Unwell Guppie

[sazza]

Hello,

This is my first post to this forum. I have had my tank set up for about 6 weeks and since it finished cycling have been gradually adding fish and testing the water to make sure the nitrites stay at 0.

Brought 5 guppies 3 days ago, thought i had just males - i brought three with patterned finnage, and two plain white bodied fish with yellow or orange fins but on closer inspection, i couldnt see the gonopodium on 2 of the fish, so started to think that i had girlies instead of males .

Anyway, one of the females (?), is looking rather poorly. She has been in the top corner of the aquarium pretty much all day, and looks like she has a white fungus or something on her tail fin. I dont think it is white spot as there are no noticably problems on the main area of the body (Can white spot, only affect the fins?). She also has a dark area by the anal region, which leads me to suspect she may be pregnant.

Could she be stressed, due to the wrong male/female ratio (although the other female seems ok and is socialising with all the other fish).

The tank is a Jewel 180, other fish in there are 4 X-ray tetras, 3 yoyo loaches, 3 platies, 6 cardinals, 3 bloodfins, 3 Siamese AEs.

What should i do ?- all of the other fish seem fine, no other problems

 

[WILDER]

Please post test results in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph,how many gallons is the tank, and does the white fungus look fuzzy..

 

[sazza]

Hi,
Ammonia is 0, Nitrite 0 ppm, Nitrate 5 ppm, pH ~ 8 ([Using the Acquarium Pharmaceutical test kit] was concerned that this was a bit high, but it has been this level since i set the tank up. When tested with the 'tetra test-stick' the pH is about 7.4 ish. I am not convinced which test is most accurate!!). The water is quite hard, am going to start gradually changing to RO water. On Saturday did a ~15% change with RO water before putting the new guppies in.

Tank is 180 litres.

Have just had another look and the white stuff is very finely stringy - if that makes sense, almost like fine cotton wool!!

 

[WILDER]

Them test kit tetra strips are not that accurate, liquid one's are the best, it's fungus you will need to add a fungus med, I would of added some salt to the tank but you have loaches, so do a salt bath with the affected fish one tablespoon of aquarium salt in 5 litres of water.