Has my guppy developed a fungal disease?

[heni]

Hi All

One of our female guppies (we have three) - the one who has just given birth, now has something strange about her skin. I'm not sure if it's because her skins was stretched from pregnancy (she was REALLY fat) or if she's out of condition and has developed something nasty.

My partner wants to flush her down the toilet, but I'd rather see if it's something bad or not first. Her skin has a kind of frosty sheen on it, a bit on the tip of her head above her mouth, a lot on her main torso - the second half of it, and a wee bit on the top of her spine near her tail. Her skin looked a bit odd the couple of days after she'd given birth, but today it's really noticeable.

Any advice, suggestions, etc would be most appreciated. I already feel really sorry for her as the male just won't leave her alone, despite her being one of four females.

Heni (Jane from Dunedin)

[Maxy]

Hi Heni, cant help much with the identification of the skin condition as Im too unfamiliar with the diseases yet, but I would recommend isolating her from the male as soon as possible as the distress he will cause her will definitely not help her recovery. Either a floating breeding trap or intank isolation box if, like me, you dont have a hospital tank. Ideally removing her from the tank altogether would be the best option in case its infectious to your other fish. Also try looking at the posts in the disease section of the forum. Sorry I cant help more

[Snowman]

Definetly put her in something by herself for a while as the stress makes them susectible to diseases and other problems, either another tank or one of the breeding nets as the nets give them more room and the male can't see her very well, are your water conditions within acceptable limits e.g. Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate, a 20% water change and some stress coat may help.

[heni]

Thanks Maxy and Snowman - we ended up putting her down as we were worried it would be catchy and I guess we were right as now a neon tetra is looking the same. We are trying to catch it to put in an isolation tank but it's so tricky!!!

So, I might post a msg in the disease section as you suggest to see if I get any joy. I'm almost positive it's not white spot or itch, as there are no spots, just a white patchy look ... *sighs*

Heni

[dee_jay_01]

from what you say it sounds like Columnaris, here's a site that might be of some interest:

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/hdcolumn.htm

and another: http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profile ... naris.html

and another: http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html

I hope this helps you and others to diagnose your problems.

[heni]

Thanks Dee_Jay. Is there a product that you know of here in New Zealand that one can purchase for columnaris? Those sites were really interesting, by the way, so thanks for including those links.

Cheers

Heni

[dee_jay_01]

You could try Livebearer Conditioning Salts, or Triple-Sulfa, and Stress- Zyme, The salts are to try to replicate the natural environment of guppies, and the Triple-Sulfa is a Broad Spectrum Medication for Aquarium Fish, and the Stress-Zyme is to reduce the stress of the guppy. Most LFS should stock these items.

From what my partner has said (she's the guppy person) its one of the hardest to control so your best bet is to quarantine the guppy and medicate both tanks according to the instructions.

Here's a link to her guppy pics, sorry about the quality as they were taken on a webcam.

http://photobucket.com/albums/y252/jamjam82/

and here is mine:

http://photobucket.com/albums/y273/dee_jay_01/