Sick guppy

[joannethomas6]

Does anyone know why my male guppy keeps sitting on the bottom of the tank?


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[snork6]

Hi! welcome to the forum In order for us to help you properly can you please provide us with some background information and maybe even some pictures? Before we can attempt to diagnose your fish we need to know the following:

How large is the tank?

What other fish are in the tank?

Has the tank been cycled? If not please read the following link

http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

Does the tank have a heater and filter?

Also, please provide the following water measurements. If you don't know how to have your water tested take a sample of it to your LFS and have them test it (make sure they give you the actual numbers not just say your water is fine) or purchase your own testing kit (which is recommended that anyone in the fish hoby do)

Ammonia

Nitrite

Nitrate

PH

Hardness (Can be found with a quick google search for water hardness for your area)

Once you provide us with this information we can hopefully help you solve your problem

 

[joannethomas6]

Hi I have had my tank up and running for 2 months now, I live in Sheffield with soft water, have a 4foot tank 160 litre /43 gal, I have had the water tested & they sed it was great (didn't ask for exact figures.)
I have 6 male guppies, 1 of which I've had for one & half years (which is the one that's sick), 6 neon tetras, 2 rabbit snails, a rainbow shark, & a baby shrimp.
Temp is on 76 F.
I have 2 live plants that I've split into 3. I have a heater & fluval u3 150L filter.
All the other fish are well. I did a part water change yesterday before I noticed him sat on the bottom of the tank.

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[joannethomas6]

Ammonia 0
Ph 6.8
KH 100 ?
GH 125
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0.5

The guppy seems to be ok today but still would like to know what's going on with him

This is him sick yesterday

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[seangee]

Any nitrite is poisonous for your fish. After 8 weeks your tank probably isn't fully cycled yet. Suggest more water changes to get is down to 0 and keep it there.

 

[joannethomas6]

Ok cheers I've got some water ready for another water change today. The fish seems ok today which is strange. It can be quite hard to tell what colour the water testers are. Hopefully he will be ok. I feed them a pea yesterday incase it was bloated. All the others seem fine


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[Essjay]

Your water in Sheffield is very soft, guppies are hard water fish and will be quite stressed in water as soft as yours. In addition to keeping your nitrite at zero by water changes, until you have enough bacteria to keep it down for you, I would also seriously think about rehoming the guppies and replacing them with soft water fish.

Is your water supplier Yorkshire Water?
If it is, go to this page https://www.yorkshirewater.com/waterhardness and about half way down you'll find a map and a box to type your postcode - enter it and click find location. A table will then appear below the map, and next to the table is your hardness written as "Water hardness average xxx mg/l calcium" Can you tell us that number please? We will need to convert it into the units used in fishkeeping (dH and ppm)



(I used the postcodes of several Spar shops around Sheffield and their hardness was very soft, ranging from 1dH/18 ppm to 2 dH/40 ppm)

 

[joannethomas6]

Thank you for the really useful info. My dad had this tank while I was growing up and always had guppies, even having babies so I always thought they would be fine. I would be a shame not to have them in my tank but I still have my old one which is a 30 litre bio orb,


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[joannethomas6]

What do you think?


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[joannethomas6]

What is a good xxxmg/l calcium for guppies?


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[joannethomas6]

If I got the water to 7PH level would that be ok for all my fish? And how?


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[seangee]

The guppy should cope with a pH of 8 so don't mess with that (its really not worth it). I can't advise on too soft water (never encountered it in the UK) but I do know that its easier to keep a soft water fish in hard water then the other way around.

But you said he perked up after the water change. Have you managed to get your nitrites to zero? I would focus on that right now with as many water changes as are necessary - and I would stop feeding until it is zero (and stays there).

 

[joannethomas6]

Yes I think it's gone down a. It, done a part water change again today and filled another tub of water up for tomorrow. The sick guppy seems sick again now sat on the bottom again & he is my oldest one, I've had him for a year & half now. But he's always been ok before. The other ones I had originals with him got fin rot after I bought some more from the shop. Hopefully after all the meds no more have come down with fin rot


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[joannethomas6]

Ok thanks


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[Essjay]

9.8 mg/l calcium converts to 1.4 dH and 24.5 ppm. Some fish profiles use dH while others use ppm.

The best site for accurate information is Seriously Fish, which gives the hardness range of guppies as 143 to 536 ppm. At 24 ppm, your hardness is much too low for guppies.

pH is less important than hardness; fish can cope with pH outside their normal range better than a hardness outside their normal range, provided it is not too extreme.
You really need to get your own test kit, preferably one with liquid reagents not strip testers. This is something all fish keepers should have. Testing the water is the first thing to do if fish don't look well. For example, you mentioned guppies getting fin rot after adding more fish - was that due to a disease brought in or did adding new fish cause ammonia to rise, which would have caused problems for fish already badly stressed by being in water that is too soft? Testing for ammonia and nitrite would have answered that question in a few minutes. Unfortunately we can't rely on a shop saying your water is fine because so many of them have no idea what water should be.