any guppy experts here? :) new guppy swimming really weird

[rastoma]

I've never had guppies before in the past years of owning aquariums. My son got 4 yesterday for his new tank (6 weeks old, established, still new to us). They are pretty small, I guess juniniles. Looks like maybe 3 females and 1 male.

He saw one swimming in loops as he called in the bag on the way home. We just thought she was stressed during the move. He put them in a 1/2 gallon container with a heater (designed for 1 gallon and less, with one temp setting, 78F) and an air stone as a quarantine since we got these from a place we've never been to before. He used water from his established 15gallon and aclimiated them to the temp before putting them. After a few hours, we put a tiny bit of flake food in and all 4 were extremely active and eating. That was yesterday.

This morning, they are all still moving around and look good except for one of the females. It's like she can't hold herself upright. She kind of swims in circles and swims upside a little sometimes, but mostly tilted slightly. We again gave them just barely enough food that they could eat in about 30 seconds and all 4 including the weird acting one darted around the small tank lightening fast while eating.

They all have more color than they did in the LFS and look great. I have searched the web and see a lot of posts on different forums with the subject of 'guppy swimming funny' but I just don't know what to do since this is the first guppies I've ever dealt with. I haven't tested water parameters but as I mentioned the tank is cycled and in great condition. Weekly water changes, crystal clear water. Other fish are incredibly healthy and active. He has lost one fish in 6 weeks and it was about a month after the tank cycled, one play died. Very light load in the tank.

Maybe it's just a deformed fish?

 

[teigan666]

sounds to me like your guppy has swim bladder issues

 

[cradlefan]

Guppies get all kinds of diseases, mouth fungus, fin rot.....It could be a swim bladder thing, it could be the food.....although you would probably have all your fish acting that way if they were eating the flake food too fast. Try letting the flake food soak in another container first before putting it in the guppy tank, then see if it helps. Sometimes the fish eat the food so fast, it doesn't have time to soak up the water and contains a lot of air, then it expands in the guppies stomach. Remember also, the fish have stomachs about the size of their eye, so don't overfeed them. I also feed my fish Pepso food, which is an anti parasite food for the first couple days as a preventative measure. That way if they do have any internal parasites, it will get rid of it. Too many times, you get a fish with internal parasites and they stop eating before you figure it out, then when you treat for it, it's harder to get them back to health if at all. It's just me, but I always feed them the anti parasite food just to be on the safe side, then continue with the New Life Spectrum I usually use.

 

[vwill279]

I would also fast them for at least one day a week so they can clear out their digestive systems. The females especially are notorious for getting constipated and that can cause issues with their overall health as well as their pregnancies, which can kill them before you know it.

 

[excuzzzeme]

I agree that it sounds like swim bladder issue. There is nothing you can do for that. A remote possibility is "Whirling Disease". I doubt it's constipation. Guppies, like most fish, are "opportunity eaters" - meaning that any time food is present they will eat. They don't "get hungry" as we think of the term. It does not hurt them to miss a few meals or to go a week or two without food. Since you just got them, they are highly stressed and eating is a very good sign. The afflicted one might start getting picked on so you may want to consider euthanasia. It is possible that it was injured when the person netted it for you.

 

[rastoma]

Thanks everyone for the info and suggestions. I'll try a fast tomorrow and then next day making sure their food is soaked first.

It's hard to believe but somehow I've been one of the most luckiest aquarium owner ever I'm just now helping my kids get into the hobby after about 8-9 years of not having a tank. And back then I had 5 at once. 1 brackish, 3 fresh and 1 65g saltwater tank. Those were my first aquariums ever (started with a 10g and got the 'bug' and made it up to the 65g a year later) and I've just never had or seen a sick fish except twice.

I know that's hard to believe but almost every fish I got was from a small LFS and he had to special order more things. He would refuse something if he felt it wasn't in the best condition. I never went for the guppies, platys, etc. except I had a few neon tetras and glass fish in my first tank. I had an african butterfly fish that died after a couple of months and a chocolate chip starfish in the salt tank died about a week after getting it. But both of those were just fine one day, dead the next. But I spent SO much time reading about the fish I had and to make sure the water parameters were perfect, and spent hours a week doing water changes.

I lost a clown fish that jumped out of the tank. And I lost some kind of blue, very large shrimp with feather like feet that open and close to filter food particles from the water.... due to a dumb beginner mistake on my part. The shrimp was brackish and I had it in a 30g tank with a SMALL green spotted puffer. The shrimp was 4 times the size of the puffer at least. I figured it would be OK for a little while 'till I setup another brackish tank for the GSP. It wasn't long before I came home and found the shrimp inside it's cave dead. It molted and the GSP went inside his cave and had a feast. He was too small to eat much of the shrimp but it killed it Anyway, I never made that mistake again.

So after all that, I'm stumped by a 3/4" guppy swimming funny.