# Really Sick Guppy :(



## xoWhiteNoise (Nov 14, 2009)

One of my female guppies has a really terrible case of fin rot  I think it might have been caused by my other female who is a bully and used to nip at the other female. I think the mean female bit a chunk off of the nice one's tail and it developed into fin rot. 

I didn't have time to go to the store to get medicine and her tail was completely gone and I had her in a separate tank with no heater or filter so it wouldn't spread to the babies because I don't have any other heater/filter sets. She has lived for a full day like this but she is in TERRIBLE condition. She is basically dead; she is upside down at the bottom of the container and moves her side fins every once in a while and slowly scoots along the bottom. I don't think she has eaten in days because she can't. I went to the store today and got medicine tablets (I have read that the tablets are bad but I couldn't find any other treatment options at the petsmart).

I figured she would be dead by now because of the late stages of fin rot but she is still alive. Is there any way she can make it through this? Has anyone else had fish that have recovered from an illness when the fish was practically dead?

Thanks
xoWhiteNoise


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## Big Ray (Dec 8, 2009)

its time to take a chance

get ureself a air pump first of all, water with no movement will loose its exigen in less than 24 hours

add a tea spoon full of table salt per gallon (guppies actually like the salt)


Stir the water while the air pump is one (u can use a bucket pull some waer out and drop it in so u get more oxygenation

remove the fish after half an hour and replace the water 

if u can goto LFS, get a "cycle" those do wonders, get a bucket, of 1 gallon water and add cycle and water conditioner and the fish will come back to life

PS. to avoid this in future, when u see a bite mark on her tail, take her out of water and cut the end of the tail off and it wont rott no more and will grow again ...


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

ok...first of all...the fish would need to be in a proper tank with a heater and a fully cycled heater to even think about surviving through this. 

In this late of condition....getting some meds are the only way to go.

Go get yourself some melafix and pimafix...they are more of natural herbs and you can use them in unison (one deals with fungal the other bacterial.....by the condition it has been living in...who knows what is plaguing the fish right now).

Add 1tsp of salt per gallon...increase the temp about 3-5F.

Dont bother feeding anything since the fish is not going to bother to eat. 

If she survives to tomorrow repeat the process again.

The key here is to get it in a proper tank with proper filtration and proper temp. 

I personally think "live bacteria" solutions are a waste of money and a haox....coming from a microbiologists point of view..but its your propagative.


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## Big Ray (Dec 8, 2009)

Hitch said:


> ok...first of all...the fish would need to be in a proper tank with a heater and a fully cycled heater to even think about surviving through this.
> 
> In this late of condition....getting some meds are the only way to go.
> 
> ...


I agree with ure point on live bacteria being a waste ... but it has done wonders in the past for me! Ive had dead fish, which i placed in a container with some cycle in it and they came back to life ! luck ? maybe other factors ? not sure, but I've seen it work so ...  
as for adding it to the aquarium to cycle the system, for sure they do nothing


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## xoWhiteNoise (Nov 14, 2009)

She was in too late of a stage and died this morning. And her tail never had a bite out of it it just started to get closed, like not spread out. Then it started rotting away.

I will get these for the future. And I do not have salt in my tank right now should I put some in? my one guppy and my 7 babies are living just fine without it and I am afraid to risk changing any tank dynamics. And do I have to buy special salt from the LFS?

Hitch can you really just cut the fish's tail like that if you see a tear though??

Thanks so much
xoWhiteNoise


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

xoWhiteNoise said:


> Hitch can you really just cut the fish's tail like that if you see a tear though??


wat?? I didnt say anything about cutting tail....

The cause of the tail problem is the not due to aggression in this case, its due to bad water conditions.

Go get a water test kit and test the water. The only thing you can do do prevent similar problems is to get the water condition up.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

IIRC table salt is NOT good to use. That is from all I've read on the web. IIRC it's the iodine and some anti-caking agent in it IIRC.

I do know that sea salt or kosher sea salt can be used as an alternative to aquarium salt. Walmart has in my expeirence a cheaper price on the salt & carbon. At least over here in Toronto anyways.

I also know epson salts can be used as well for treatments but don't use that normally. Have to check on the reasoning of the epson salt thing unless someone can chime in on that.


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## Big Ray (Dec 8, 2009)

Hitch said:


> wat?? I didnt say anything about cutting tail....
> 
> The cause of the tail problem is the not due to aggression in this case, its due to bad water conditions.
> 
> Go get a water test kit and test the water. The only thing you can do do prevent similar problems is to get the water condition up.


Ive done it many times, just last week my cat fish was under alot of stress from being in a tank with 3 arowanas, lol, and had some sort of tail rotting heppening, I cut a little bit off, it grew back in less than 3 days and its fine now ...


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## xoWhiteNoise (Nov 14, 2009)

Yeah sorry big ray said the thing about cutting the tail. 

And the fin rot was not due to bad water conditions, I've gone to hell and back to make my water conditions perfect and they are lol. Well the one female left is a tough one.

One more thing, I am worried about releasing the babies into the tank. they are only one month old and I was not going to release them for about another month. But the mother seems to be really agressive, she has managed to get rid of three other fish I have put in with her and I am worried about her killing the 7 babies I have in a breeding box right now.

I was thinking about putting the babies in (when they are ready, maybe another month) and putting the female in the breeders box for a little while. Will she die if I leave her in a breeders box alone for like a week at most? I have spent so much time and effort on her fry and I don't want her to ruin it.


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