Injured Guppy

I've had a new Aquarium for around 2 weeks. I woke up this morning to see one of the Guppy had his body stuck in the filter. No idea how long they were there for. The side fin seems damaged, but it is swimming, albeit not as it was. Any advice?

Hello! Do 70% water change for several days and see how he does. Put a piece of panty hose over the bottom of the filter to prevent it from happening again. Keep us posted!

Thanks. Will give it a go.

Welcome to the forum, is your tank cycled?

Here's the fish that got stuck. Is that some form of fungus on its side. It looks like it. Any advice?

What do you mean about 'cycle'?

Very nice tank. You need to check out the cycling section of this forum. I would keep the tank really clean. Make sure that he is not getting picked on by the other fish. I have found that injured or weak fish are sometimes targets for other fish

odwyer1980 said:

What do you mean about 'cycle'?

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Cycling is the process of growing bacteria which remove fish waste. In simple terms, fish excrete ammonia, which is toxic to fish. A type of bacteria lives in a cycled tank which 'eat' this ammonia and turn it into nitrite. Nitrite is also toxic to fish and another type of bacteria 'eat' this nitrite and turn it into nitrate. Nitrate is less toxic, but should be kept below 20 ppm.
A new tank has none of these bacteria so we have to grow them and it takes several weeks to do this. There are two ways to cycle a tank.
Fishless cycling is where you add ammonia to the tank before getting fish. This feeds the bacteria so they grow.
Fish-in cycling is where fish are put in an uncycled tank, and ammonia and nitrite levels are measured every day, and a water change done whenever either is above zero.


When Retired Viking asked if your tank was cycled, he was asking if you did a fishless cycle before getting the fish. If you didn'tyou possibly have ammonia and/or nitrite in the water, both of which will affect the fish. You need a test kit to check the levels of these two. In the meantime, daily water changes will keep the levels low until you can find out how much, if any, there are in the water.

No, he's fine. No bullies allowed in this tank. Anyone caught bullying will have it backfire on them when they don't get fed for a day. They get on like a house on fire! I have 15 Neon Tetra, 4 Male Guppies, 3 Corydora, a few Zebra Snails and a Giant African Shrimp. Quite peaceful really.

I got the aquarium 2 weeks ago from Pets at Home in the UK. They tested the water at the time and said it was fine. We got some Anti-fungus treatment today from the above store, so now it's about waiting 7 days for it to take affect. We'll do the water change then. The advice at the top about covering the filter worked a treat. Thanks again, and will keep you updated on the progress.

I would not believe anything Pets at Home tell you. They have a terrible reputation.

The water would have been fine when they tested it because it was plain tap water, with nothing in it to make it not fine. As soon as you put the fish in the tank, they began to excrete ammonia and the water very quickly became not fine. Most illnesses are caused by poor water quality.

You need to buy a test kit asap - one that tests for ammonia and nitrite
Change at least half the water every day until you have the test kit, then change the water every time there is a reading above zero for ammonia or nitrite.
If you wait 7 days before doing a water change you are risking the health of the fish. If the medication is added every day, do a water change then add it. If it's not added every day, on days when you don't add it, do the water change then add enough to treat to amount of new water only.

Which anti fungal medication did you buy? If it's the love fish brand you need to be very careful with it because if you overdose with it it will kill your fish.

odwyer1980 said:

Anyone caught bullying will have it backfire on them when they don't get fed for a day.

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Just worth mentioning I (and many) others give my fish a day or 2 off food every week. That's not punishment but actually good practice

It was the Interpet one. Thanks for the advice.

A bit of an update. So the anti-fungal medication worked to an extent. The white spot has now gone, although the fin on the Guppy's right side is not as it was. He seems to be happily swimming around with the others again. The filter issue was also solved thanks to the advice above, as you can see by the photo. We just need to re-test the water, which won't happen anytime soon, due to what's going on in the world. All in all, they all seem happy.

odwyer1980 said:

A bit of an update. So the anti-fungal medication worked to an extent. The white spot has now gone, although the fin on the Guppy's right side is not as it was. He seems to be happily swimming around with the others again. The filter issue was also solved thanks to the advice above, as you can see by the photo. We just need to re-test the water, which won't happen anytime soon, due to what's going on in the world. All in all, they all seem happy.

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Order a test kit from Amazon UK. API master liquid test kit is a good choice.