the move.
But the first guppy died at the lady's house so that couldn't have been stress.. and the last guy has that white stuff and I'm really worried as I'm not very well versed in fish illnesses.
(Reading up on it here on the forum it seems like the white stuff could be extra mucous because of poor water quality.. but based on my testing of the water it seems fine... but I'll do some big water changes every day for a week at least)

Question 2:
Is there anything I can do for him?

Question 3:
Will my pleco and shrimp get sick too?
They are so delightful and I'm worried about them 🥺

Question 4:
Can I eventually add new fish to this tank, if I wait a month or two, or do I need to throw out all the wood, plants and substrate?

Any advice or ideas are appreciated.
Thank you.
And of course I'm also reading everything I can find on this forum.
I'm definitely gonna do big water changes and gravel vac every day this week I think..
I'm also thinking that I'll try treating the tank with salt afterwards.. what do you guys think?
I'll keep reading..

 

[White Crown]

https://aquanswers.com/white-spots-on-fish-fins-gills-body-identifying/
This article talks about Ich, which I have been meaning to read up on.
I also read in an old thread on here that if it is not Ich do not give Ich medication. Apparently it is a harsh med that could be counter productive if the fish has something else. Hope someone else knows more for certain.

 

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

https://aquanswers.com/white-spots-on-fish-fins-gills-body-identifying/
This article talks about Ich, which I have been meaning to read up on.
I also read in an old thread on here that if it is not Ich do not give Ich medication. Apparently it is a harsh med that could be counter productive if the fish has something else. Hope someone else knows more for certain.

Thank you, I'm pretty sure it's not ick because it's a lot more "all over" Instead of just in spots. But I'll definitely read up on it.

 

[Essjay]

Ich looks as though the fish has been sprinkled with salt. There can be just a few spots or the fish can be covered in them.

I'm afraid I'm not sure how to add a video on here

You need to upload a video to YouTube or similar site then post the url on here. If you don't want to do that, even a still photo would help.

 

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

Ich looks as though the fish has been sprinkled with salt. There can be just a few spots or the fish can be covered in them.


You need to upload a video to YouTube or similar site then post the url on here. If you don't want to do that, even a still photo would help.

Thank you.
I'm definitely not going to upload anything on YouTube but I just took a picture of him that kinda shows how frizzy he looks because of the white stuff

 

[Colin_T]

The cream patch on the back is excess mucous. The fact there is only one patch of excess mucous and a damaged tail, would suggest an external protozoan infection like costia, chilodonella or trichodina. They are all treated with salt, (see directions below). The other fish can catch it but the shrimp won't because the parasites can't get through their shell.

-----------------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium 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.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

The cream patch on the back is excess mucous. The fact there is only one patch of excess mucous and a damaged tail, would suggest an external protozoan infection like costia, chilodonella or trichodina. They are all treated with salt, (see directions below). The other fish can catch it but the shrimp won't because the parasites can't get through their shell.

-----------------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium 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.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

Thank you SO much! This is incredibly helpful!
I did a big water change yesterday evening so I'll start the salt treatment as per your directions when I get home from work today.
Thank you so much 🙏

 

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

Aww man 😔
The last guppy was dead this morning.
I treated the tank with salt the night before.
I still have a bristlenose catfish in there so I'll keep doing the treatment so he hopefully doesn't suffer the same fate.
I'll treat the tank for at least the recommended two weeks (and maybe a few extra days?)
Do you guys think it will be safe to add new fish sometime in the future. One and a half to two months maybe.. ?

 

[Colin_T]

Have salt in the tank for 2 weeks and it should get rid of the parasites. Use 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres of water.

You can add more fish in the future but try to quarantine them for at least 2 (preferably 4) weeks before adding them to the main display tank.

 

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

Have salt in the tank for 2 weeks and it should get rid of the parasites. Use 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres of water.

You can add more fish in the future but try to quarantine them for at least 2 (preferably 4) weeks before adding them to the main display tank.

Thank you. I'll add the extra salt now then. I was just worried for my bristlenose.

Since I only have the bristlenose and the shrimp in the tank, I was wondering if I really needed to quarantine the new fish once I get them in the future..
But I guess the quarantine is to see if they have anything going on that could affect Claus-Verner the bristlenose or the plants?
I do have a quarantine tank so it's not a problem. I was just wondering.
I mean, if the display tank was empty of Claus-Verner and the three shrimp, I wouldn't really need to quarantine them would I? In theory wouldn't the display tank then be able to function as the quarantine tank where I keep an extra eye on them for the first month or so?

 

[Colin_T]

If the main tank had no fish in then you could quarantine new fish in that, but because you still have fish in it, you want to quarantine new fish in a different tank so they don't introduce another disease into the main display tank.

 

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

Hi guys...

So... I treated the tank with salt for three weeks and two days..
Then I gradually changed the water every day for two weeks.

Then I waited one week (still changing the water several times) and then I added some guppies my sister couldn't have anymore.
I was a bit worried but I had to try putting fish in the tank sooner or later so..

Now.. after a few days one of the male guppies seemed very lethargic and was only hanging out by the surface of the water with his head upwards and his tailfin hanging low underneath him. He was almost vertical, all the time.
I noticed his belly seemed very very bloated so I put him in a quarantine tank by himself and read that if he was compacted he could only eat peas.. so I gave him a little bit of pea. He ate very little..
The next day he was still vertical and lethargic so I read that if he had dropsy or bloat I should treat him with salt. 1 tsp for 20 litres...
The next day he seemed more perky and was swimming around more..
But the day after.. he was dead 😢
I inspected him and he didn't have any excess mucous like the guppies who were sick before I treated the whole tank.
He only had that huge belly and vertical lethargic behavior.

Now today, I opened the lid to feed the fish and one of the females were floating dead in the surface. She was bent to the side.. and her belly seemed completely sunken in. So the opposite of the male guppy.. she didn't have any excess mucous either..
She didn't show any behavioral changes before her death like the male did either.

So....
What the heck is going on...? Did I not get rid of the disease from before?
Am I just unlucky and the male ate too much or gulped too much air by accident?
Is it because I'm using flake food? I crush it up pretty finely when I sprinkle it in though..

And what happened to the female? Her belly was sunken..

I feel like such a failure.. those poor fish...

I would love to get you guys' thoughts

 

[connorlindeman]

Hi guys...

So... I treated the tank with salt for three weeks and two days..
Then I gradually changed the water every day for two weeks.

Then I waited one week (still changing the water several times) and then I added some guppies my sister couldn't have anymore.
I was a bit worried but I had to try putting fish in the tank sooner or later so..

Now.. after a few days one of the male guppies seemed very lethargic and was only hanging out by the surface of the water with his head upwards and his tailfin hanging low underneath him. He was almost vertical, all the time.
I noticed his belly seemed very very bloated so I put him in a quarantine tank by himself and read that if he was compacted he could only eat peas.. so I gave him a little bit of pea. He ate very little..
The next day he was still vertical and lethargic so I read that if he had dropsy or bloat I should treat him with salt. 1 tsp for 20 litres...
The next day he seemed more perky and was swimming around more..
But the day after.. he was dead 😢
I inspected him and he didn't have any excess mucous like the guppies who were sick before I treated the whole tank.
He only had that huge belly and vertical lethargic behavior.

Now today, I opened the lid to feed the fish and one of the females were floating dead in the surface. She was bent to the side.. and her belly seemed completely sunken in. So the opposite of the male guppy.. she didn't have any excess mucous either..
She didn't show any behavioral changes before her death like the male did either.

So....
What the heck is going on...? Did I not get rid of the disease from before?
Am I just unlucky and the male ate too much or gulped too much air by accident?
Is it because I'm using flake food? I crush it up pretty finely when I sprinkle it in though..

And what happened to the female? Her belly was sunken..

I feel like such a failure.. those poor fish...

I would love to get you guys' thoughts

Where were the fish before you added them? Something sorta similar just happened to me. Don't feel bad. Guppies nowadays are very prone to disease due to excessive inbreeding.

 

[Colin_T]

pictures and video of the fish?

if fish bloat up (get fat) suddenly, its an internal problem and usually an internal bacterial infection that can't be treated.

 

[itiwhetu]

What exactly are the parameters of your tank?