Pls help my guppies are dying

Hi I have done so well with my first guppy breeding, they grew lovely, but recently they been dying one by one, there belly’s are swollen incl males, I tried Esha 2000 a while ago and did a 50% water change, they continued to still have swollen bellies one had dropsy so I had to let it go sadly, fisheries said it could be a bacterial infection and suggested esha ndx I noticed after I used it they started to have white string pop, which I thought great it’s working, the instruction say u can use again after 2 weeks, it’s been a week and still swollen bellies in some and I lost another today, I always use Esha optima when doing a water change to promote health, the thing is though even when I do a water change I use the terra water test strips and the NO3 is always quite high like 60-70 here are my water details:

Cl2 = 0
PH= 6.8
KH= 6
GH= 8
NO2= 0
NO3= 70

I have uploaded a picture of one of the dead fish and some males with a belly lump
I’m hoping it’s not anything serious like TB if anyone can advise please thank you

If the fish are swelling up overnight and stop feeding, they have an internal bacterial infection. They will need anti-biotics to treat them.

Colin_T said:

If the fish are swelling up overnight and stop feeding, they have an internal bacterial infection. They will need anti-biotics to treat them.

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Also they are not soft water fish so the pH of the water (6.8) is affecting them most likely.

Your Nitrate is too high, when is the last time you did a water changes? I suggest you to do 50-70% daily water changes to decrease your Nitrate. The fish looklike it had swollen belly, @Colin_T can you tell OP what med they should use (praziquantel and stuff?)

I don't know what country they are in or what medications they can get so don't advise on anti-biotics.

Colin_T said:

I don't know what country they are in or what medications they can get so don't advise on anti-biotics.

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The 500 mg Metronidazole and 150 mg Praziquantel info you give me really works.

"API General Cure" has Metronidazole and Praziquantel in but isn't available in some countries.

Hi Alice, sorry to hear about your guppies. How old are the test strips? i have found them to be notoriously inaccurate. Have you checked for ammonia, nitrite etc. Just to rule those issues out? The bacterial infection could have spiked because of water issues? Do you feed live food and have you introduced any new objects or fish to the tank. I'm not sure you can get General Cure in the UK but Esha 2000 should be working and cures a whole range of bacterial and fungal issues. Did you treat the tank for the full duration as indicated? finally have you noticed any other flashing or scraping? The white stringy excrement could be a sign of internal parasitic infection.

Martyn87 said:

Hi Alice, sorry to hear about your guppies. How old are the test strips? i have found them to be notoriously inaccurate. Have you checked for ammonia, nitrite etc. Just to rule those issues out? The bacterial infection could have spiked because of water issues? Do you feed live food and have you introduced any new objects or fish to the tank. I'm not sure you can get General Cure in the UK but Esha 2000 should be working and cures a whole range of bacterial and fungal issues. Did you treat the tank for the full duration as indicated? finally have you noticed any other flashing or scraping? The white stringy excrement could be a sign of internal parasitic infection.

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Thanks for the replies, I use dried flakes they do seem to be eating when I feed them, I havnt added anything new to the tank, there are no scraping marks, I will do another dose of the Esha ndx soon and will do a water change today, the only thing I did that may have affected the last dose was having the lights on when it said to leave them off, but I was thinking the same internal parasite with the white strongly poo I will update after I have completed the change and next dose and will check ammonia also as I havnt done this yet and have a kit here. Thanks

Keep the lights off, if i recall the UV properties can effect the treatment. You also haven't noted how hard your water is, if i remember correctly if your water is very soft treatments can be less effective. I think you have to put in a triple dose of Esha 2000 if your water is below 4-5dh. The White excrement can be noted with bacterial and parasitic infections. Typically with parasites the fish withers as the parasite consumes what the fish eats, but your fish are bloating. Can you keep an eye out for when they poo to see if you notice any little worms. I still think Esha 2000 or APi general cure will be your best bet. In my opinion I wouldn't re-treat with NDX I would go back to the Esha 2000.

Martyn87 said:

Keep the lights off, if i recall the UV properties can effect the treatment. You also haven't noted how hard your water is, if i remember correctly if your water is very soft treatments can be less effective. I think you have to put in a triple dose of Esha 2000 if your water is below 4-5dh. The White excrement can be noted with bacterial and parasitic infections. Typically with parasites the fish withers as the parasite consumes what the fish eats, but your fish are bloating. Can you keep an eye out for when they poo to see if you notice any little worms. I still think Esha 2000 or APi general cure will be your best bet. In my opinion I wouldn't re-treat with NDX I would go back to the Esha 2000.

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Thanks for the advice, I thought I’d give it a few days see how they go, I did a 75% water change, and my fish look much happier and their poop is normal now, however there was one who was still bloated and wasn’t pooping at all, sadly it died today, All the others seem fine normal bellies eating and pooping fine, however I did notice on one of the female pregnant guppies she has a noticeable white flat spot on her back, it’s smooth not raised, and it’s not ich, maybe I just havnt noticed it before could have always been there but thought I’d take a picture of it just incase it’s anything I should be concerned about, I had to put some baby fry in to lure here over to take the picture, I have one baby fry in there I managed to save from being eaten and will release once it’s big enough.

As to my water it’s very soft I have to use marine buffer to raise ph but I do it gradually with water change, my Esha 2000 arrived today not sure if I should use it just to be safe or wait if you could advise thanks

Al1ce said:

Thanks for the advice, I thought I’d give it a few days see how they go, I did a 75% water change, and my fish look much happier and their poop is normal now, however there was one who was still bloated and wasn’t pooping at all, sadly it died today, All the others seem fine normal bellies eating and pooping fine, however I did notice on one of the female pregnant guppies she has a noticeable white flat spot on her back, it’s smooth not raised, and it’s not ich, maybe I just havnt noticed it before could have always been there but thought I’d take a picture of it just incase it’s anything I should be concerned about, I had to put some baby fry in to lure here over to take the picture, I have one baby fry in there I managed to save from being eaten and will release once it’s big enough.

As to my water it’s very soft I have to use marine buffer to raise ph but I do it gradually with water change, my Esha 2000 arrived today not sure if I should use it just to be safe or wait if you could advise thanks

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Raising the ph is going to do nothing to help, you need to raise the GH .... when the GH raises the ph will follow on it's own.

JuiceBox52 said:

Raising the ph is going to do nothing to help, you need to raise the GH .... when the GH raises the ph will follow on it's own.

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The only way to raise GH is to buy "Rift Lake Conditioner" or put some sea shells in, it will slowly increase GH.

Barry Tetra said:

The only way to raise GH is to buy "Rift Lake Conditioner" or put some sea shells in, it will slowly increase GH.

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The sea shells you need a lot of, you can buy crushed coral substrate and that should work

Now you had another fish die I would water change again. How many fish are left? I would keep on doing bigger water changes everyday this week and then scale back over the next week or two. If the fish are responding positively to water changes then that's good news.

Can we get an update on your tank test?

My water is Ph 6.8 and GH 6 out the tap and I use replenish from seachem to raise the GH, and the above posts are right, the PH follows. I then use an alkaline buffer to raise carbonate hardness to keep it there. You can increase GH cheaply and easily with epsom salts, baking soda and table salt however I haven't gone down this route as I have a easy supply of the aforementioned product. I'm pretty sure that Marine Buffer would likely raise the GH as well, can you confirm the manufacturer? I have tried the shells and crushed coral before and the buffering is so slow I wouldn't go down that route if you need to make a big GH movement.

The water isn't optimal for Guppys if you could get the water to 10 Gh and slightly alkaline that would be better.

I notice there seems to be some plant matter or other material on the surface, what is it? Could you also do a full tank pic.

Can you confirm your normal maintenance process and what you feed?

If you can answer the above we can then we can consider course of action.