My guppy won't fan his tail. Is he OK?

[kitty falol]

Hi guys

Is it normal for a guppy not to want to fan his tail?

I've only had him a couple of weeks and I always thought he just had a very thin tail, or it was because he was young. However on a couple of occassions I noticed him fanning his tail and it's actually really beautiful, but it's really rare to see it.

This morning, I noticed that his tail looked thinner than ever. It's not fin rot though, he just seems to be holding it in. Do you think he's OK.

Here he is - we call him Tricky because when his tail is open you can see he's got 3 stripes of colour in his tail!

 

[snowyangel]

It's not regular behaviour, it's called "clamped fins". This means the fins are held close to the body and it's good early sign of a stressed/unhappy fish. Various conditions cause this: low oxygen levels, change in pH, over stocked tank, or parasites.... have you checked your water for ammonia and nitrite lately? Please find out before it get's serious.

 

[kitty falol]

Hi Snowyangel

Thank you for your reply

Yes, I'm starting to get worried about him now. I'm definitely not overstocked. I've just got 4 guppies in a 15 gallon tank and my ammonia and nitrites are barely reading. My PH is about 7.4.

There's 2 things I can thing of that have changed recently. A couple of days ago I gave the filter media a bit of a swish around in some tank water that I removed. I thought I was being gentle, but maybe not gentle enough. Also the temperature here has been quite high over the last few days. I suppose that would reduce the oxygen in the water. The water temperature is currently 28 degrees but it was higher yesterday.

I'll do another water change this morning and try and get the temperature down by a degree.

Thanks again

 

[Robert]

try adding an air stone, if you don't already have one in there.

 

[kitty falol]

Hi Robert

Yes, we've got an airstone in there already. I'm not sure if lack of oxygen is the problem. He hasn't been gasping for air or anything like that.

Snowyangel, I think you're right, it may be some sort of parasitic problem? I've looked up the things that clamped fins can indicate and I've ruled out ich and velvet. Thinking about it yesterday, he had a little white 'thing' (it's hard to tell because his underbelly is also whitish) under his body. It looked like he'd scratched himself on some gravel so I put some melafix in this morning when I did a water change. The 'thing' or whatever it was has gone now, so I wonder if he's got some sort of parasite??? It's definitely not ich though - I know what that looks like

He often has a habit of shooting up and down the glass for ages and ages, but right now he just seems to be swimming gently around.

If it is parasites what do you think of the Interpet range? They are the only meds I can buy from my local shop, but I could travel further afield if needed.

Thank again

Kathryn

 

[Robert]

this is kinda off topic, but does your guppy have any Endler's Livebearer in him, his color on his sides look alot like an endler

 

[snowyangel]

I'm definitely not overstocked. I've just got 4 guppies in a 15 gallon tank and my ammonia and nitrites are barely reading. My PH is about 7.4.

Your right about not being over stocked, nor is your ph too high, but what worries me is you say "ammonia and nitrite levels are BARELY there". Barely? as in a little? because as you should know ammonia and nitrite are lethal to fish and will suffocate them, so ANY level present is still deadly, weither it's 0.5ppm or 0.1 ppm. Did you Cycle your tank before adding any fish? Most likely your fish is being affected by the ammonia and nitrite. How ammonia and nitrite posioning works is is affects the fishes bloods ability to carry oxygen in its body. As a result the fish is weak and more likely to contract disease.Try to do daily 15% water changes to get those levels down to zero and to help bring oxygen to your fish. Also, you could add aquarium salt to your tank, that way the fish takes in the salt instead of the ammonia and nitrite and therefor acts as buffer aggainst the posioning affect. Test your water each day to monitor the readings incase it starts increasing again too.
Hope I've helped in some way or another

 

[kitty falol]

Hi Snowyangel

Sadly I didn't know about fishless cycling before I put my guppies in, but my levels were actually at zero when I put this particular fish in. I think I may have restarted my cycle when I swished my filter media around in the bucket of tank water It's just that the filter media box said that it should be replaced after a month so I thought that it would be OK to just give it a little 'dip'. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea.

My ammonia is at 0.2 and my nitrite is at zero. I've already got salt in there, but I'll keep on doing the water changes.

Thank you for all your help. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The others look in the peak of fitness which is a little puzzling

Hi Robert

I don't know, I've wondered the same thing! When we bought him we rescued him from a tank of what were probably feeder guppies. There weren't any purebreds in there and they hadn't bothered to separate the males and females.

He's quite a bit smaller than the others as well, but his colours are beautiful - when he's feeling on top form that is

 

[snowyangel]

It does sounds like your restarting the cycle, which will be hard on some fish. Keep doing what your doing and do daily water tests for ammonia and nitrite. That ammonia has to be zero.