Female guppies dying one by one.

[FishFriend0]

Hello, a few months ago I got 4 female guppies along with 2 males. Around a month and a half later I saw callamanus worms coming from their anuses. I treated the callamanus worms and they are now gone but unfortunately 2 died. Around 2 weeks later a female platy died aswell but for reasons I don't know as no other fish seemed affected. The fish are now pooping their usuall brown poop and seemed fine. Now recently I have had a little problem with finrot in one of my female platys (links to previous threads: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/is-this-fin-rot.494318/ and: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/fin-rot-not-getting-better.494519/ ) which also looked to have spread to one of my Boesemani rainbowfish. They are now starting to look better and I am going to stop the treatment soon. Yesterday though I found a female guppy dead, which had not shown any signs of finrot, or any other diseases other than I think I saw one of the 2 hanging around the filter output. Now there is only one of the originals left (I got 2 more a few weeks ago). This morning I looked at my tank and am now seeing the last one sitting near the bottom in the corner rapidly breathing while all the other fish were swimming around near the surface hoping for food. I have no idea what is happening here so if anybody has any idea what to do that would be appreciated. Thanks for the help with these issues that I have had over the past few months.

 

[Colin_T]

Guppies, platies, swordtails and mollies from Asian fish farms are infested with health issues and regularly die within 6 months of people buying them. If you treat them for intestinal worms, gill flukes and external protozoan parasites, then keep them in hard water, they do a bit better but they still struggle to last a year or more. If they breed before they die, their young usually do well. Locally bred fish usually do well too.

When fish sit on the bottom or near the surface, don't eat, look fatter than usual, and breath heavily, they normally have internal organ failure or a major internal infection. Quite often they have an internal infection that causes organ failure. There's no cure for this when it happens and the fish usually dies within 24 hours of producing these symptoms. There's also no way of identifying this type of health issue until the fish shows symptoms, and then it's too late.

It's always a good idea to quarantine new fish for a month before adding them to an aquarium, especially fish like guppies. You can use a 2 foot aquarium or a plastic storage container for the quarantine tank. Have a thin layer of sand or gravel on the bottom, a heater and a few plastic plants. Have a couple of filters (including an air operated sponge filter) in the main tank and use the air operated one in the quarantine tank when you need it. that way it's always cycled.