guppies

[Thomas A. Anderson]

I've lost 2 male guppies in 2 days Both of them seen swimming at a slight angle a few hrs before demise, then later seen on the tank bottom with a 'bent' body.

Neither showed any sign of disease nor any sign of assault.

All water parameters are normal.

 

[William]

A few months ago I lost about 20 guppy babies / 50 to what I think is the same disease. Some survived while others keeled over. I think it is due to guppy's being so weak these days as a result of all the interbreeding with each other in order to get the amazing colours on display these days, I was unable to find a suitable cure for the disease which we both seem to have had, hopefully someone else can be more helpful .

 

[Minxnfella]

HMMM, see my guppies have died too. Out of 8 that I have had I only have two remaining. All but one who squished herself seem to have had the same problem. I looked into it and it could be a parasite from the symptoms, but this is really when you wish fish could talk and tell you what it was. I have had to euthanise a couple of mine since I knew how it was going. Are fish self aware?? Do they feel pain? Does it matter how you kill them?
And before everyone jumps on me, just thought I'd ask and see what people think!

 

[William]

Right I have remembered what it was. I looked into my fish tank and saw one of my guppies looking very lethargic like yours and I instantly remembered.

It's a muscle wasting disease, there is no cure as far as I know and it is contagious so I euthanised one of my guppies in order to try and prevent the spread, she was looking so poorly it was awful to see. They swim all slowly and the bend in the back is very obvious. In the middle it is almost like the top of a triangle and both sides of the middle sort of droop down. The fins also seem to be clamped.

I think the cause of the trouble could be:
a) heriditary as I mentioned earlier guppies have been inbred for years
B ) Slightly bad water conditions, i mentioned my filter burn out the other day, the tank was probably without filtration for about 3 hours! some bacteria in the filter may have died but hopefully not all otherwise I'll have a cycle eek!! So I did a water change and am hoping for the best.

Good luck