Bent spine??

S

Silverfire

Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow
Dec 10, 2004
12
0
0
42
Hamilton, Ontario
Hey. My female guppy has developed two bends in her spne - one horizontal and one vertical. Why is my fish turning into a hunchback? Is this some horrible piscene disease or something? She used to have a perfectly straight spine but now she's all crooked and I don't want to put her into the new larger tank until I know if she's got something the white clouds can get.
She's pooping a lot, too, and her poop is often really kinked and curly.....what the heck is wrong with her? The three babies in the tank are happy as could be and have nothing wrong with them, so I'm not sure if whatever is wrong with Carmilla is contaigious, but I don't want to take any chances...
 
Most likely, this is a genetic issue. Guppies are often inbred, and this results in some genetic deformities that often don't show up right away. Not contagious, probably not even a problem for the fish, other than the aesthetic appeal of a crooked fish.
 
Not to be negative, but my guppy had some babies, and one of them had a really crooked spine, it did end up dying. I hope yours will be fine though.
 
She doesn't seem to have any problems....she does have trouble eating flake food, or it simply might be that she's decided that she doesn't like it. But man does she love those Hikari floating micropellets! I have seen bent-spine guppies but I assumed it was through inbreeding or just plain old deformities, but I didn't know that they could start out normal and then get all messed up.
 
**** inbred hillbilly guppys. Make sure theres nothing electrical in the tank that isnt suppoed to be there, fishes spines can bend due to an electrical shock, although I'm pretty sure the other guys are correct though.
 
Do you have any documentation for that? I've gone electro-fishing with the biologists, and I've never seen any deformation of the fish from the process, and it carries quite a shock.
 
Nope, nothing in the tank that ought not be there. Whew! I'm really relieved that she's apparently not sick or anything, because it would be a shame to lose her. She has such a little personality....she follows me around the room as best she can in her little tank, gets pissed off at the biggest fry when it's feeding time, and is just generally an odd little fishie. I could probably put her in with Orlock and Shreik....she'd probably like that.
 
Very interesting. Some follow up research indicates that large bodied fish are susceptible to injuries when exposed to high levels of current, with injuries more common with pulse directed current (PDC) than with AC or DC, and more with AC than DC. Repeated exposure could cause permanent damage from abnormal and sudden muscle contractions, resulting in broken vertebrae.

Of course, I'd suspect that this is not the case here--otherwise, all fish would be similarly affected, and the current levels needed to cause the problem would be detectable to anyone reaching into the tank. :) Still, interesting to learn about!
 
Tuberculosis? So Carmilla might be suffering from *consumption*??? How curiously Gothic. I actually read that somewhere, but I don't remember where, what it said, or if it's contagious. As I said, all three fry seem to be perfectly happy, and she's actually eating flake food today, if it's smished up into powder. I suspect she might be too lazy to eat larger flakes, which wouldn't surprise me at all.
I don't know how old she is. She came from Big Al's on Centennial and I've always read that pet store fish are usually juveniles, unless it's something that doesn't sell well, like the huge silver arowana they had a few weeks ago which finally sold or, possibly, died. I imagine that guppies would have a high turnover rate due to their popularity. She's about an inch long.
 
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