What's getting my guppy's tail?

[ryanoh]

I was fairly certain that it was my ghost shrimp, but I took them out of my tank two days ago (and was going to return them to the LFS, but my cat apparently thought differently :/), and today my guppy's tail is even more shredded than it was when they were still in the tank. I bought 4 from the store and only took 3 out, so there is a small chance there's still one shrimp, but I thought I saw a dead shrimp a while back. I have my stocking in my signature, and I'm at a total loss as to what's going on. I've checked all my parameters and they're fine, so its not finrot or anything like that, and he's the only fish with any sort of problems going on.

I've added salt to the water to help prevent infection, and I know that unless I figure out the cause its not going to get better, but is there anything else I can do for him to help him out until then?

EDIT: Also, I know I only have it listed as "3 guppies" in my signature, but he's the only male. The other two are females, so it's not a territorial males thing going on, unless for some reason he's getting into it with my one male platy?

 

[aakaakaak]

If it's not the shrimp I'm going to take a wild guess and say you might have a nippy guppy. I don't keep them, but I've heard that even though they have these beautiful tails, they also like to nip them. A bully platy (although doubtful) might be the culprit too.

 

[ryanoh]

I'm about to go to class, but I'll try to get some pictures when I come home today. It's not like any other sort of fin-nipping I've seen, and it generally looks really weird. I guess I haven't seen a whole lot of shredded fins, but "stringy" is the only word that comes to mind. I'm not sure if that will help identify the problem or not.

 

[riseabovethesun]

I had a bunch of guppies and more females than males as you do and the females would attack my males and even killed my very original galaxy male who made all the gorgeous offspring.

That'd be my first guess now that I realize you have 3 guppies, GS are aggressive and can easily do that, but the guppy would have to just be hanging out and able to catch the guppy where having other guppies I say could be the prime culprit, just having a more than usual nippy guppy.

But yeah it could be anything...fish are so unpredictable sometimes. Lastly it MIGHT be the tetras, but I'm leaning more towards the guppies..

 

[nanu156]

it could be anything, generally when fish are into mating they get a little more aggressive..... honestly your best bet would be to remove 1 fish at a time and see if it worsens or improves, or catch someone in the act.

 

[ryanoh]

Well, I spent the better part of yesterday trying to see some sort of aggression towards him to give me a hint as to who I needed to get rid of to save the rest of his tail, and nothing. He died over night, and I haven't fished him out yet, so I'm not sure if he still has any of his tail, or what killed him. Is it possible he had some sort of disease?

 

[aakaakaak]

Fin rot caused by disease maybe?

 

[ryanoh]

Yeah, I'm not sure. I try to do a head-count of all my fish every day even if I'm not sitting in front of the tank looking for a while, and that's what drew my attention to him in the first place. He was mostly just hovering in one spot for hours and hours at a time without really going anywhere. His fins were moving, and it looked like he was trying to stay there, but it was odd that he was just hovering. Yesterday he was hovering near the top back, so I dropped a flakes on top of him and he ate normally, so it almost doesn't seem like he was sick. I haven't look through a list of symptoms and diseases yet, but it doesn't seem like any disease I know off the top of my head. Maybe I'll find something out with a little more research this afternoon.

 

[nanu156]

get him out, wait one week before adding anything new to make sure your tank isn't sick.

Also anytime a fish dies you should do a heavy water change as you don't know when he died and how long he was in there dead.

 

[ryanoh]

Well, I know a 6 hour window in which he died between the time I went to sleep and the time I found him this morning, but I agree about the water changes and plan to a 25% one when I get home today, as well as my regular weekly 25% this Saturday. I plan to monitor the other fish I currently have in my tank for disease, but I may possibly have the rams I ordered in at the LFS tomorrow. I suppose I can get them to hold on to them for a few days for me (if they even came in at all, they weren't sure if their breeder was going to have anything this week), but it is probably best that I don't anything for a little while.

I'm pretty bummed about the guppy though. :/ He was one of the coolest ones I'd ever seen. Maybe one or both of the females he was with will have some cool looking fry to survive him now that he's gone?

 

[aakaakaak]

How long did you have that guppy?

Also, rams can be sensitive to fluxuating water when getting used to a tank. It's better to keep them at the store for a bit while you fix your prossible ammonia spike.

 

[Dylandrewsdad]

Sorry about your Guppy Ry....I think it was most likely a guppy, for the fin thing then he most likely succumbed to stress

 

[ryanoh]

I had him for maybe a month?
I'm not even sure that they'll have the rams in since they haven't called me yet, but that does sound like a good a idea to leave them at the store for a bit?
I'm going to check my parameters again before I do my water change, but this past weekend they were totally normal, so I don't know if that's it or not.

 

[Artemis_Psyche]

Well, I spent the better part of yesterday trying to see some sort of aggression towards him to give me a hint as to who I needed to get rid of to save the rest of his tail, and nothing. He died over night, and I haven't fished him out yet, so I'm not sure if he still has any of his tail, or what killed him. Is it possible he had some sort of disease?

Sorry abour your guppy Ryan, that is sad new indeed. I had the same problem with a male betta of mine that was housed in a community tank with some zebra danios, penguin tetras, and a neon. He had long stringy fins and it would seem that they would recess millimeters over night. I thought it was fin rot and treated with aquarium salts and was about to dose with melafix because they were just getting shorter and shorter, till a guy at petsmart told me that even though I wasn't seeing any aggression that it was probably happening at night when they can be more active (??), not sure about the truth the the more active at night part, anybody? But since I've moved him to his own tank the fins are looking much better and growing back nicely. So I guess chalk one up for petsmart? Not that I wouldn't be cautious introducing new fish in case it is indeed fin rot, but it does sound very familiar to fish aggression to me as well.

 

[ryanoh]

While I was at work on Friday my girlfriend called me to tell me that my guppy is survived by about 15 fry. I assume they're his since they were segregated at the store and the females didn't look pregnant until I put them in my tank. I hope some of the fry turn out to be blue/black like the father was.

Yay!

 

[lauraf]

That's awesome to hear.

 

[Dylandrewsdad]

COOL! Congrats.....I have 4 preggo platies in my 30 now. I found one one fry.....then 4 fry......then another!