Unwell fish

[fraserh]

Hi all,

I am a new aquarium owner and looking for some advice.

I have a 65l aquarium that is 2 months old in which I have 10 guppies and 10 pygmy Cory's.

About a week ago one of the guppies staring looking unwell. Swimming upside down, on it's side, sometimes vertically and sometimes spinning round wildly.
It's currently separated in another tank and I've tried salt baths, feeding it peas, and Interpret internal bacteria medicine but it doesn't seem to be getting any better but it's also not getting worse.

I now don't know what to do with it....should I put it back in with the others (all of which appear perfectly healthy) and hope for the best or do it put it out of its misery?

Nitrate and Nitrite are currently 0
Hardness is around >7 >125
Kh is 6 over 107
Ph is 6.8
Chlorine is 0

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Bryan_D]

Hi Fraserh and welcome to the forum.
I’m sorry to hear that one of your guppies are unwell.
I’m an amateur fishkeeper myself, but it sounds to me like it may be swim bladder disease? I have found some information on the issue which may be helpful.

https://www.bettacarefishguide.com/gupp ... r-disease/

Apologies if I am stating the obvious and you are already aware of this as a possibility. There are many in this forum who will be able to provide more useful advice I’m sure.
Keep posting updates as I’m interested to hear how everything turns out.

[fraserh]

Hi Bryan, thanks for the reply.

When looking up the symptoms the fish was displaying it had pointed me towards swim bladder disease.
If this is the case, do you know what sort of timescale I would be looking at to see a recovery (if it does recover)?

The sick fish is in what is basically a big plastic jar with about 2 or 3 litres of water, no filtration and no heater. I'm changing the water twice a day at the moment using water from the aquarium, so it's not really a sustainable setup.

Thanks

Fraser

[plankton]

Welcome to the forum.
Do you know how old the guppy is? Is it male or female?
How much are you feeding?
Can you get a pic of the fish?
It does sound like it could be swim bladder related, but they are easy to overfeed and this will also affect their swimming capabilities.

[fraserh]

Hi Plankton,

It's a male guppy. I've had it for around a month (bought from local aquarium shop).
I feed the guppies twice a day with vegetable flakes I also put in micro pellets for the Cory's. I give bloodworm once a week and fast once a week.

I fasted the ill fish for 3 days when I first noticed it was unwell. It does have a reduced appetite but is eating, I'm giving it a very small amount of flakes twice a day, and pooing.

I'll try to get a picture after work.

[black ghost]

We really need more information about the setup. This could be the result of poisoning. So I have a quick list of questions…

How long after setting up the tank did you add the first fish?
Did you cycle the filter before adding them?
How did you cycle it?
What is the temperature?
Your figures for hardness don’t make much sense. Can you give us proper values for KH and GH?
Can you test ammonia, nitrite and nitrate again? Nitrate will not be zero. Bang the reagent #2 bottle on the floor/wall before you shake it.
Are the test kits in date?
Do you always dechlorinate new water?
How much water do you change and how often?

FYI, don’t stop feeding an ill fish. Also I would put it back in the main tank asap. It probably won’t last long in a jar.
Also guppies don’t want vegetable flakes. Their diet is mainly insect larvae so they need more protein.

[fraserh]

Thanks for the reply black ghost. I'll try to answer what I can just now and then the rest later when I get home.

My tank has a substrate of crushed coral sand, and contains a large volcanic rock with some java fern and anubias attached. My tap water is very soft and so I have these things in to harden it. (I realise now in retrospect that getting a hardwater species was a bad decision).


I cycled the tank and filter for 4 weeks before adding any fish.
To cycle it I had substrate, rock and plants in the aquarium with heater and filter running. Tap water was treated with a water conditioner which removes chlorine, ammonia and Nitrite (I've included a picture). I used a product which adds bacteria, I think this was every 3 or 4 days during cycling (I can't remember exactly but it was whatever the bottle instructed). The water was regularly tested during the process.
I then added 5 guppies, then gave them a week in the tank before adding 5 pygmy Corys.
I had a nitrite spike around this point so was doing daily water changes and treatments untill this was resolved.
After that, around 2 weeks after adding the Cory's, I added 5 more guppies and then waited another week before adding the final 5 Cory's.

Tank temperature is 25°c.
I change about 20% of the water weekly and treat the tap water before adding it to the tank.
The tests I use are dip tests like the ones pictures below so those are the values from those. I will retest tonight though.

I was advised by the guy at the aquarium shop to remove the fish from the tank for a few days to let it rest as it was getting harassed constantly by the other guppies. I do have an airline in the big jar to oxygenate the water

[black ghost]

I was advised by the guy at the aquarium shop to remove the fish from the tank for a few days to let it rest as it was getting harassed constantly by the other guppies. I do have an airline in the big jar to oxygenate the water

Ok, you don’t have much choice there then.

So, test strips are ridiculously inaccurate, and I’m still concerned as to the nitrates being possibly too high, and the water possibly not being hard enough. Even if it is, you shouldn’t be water-changing a hard water tank with soft water. It’s osmotic stress every time.

Your start-up advice was good.

[fraserh]

Even if it is, you shouldn’t be water-changing a hard water tank with soft water. It’s osmotic stress every time.

Is there anything I can do about this? Or is it simply a case of waiting until the guppies die off, remove the coral and stone etc and replace with a more suitable species?

[black ghost]

Ideally, have the water in a container being hardened for a few days (coral gravel?), or for an instant fix you could put it in a container and add Malawi Salts or similar.