# Guppy sanity check



## GlassWalker (Jun 15, 2011)

Everything was going well at first, then things started going a bit wobbly.

Tank is 68L, fishless cycled. Two pieces of bogwood. Gravel substrate. Planted with vallis and elodea. 3 moss balls. Bladder snails hitched a lift in with plants.

Short log below. Days in following table are relative to when 1st fish went in.

Day 0: add 6 guppies
Day 11: add 4 guppies: total 10 - all male
Day 23: noticed some guppies look "battered". Fins look in poor condition.
Day 24: confirmed white spot. Started treatment (Interpet #6). One guppy found dead.
Day 28: Second dose of white spot treatment. This cleared the white spot.
Day 35: After a water change, started daily dosing melafix in hopes of aiding fin regrowth.
Day 36: added 2 assassin snails
Day 39: one guppy had dropsy like look. Big stomach, slightly sticking out scales. Slow swimming. Move this one to makeshift hospital tub.
Day 40: stopped dosing melafix. Above guppy found dead in morning.
Day 41 (today): Another guppy swimming slowly like the other one did. Also bloated looking stomach, but scales not sticking up.

Water changes were typically 30% weekly, except during the white spot treatment.

I fear I may be responsible for the white spot outbreak, as that was during the very cold spell and I didn't warm up the water enough during a change so maybe that shocked them.

The apparent bloating is the current concern though.

Water conditions:
Ammonia and nitrite: always zero every test since the cycle was over and fish added.
Nitrate: about 40 tap, drops between water changes presumably due to plants.
dGH: 15 - 17
dKH: 10 in tank
pH: anything between 7.5-8.5 depending which of 3 different test kits I use. It remains consistent though.
Temperature: varies between 25-26C until I turned it down a notch recently so now 24-25C.









This is the one that died most recently, the day before it died.









This is an old photo of the one which is currently swimming slowly. Note the fin damage.

I have heard elsewhere that rather than some infection, over eating could be a possible cause of the bloating and they will eat themselves to death if overfed. I may have done so early on, but have cut back to an average of a few crushed flakes a day, although I may have been too generous when trying out frozen live recently since each block is so much.

Any thoughts?


----------



## mdoire (Feb 1, 2013)

Check here:Options for Guppy with Dropsy - Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community

I think your Guppy might have the same.


----------

