Skinny Guppies

[purplecatfish]

I've managed to eliminate chemicals (pH, ammonia, nitrites, phosphates and copper etc) as causes for the following symptoms but I'm wondering what else could be occasionally killing my guppies .

It's a reoccuring problem which only affects a few at a time and they live for weeks ( in a hospital tank ) with the symptoms. They get skinny, have red/inflamed gills, and rub themselves on the stones.

I've been using Furan2 but the :evil: problem :evil: keeps reappearing every few months.

[SpidersWeb]

Guppies like their salt, have you tried using Aquarium Salt (Tonic Salt, or even Rock Salt)? Even at a quater or half dose it may stop this from happening. Its a common recommendation for livebearer tanks.

Also perhaps more regular partial water changes, make sure new fish are quaranteened etc as guppies can be quite sensitive depending on the strain.

If they're rubbing against objects, chances are they have flukes. You can get FlukeTabs (at the moment) from your LFS, however preventing the outbreak is usually best, and I'm pretty sure some salt might be a key for you. You will never get flukes etc out of the tank, they just take advantage of a less-than-chirpy fish (normally water quality) and then take over.

Just remember scale-less fish dont like salt, neither do plants, so often a half-dose is best.

Just some ideas, hopefully thats of some help, hopefully others will post their opinions too

[Pawz]

I have this problem in one of my tanks. Ive found thta its called needle tail. I keep mine isolated and always wash nets before putting hem in to other tanks. There is nothing you can do if it is needle tail

[sharn]

red gills and flashing could very well be gill flukes however fish dont normally get emaciated from them unless its quite far gone and they start spitting their food (due to irriation) instead of eating it.

sadly there are alot of guppy problems that have no explanation these days