I've kept freshwater fish for several years, then moved and quit the hobby, but I've recently started up again. Wow, AC has really changed it's look for the better, and I'm glad to see the forum is active and thriving.
I purchased 5 female fancy guppies a couple days ago, and they were active, healthy ones from a LFS with very clean, well-maintained tanks.
I put them in a tank that had been jumpstarted and cycled with filter media from an established tank. During the short cycling process, there were some local caught minnows and baby crayfish that have all since been transferred to another tank. Ammonia 0, Nitrites, 0.
I've never known guppies to be aggressive, though if another guppy is significantly unhealthy (or weak due to being very pregnant) or dying I guess they could pick at it.
The 2nd day, I noticed one of the guppies tails was newly torn. The third day, I noticed that 2 guppies had their tails torn, one so severely that instead of a tail, I just saw the <not sure of correct word> tail fin "skeletons" remaining. If you can imagine sun rays extending out from the end of the fish body, without (EDIT) much of the skin or coloring left.
By the end of the 3rd day, one guppy was trying to swim, but since instead of a tail, he only had these tail "strings" without anything between connecting them, he obviously wasn't swimming too well. EDIT: One closer look, it looks like it's not completely shredded, but there's no color, so it looked that way.
2 of the guppies are absolutely perfectly healthy, with no fin damage at all.
I haven't been able to watch them for long periods of time, only briefly, but I didn't see any aggressive behavior, so I'm considering several possibilities:
1) I missed a baby crayfish still in the tank (pretty unlikely, I searched thouroughly, though I do have a lot of java moss).
2) Some kind of disease or parasite from the local fish/crayfish, although it really doesn't look like a disease, but it really has the look of another fish nipping the fins to shreds.
3) One or more nippy guppy out of the remaining two.
UPDATE: 1 dead. 2 still completely healthy. Considering QTing those two to see if they are causing the tail shredding. Of the 2 injured, one now also has signs of nipping damage on part of the body closer to the tail also (has the whitish, scales-missing look).
Any thoughts?
I purchased 5 female fancy guppies a couple days ago, and they were active, healthy ones from a LFS with very clean, well-maintained tanks.
I put them in a tank that had been jumpstarted and cycled with filter media from an established tank. During the short cycling process, there were some local caught minnows and baby crayfish that have all since been transferred to another tank. Ammonia 0, Nitrites, 0.
I've never known guppies to be aggressive, though if another guppy is significantly unhealthy (or weak due to being very pregnant) or dying I guess they could pick at it.
The 2nd day, I noticed one of the guppies tails was newly torn. The third day, I noticed that 2 guppies had their tails torn, one so severely that instead of a tail, I just saw the <not sure of correct word> tail fin "skeletons" remaining. If you can imagine sun rays extending out from the end of the fish body, without (EDIT) much of the skin or coloring left.
By the end of the 3rd day, one guppy was trying to swim, but since instead of a tail, he only had these tail "strings" without anything between connecting them, he obviously wasn't swimming too well. EDIT: One closer look, it looks like it's not completely shredded, but there's no color, so it looked that way.
2 of the guppies are absolutely perfectly healthy, with no fin damage at all.
I haven't been able to watch them for long periods of time, only briefly, but I didn't see any aggressive behavior, so I'm considering several possibilities:
1) I missed a baby crayfish still in the tank (pretty unlikely, I searched thouroughly, though I do have a lot of java moss).
2) Some kind of disease or parasite from the local fish/crayfish, although it really doesn't look like a disease, but it really has the look of another fish nipping the fins to shreds.
3) One or more nippy guppy out of the remaining two.
UPDATE: 1 dead. 2 still completely healthy. Considering QTing those two to see if they are causing the tail shredding. Of the 2 injured, one now also has signs of nipping damage on part of the body closer to the tail also (has the whitish, scales-missing look).
Any thoughts?
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