Parasite?

[jonny-5]

Well i suppose we all go through it at some point. Im just gutted my old cory never saw it through. Hes been here forever, I got him in the backend of 2015 so he was here a good while, Hes been in 3 different tanks, Even on his own for 3 years ,Due to tankmates deaths. Since he started getting friends of his own kind,He seemed to get more poorly each time

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Well i suppose we all go through it at some point. Im just gutted my old cory never saw it through. Hes been here forever, I got him in the backend of 2015 so he was here a good while, Hes been in 3 different tanks, Even on his own for 3 years ,Due to tankmates deaths. Since he started getting friends of his own kind,He seemed to get more poorly each time

It's rough my friend, it really is. If you weren't sad about it, then you wouldn't be a very good fishkeeper, you know?

It sucks to lose 'em, but even worse when it's one of the special ones you're extra attached to.

 

[Colin_T]

Mate, I'm really not all that great! Have had huge problems with my dad's tank since he unplugged the filter and have lost a hell of a lot of fish from that one, despite sorting the filtration and lots of water changes. About ready to give up on that one. And found out my guppies in another tank might have fin rot now too...

Post pictures of the fish.

Best treatment for sick livebearers. water changes and salt.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Post pictures of the fish.

Best treatment for sick livebearers. water changes and salt.

I only saw this last night, since dad is the swallow-tailed yellow snakeskin cobra male in the first photo, a lot of these are his sons which have the same ragged edges as his. Thought it was just the swallow tailed gene, but took these photos yesterday and saw what looks like re-growth on the dark male guppy in the first pic. So now thinking there might be fin rot going on too.

Problem with salt is that they're in with pygmy cories and otos. No other fish, nothing that could be nipping. Weekly 75% water changes, internal and canister filter, ammonia and nitrites always zero, nitrates rarely go above ten, heavily planted tank.

Will have to do some tank juggling to do salt treatment, but I'm prepared to do that.

Colourful tailed male at the top same batch from the yellow swallow tailed dad, but heart-shaped chunk about of centre of tail? Blue male unrelated, and tail looks fine! Yellow and orange male same batch of young, also swallow tailed, along with two pure yellow clones of the dad in here.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

@Colin_T halp please!
About ready to shut these tanks down for good! It's been one thing after another, not feeling very good about my fishkeeping skills right now...

 

[Colin_T]

the yellow guppy with the bent back has fin rot. it needs treating now or it will kill the fish.

if your worried about salt, move the catfish out then dump a heap of salt in with the guppies.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

the yellow guppy with the bent back has fin rot. it needs treating now or it will kill the fish.

if your worried about salt, move the catfish out then dump a heap of salt in with the guppies.

The yellow guppy with the bent back is a swallow tailed one. Bought with a tail like that, from a tank of matching swallow tailed ones, @emeraldking is the one who told me it's called swallow tailed But the black guppy is the one we thought might have fin rot?

Will definitely moving tank residents around tomorrow so all the male guppies will be salt treated anyway. I definitely agree salt is great for livebearers, it saved one my of guppies from an injury/fungal infection once, I'd just rather not use it with cories or otos when I can avoid it.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

the yellow guppy with the bent back has fin rot. it needs treating now or it will kill the fish.

if your worried about salt, move the catfish out then dump a heap of salt in with the guppies.

Urgh, you're right, I just compared to an earlier photo of him, and the bottom of his tail is definitely more ragged than it was.

I'll move then and begin salt treatment in the am.

Then I'll be rehoming the fish and leaving the hobby. I'm clearly doing some thing very wrong to have this many problems, despite how hard I've worked at it. I'm tired of sick fish, dead fish, messing up in ways that will kill fish. That's not fun.

 

[Colin_T]

You just keep the wrong sort of fish. Guppies from Asia are horrible things to keep alive and most people lose them within 6 months of getting them. If you get young from them before they die, the young usually do well.

With livebearers, they regularly carry worms and gill flukes and if you treat these as soon as you get the fish, you normally have less issues.

Keep livebearers in water with a GH above 200ppm and a pH above 7.0 and you won't have as many problems with them.

--------------------
Your dad turning off the filter isn't your fault and if a filter is not working, there is going to be problems.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

You just keep the wrong sort of fish. Guppies from Asia are horrible things to keep alive and most people lose them within 6 months of getting them. If you get young from them before they die, the young usually do well.

With livebearers, they regularly carry worms and gill flukes and if you treat these as soon as you get the fish, you normally have less issues.

Keep livebearers in water with a GH above 200ppm and a pH above 7.0 and you won't have as many problems with them.

--------------------
Your dad turning off the filter isn't your fault and if a filter is not working, there is going to be problems.

Thanks Colin, I needed to hear this! Have been fed up with all the problems lately, and I feel so guilty when I make mistakes that kill fish. Just feel like I've had more than my fair share of issues since starting this hobby (and yes, a lot of them were livebearer problems!) and I've reached the end of my tether with it lately. Definitely helped me resolve to stop keeping the livebearers for sure, at least.

I do usually keep the livebearers at my usual GH, 253ppm. This boy tank was only different because I had a single pygmy cory, one that was alone at the store, and I added the boys for company until I could get some more pygmies. I finally have some more pygmies, but it took four months before the store could get more in! Brexit and covid causing supply issues. Since this is my softer water tank for the cories, I gradually adjusted it to be at the higher end of the otos/pygmies range, and the lower end for the guppies, since it seemed better than nothing, but not ideal. Will sort this when I move them all around.