Red Spikes on Guppies Please Help!!

Hi All,

I need some help/advice desperately!
I'm new to these forums so please be patient with me. I currently have a 70L tank set up with mostly guppies, they give birth a lot as we all know but recently I have noticed a few of my female guppies have red spikes poking in and out of there backside?
One of the females sadly passed away and have noticed that I have 4 females with the same thing? I have read up about a lot of things this could be and I have showed photos and explained to my local fish shops but no one there seems to know what it is, I'm afraid this is some kind of parasite and it is going to kill off my fish and fry!
I have added a picture.

If anyone has any advice then please help!

Thanks

Hi

Can you post a close up photo please?

A few pictures are needed for a correct ID but it does indeed sound like parasites. Camallanus worms to be exact. Please post a few pictures so we can be sure of what you need to treat for.

And can you also tell us which country you are in as medications are different in different countries.

Hi All thanks for the replies I'm in the UK, i have added the best photo i could get, had to downgrade the quality as I couldn't upload the original as it was too big.

Thanks

Sadly the fish in the picture above passed away after I had to help her give birth. But a few other female guppies have the same!

They do look like camallanus worms. Since you are in the UK, treat the whole tank with eSHa-ndx. This contains levamisole, one of the recommended ingredients for camallanus worms. I haven't used this myself but I know someone who has and it cleared up their tank. (It wasn't on the market when I had to treat for camallanus worms a few years ago)

Read the instructions carefully. Some treatments say to add twice, the second dose a few weeks after the first. This is because some treatments kill the worms but not the eggs, and the second treatment is to kill the worms that were eggs when the first dose was added and before they can lay eggs themselves. I think eSHa-ndx says to dose a second time after 14 days.

I am told that the leaflet says it OK with shrimps but that you "should be careful with snails". If you have any you'll need to remove them while the tank is being treated.

I've never had to treat that kind of parasite but I hear it is pretty hard to get rid of completely. Good luck treating them, I hope the rest make it.