Dying Guppy

[TC33]

Hi all,

Have a small problem where I think one of my guppies may be dying. But not really sure why.
Since Friday (First time noticed) it has been sat at the bottom of the tank, or on a leaf, breathing rapidly, not eating.
Once or twice I have seen it swim to the other guppies but shortly after returns to its previous state.
It's now been like this for a few days

No noticable signs of damage to the fish, no strange marks or colourations.

Water parameters are all fine from tests and been so for months.
Last water change Saturday 25%
Guppy has been in the tank for around 3 months.
All other fish are perfectly healthy from appearance and behaviour.
Other fish - 4 Guppies, 6 Cory's, 1 Bristlenose and some Cherry Shrimp.
Added some plants, Anubias about a month ago.

*Notable mention*
I have one other guppy that in the last few days has dissapeared, originally I ignored it, it happens. I had a Cory dissapear for a week and I thought it was dead, one day it appeared again.
Lifting up all aquarium items and sifting through plants I cannot find it and given the state of this one, maybe it died and was eaten.........

Any ideas? hopefully the links below work.

PXL_20240428_081936862.TS~3.mp4

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PXL_20240428_173738322.TS~3.mp4

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[Colin_T]

Any idea what its poop looked like before this started and since then?

If it stopped eating then it's dying. The rapid breathing is due to the fish being in pain. It probably has internal organ failure, which can be caused by an infection or just poor genetics.

I would euthanise it and if more fish develop the same symptoms, maybe send a few off to a lab for a necropsy and culturing to try and ID the problem.

You should also monitor their poop. If it's white and stringy when this happens, that is an intestinal infection.

 

[TC33]

Thanks Colin,

When you say white, do we mean white white or whiter than the usual. I did see a Guppy with a light beige coloured poop though I would not say it was stringy. The only reason I noticed it was because I had read too many articles that day on white poops being bad. But I will stress it was beige.
I will keep watch on the other guppies Poop (Fun times!), Corys I cannot, they don't poo in public. The bristlenose nevers stops.

So I already took it out this morning, not euthanised it and I don't have a quarantine tank. I just put it in one of those fish transport bags figuring it would give me 4-5 hours to get a reply here. But I think you are probably right and don't really want to risk it dying unknown and being eaten.

My concern is now this is the 2nd Guppy in a week (Though the 2nd has no trace and could be un-related) I would say of the 6 guppies I have 3 different batches/varieties and the 2 in question are the same. So maybe poor genetics, but would be coincidental in timing.

 

[Colin_T]

When you say white, do we mean white white or whiter than the usual.

cream, white, transparent or semi transparent poop is bad.

coloured poop is fine.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

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