Guppy dying (with photo)

[Rachdanon]

3 females died, all with same pre-death behaviours : bottom lying, little movement with red areas near the gills/belly.

1st 2 died a day after buying so I thought could be bad quality. I had 3 goldfish and 2 gourami doing well in tank before.

3rd died , also female, so I thought could be exhaustion from being chased by females. Started off as 5 males and 5 females

Then this morning saw this male bottom lying, inactive but had this horrendous red marks. Night before he was fine.

Looks like he swam through barbed wire..

Anyone can identify the problem?

[Guppendler]

Do not look like disease to me, more like it was bitten by another fish as the scales on top of the poor fellow are gone. The gourami could be the culprit especially the males which could be more aggressive

[Rachdanon]

One thing to support your theory is this happened overnight....

And one of the Gourami is quite aggressive, likes to chase the other one. How ah, you think the LFS can trade me with guppies? I paid $3 bucks for each Gourami.

Doubt it was bitten by the other male guppies eh?

[Guppendler]

Unlikely it's another guppy as the damage would not look like this.

[Guppendler]

If it is another guppy, especially aggressive female attacking male, you will see broken tails and not raw flesh exposed

[Rachdanon]

Thanks Guppendler for sharing your experience. Due to good relationship with the shop they agreed to exchange the 2 gouramis for female guppies. Will concentrate on breeding the guppies now. Its a all guppy tank, and some shrimp :-).

[Guppendler]

No worries and great that the shop is willing to exchange the gourami for guppy. I'm just doing guppy endler hybrid full time, no time for anything else

[BFG]

Dropsy , deadly to fish . Your tank is infected , there are no cure I believe . Do not add any more fish in your tank .

After re-reading , it seems you bought sick fish into your tank . Check all other guppy for sign of raised scale on their body . The gourami was not the culprit sadly . If your goldfish has this symptom , it is a goner . Remove all sick fish into a quarantine tank . DO NOT ADD MEDICATION INTO YOUR TANK ! Some medication contain copper , it will kill ALL beneficial bacteria as well as shrimps ! Copper will stick to silicone and you might need to change tank if that happen as copper will kill all beneficial bacteria .

Go back to the lfs and check whether their fish are in the same condition as yours . Just look at their fish and look for raised fish scales on the fish body . If they have the same condition , thats the source for the outbreak .


Hope this helps !

[Guppendler]

A few comments. I ruled out dropsy as it is not contagious, yes it does not spread from fish to fish, and it does not cause scales to drop off or bloody streaks. The area where the scales are missing is around the top just behind the head only. And dropsy does not happen overnight. When there is bloody streaks, I would think it could be hemorrhagic septicemia, but the missing scale area is a bit jagged and led me to think the flesh is bitten off by something repeatitively. Between the goldfish and gourami, the latter is more likely to be the capable culprit. Although gouramis are known to be peaceful fish suited for a community tank, there are instances, especially the male, are known to be aggressive and would bully fish that are of smaller size to them.

Since Rachdanon is intending to breed guppy, it is good that the gouramis are removed as they are very capable of eating up guppy fry.

[BFG]

I believe when a fish attack another fish , usually the victim will suffer damaged fin or lost of scales . Raised scales is commonly known to occur with dropsy , and some area of the fish will display bleeding as the scales is out of its normal placement , thus hurting the fish body , making it bleed in some place .

I hope Guppendler is correct but if its dropsy , Rachdanon is going to lose his fish . I hope Rachdanon went to the lfs and check their livestock if any of the fishes is exhibiting this symptom . I do not know if dropsy can develop over night but the source is not from his tank , as what he has informed us .

Nowaday , newly introduced guppy is sensitive to the water parameter so much so newly introduced fish might not make it overnight in an environment different from where they were raised . But the raised scales is an indication of something serious . This part I know as I lost an apisto elizabethae this way . I did not noticed it immediately but caught the unusual character of a sick fish as it only hover in a spot . The raised scales has covered 90 percent of the fish body and it passed on later .

Hope this helps !