Flashing guppies, No other symptom

Ayson

AC Members
Jan 31, 2010
26
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0
India
Hello everyone, this is like a continuation to my earlier thread.

The fish i have are 2 male and 1 small female guppy. Recently i noticed the two males are flashing on earthen pots and on the plants. Their fins are not clenched, they are open and extended. I do not see any difference on the bodies. I think there is a loss in apetite. Im not sure it this is the typical scratching because the plants are live, soft and flexible so it wouldn't help, or maybe they are not that intelligent.

Here is some history of the tank. I got the tank in the first week of January, not because i like fish or fish keeping or because they look nice. I got it because some one in my house bought 2 ~6cm baby red tiger oscars and put them in a 1l bowl. The bowl was there before and i had warned them against putting any fish in it. When the oscars came, i did not even look at them and stayed away, because it would be useless to care for it. I told them that the fish would die for sure within 3 days, and one of them did. I did not see this happen. They used to feed it twice a day with pellets, (for baby fish!) and change the water once a day, but the water got crappy 10-12 hours later.

I did not want the other oscar to die too so i bought a tank that i could afford 23l, and planned to put it my well when it grew too big. I also added two male guppies and the oscar did nothing to them. But when i was away it died too. Again, i did not see the removal. I was reading up on oscars during this time came to know of its 'playing dead' trick. I had observed this once. It is possible that both the oscars were mistaken for dead fish.

Now i had a 23l tank with 2 male guppies, so i added 1 more male and 2 females. A day or two later i spotted white spots on one of the males. I had crushed two grains of cooked rice in a few drops of water and fed the fish. I thought the spots might be the rice. It was a few days later that the guppies tail was begining to loose colour and separating, also some mucous trailing from its side.

I checked the symptoms online and went to the fish store, they gave me "Mr Blue". I now assume that it is methylene blue. Surely that did no good. That guppy lost the spots but died the same day. A female started showing spots, then i bought "Mr Green", hoping it was malachite green. I was also using salt to a concentration of 3 tsp per litre. The spots went but i did buy malachite green powder from a laboratory supplies store. I did not use it, waiting for "Mr Green" to work. The second day after using Mr Green, i had to go away for 3 days. When i got back the female was dead, im not sure from what. Its stomach was unusualy large earlier, and now its dead body had a missing stomach.

But the spots were gone, and have been gone for the past 14 days. And this is where the timeline joins my previous thread. I added what were supposed to be dwarf gouramies to my tank and they ended up being aggressive predators!:flamed:

Now after this long story with drama, suspense, and horror, someone please help me figure out the flashing. Is it constipation? :thud:
 
From yesterday the female is sitting on the substrate. I looked in the tank for 5 minutes before finding it. I touched it with a stick to see if it was dead, but then it started swimming normaly, a few minutes later it was sitting again. Today morning, it was sitting next to the glass, as i waved it swam away but it had a long (~ twice as long as fish) translucent thread, trailing from under its abdomen, between its anal fins(?). Please Help, what is happening in my tank??!!!
 
If this translucent thread is poop, then yes it is either constipation or not enough supplements in their foods.

What do you feed them?

So now you just have 1 male guppy in a 23L tank?
 
Ususaly the poop is just 4-5 mm long and is dark and stiff. This is about 5-6cm long, translucent and trailing like a thread. Do fish get diarrhea?

I feed them floating pellets, dried tubifex worms, and rarely bits of food like, rice, fruits, etc...

I have 2 male guppies and 1 female, plus, a male and female waiting to be added. The female in the tank is small compared to the ones that died. The female to be added is tiny.
 
This is about 5-6cm long, translucent and trailing like a thread. Do fish get diarrhea?

forgive me for not reading through your first post. the quote above sounds like a camallanus worm or something similar maybe? http://images.google.com/images?hl=...esult_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCkQsAQwAw

i wouldn't feed any starch products from now on either. guppies are prone to constipation and bloat. if that happens you can feed them the soft insides of a pea or two to get them to poop and relieve pressure.

also... 2 males to 1 female often is a death sentence for the female. the males will chase and stress her to death for some nookie. at least 2 females to each male is best to spread sexual aggression from the males.
 
i read your posts completely now and i'd say chances are your tank isn't cycled either. with that the fish will be susceptible to just about anything if the parameters are off. it's best to get a test kit and start doing water changes with dechlorinated water often at the very least. do not add meds until you know for sure what the problem is. this will only cause undo stress to the fish and kill off your beneficial bacteria keeping the tank from cycling unless you are positive what the problem is and that it's treatable with meds.
 
From the pictures, it does not match. It is thinner, and very translucent, and floating. Not like a worm. Eg: if the fish stops it contunies floating forward, it swirls, etc...

Now it got severed, and was floating freely, swirling around. By the time i got my hose i could not find it, but i did a almost 100% water change. The fish still has a ~1cm piece of it. She is still sitting on the bottom and breathing rapidly i think.

I will look into the diet.

I am planning on adding females, but my LFS does not have any right now.

Unfortunately, test kits are unavailable here. But i do frequent water changes, 1 in 2 days mostly, sometimes once a day, when the situation requires it, and i use well water.

Thank you for your advice, ill keep updating.
 
That guppy died, i think the translucent thing was longer on the body. ~ 3cm.

I give up! One last question, is 3 males and 3 females better, or only 5/6 males?
 
The new female i added died too! It was perfectly normal till yesterday. It was a very young fish ~ 2cm long. Today i found it dead in the gravel.

Why are only my females dying?

And my water seems to be green some time after a water change. Am i having some sort of algae invasion? Are the fish dying due to low oxygen levels because of the algae? Does low light promote algae growth?
 
Please, Please, answer these two questions for me:

1 Is it better to have 3M and 3F guppies or just 6 males?

2 If i wanted to clean my entire tank and removed the gravel and kept it submerged throughout, how bad would my bacteria be affected?
 
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