Guppy at the top of the tank all the time?

[Marne]

One of my guppies seems to always be at the top of the tank gulping for air (has been like this for over a week), all the other fish seem fine (not gulping for air), water is fine and i did a big clean yesterday but no change in the guppy

All the other guppies are happily playing and dashing around but this one doesn't seem to want to play. Is he dying?

Hmm, can you see any damage to his gills?

He looks fine, no damage that i can see, no bloating, fins look perfect. Just found one of the other guppies hiding behind the filter looking a bit poorly but when i looked closer he shot out and seems fine.

Have the other fish been picking on him at all? Do you know how old he is?

is your temp ok?

try dissovling some rock salt and adding it in....do you use salt already?

so now you have 2 fish being a bit odd....

guppies do tend to be upper/top swimmers alot of the time...has there been air freshner's, plug in's, smokers, anything that could sit on the water surface???maybe???

check to see if there are any partical's visible...you can skim the surface to capture anything...then activate an air pump to agitate the surface and break it up so it can mix and go through the filtration system.....after that maybe add extra stress buffers and give it a couple more days to settle out....

if all that fails...remove the fish and humanly euthanise them (spelling issue's here lol!!)

good luck

I dont think he's very old, i think we have had him for 4 months (ish) and he should have been a baby when we got him. He's my favorite as he has the bigest tail (huge black tail), i have always wondered if his tail gets in the way?

He tries to swim down a little but can only get about an inch down and then returns to the top, his gills are open (like he's gasping for air), the filter is high in the tank so it ripples the water.

I have never used salt, didn't know i could, will check the temp, heater seems to be working (light coming on and off). One of the guppies has some splits in his tail, not sure if this means anything?

There is one guppy who's a bit of a bully but he doesnt seem to be picking on the poorly guppy. My tetras seem fine and healthy as does mr pleco (just a couple guppies acting odd).

have you been able to check his body for any injuries/ulcers...also mouth for rot/fungus???

Yes use boiled water to dissolve some salt....it is antibacterial and may help some

some fungus things can look like white hairs...very fine but visible...mouth rot is cotton woolly white...ulcers are any breaks or changes in colour to any part of body and sometimes white 'bits' on too...

fins do sometimes get nibbled at and damaged...again the salt will help if the injuries look recent....

I would read up about using salt with the tetras and plec as some fish can be sensitive to it. Guppies are OK with a bit of salt so if you can separate him then give it a try.

No sign of injuries or fungus (looks healthy other than gasping), theres now 2 of them up the top of the tank (the one that was hiding earlier), both look healthy.

And one is now at the bottom (not looking reat). I hope its not something i done as i did a big water change and put in a new rock yesterday (i cleaned it first), i hope whatever it is doesn't effect my plecco (i can handle loosing guppies but not mr plecco).

What sort of rock is it? Have you tested the pH since you added the rock?

Woke up this morning and one has a white spot on his fin , the other ones scales are sticking out (the one at the top). What do i need to buy to treat them? shoud i remove them from the tank or just treat the whole tank with them in it?

The rock is a huge pebble from the beach, ph is fine (checked yesterday) so looks like a fungus . I just hope my plecco doesnt get it too.

Looks like it might be 'Ick' , do you think this is caused by the tank being near the window or maybe a temprature change when i do a big water change?

Will i be able to save them? i think the black tailed guppy will die (he looks too poorly to get better now), can all fish get it? will plecco catch it?

Scales sticking out is dropsy, caused by renal failure. It's usually curtains at this point :( Have you got any clove oil to euthanise it? Ich is caused by a parasite, you'll need to treat the whole tank. Use Protozin if you can get it. The Interpet one is crap.

take out the rock!!!...to check if beach collected stones are ok to put in...put some vinegar on the stone (a good amount)...if you see bubbles or foaming or any sign of reaction like this...chuck it!!!....it means there could be alsorts within it and may be what has caused the probs....don't use shells or driftwood either...

You need to go and get a white spot treatment for the whole tank but your other one is probably a goner and I'd take him out.

Having your tank near a window is not the best place and if it is getting sunlight,etc on it too much you will have temp changes and a build up of algae you don't want...it will slowly take over everything and difficult to get rid of too.

Argh, I missed that about the rock- yes, take it out! If you want rocks for your tank then you can get a bag of fish-safe cobbles from a garden centre fairly cheap.

beach stones are ok if they pass the vinegar testing and you wash them really well...I have beach stones in my set up and they are fine.....you want smooth solid looking rocks...nothing that looks porous at all (hence the vinegar testing will tell you this)

you might need to do a really big water change again now....do you have carbon in your filter?...that will help....I might do at least half water change and carbon and treatment....to try and not lose anymore fish....

you'll need a big dose of water safe and bacterial set up to build things up again along with the white spot treatment...speak to your fish shop about any treatments to deal with broad spectrum water issues.....

you can 'save' this situation with alot of work but it's hit or miss if it's now too late for your current fish....time will tell

So rock out...half water change, water safe, bacterial boost, carbon into filter and fingers crossed....keep doing 25% water changes every week for about 3weeks....if all this fails...strip everything and start again.

you could go straight for the strip down of whole tank if your fish shop are willing to house your current fish in a hospital set up...they may help...depends if they have separate tanks or a shared filtration system for all their tanks...they should have some isolation tanks though....so this might be the best option

I wouldn't risk it personally, there can be all kinds of things on stones from the beach. Shame, you can get some interesting stuff off the beach. I know some people that have set up rock pool aquaria and they are amazing.

I wouldn't bother using the bottled bacterial stuff, it's not the same bacteria as you get in the filter so it's a waste of money really. Protozin shouldn't affect the filter bacteria. Carbon will remove medication from the water so don't use it until after you've treated for whitespot.

marne ...I hope you get your tank sorted and don't lose too many of your fish...

I think eauRouge and I have covered everything between us and that it all helps you....

can't think of anything else

Its a huge smooth pebble, i scrubbed it well before it went in, we have similar pebble/rocks which have been in there for months and seem fine. I have now treated the tank (went to my local petshop this morning), not sure what the make is but it has turned the water slightly blue . The tank is by the window, i often keep the curtains shut during the day (so it doesnt get too much light), i havn't really got space to put it anywhere else (without rearranging the whole house). Fingers crossed we wont loose to many fish xx

The black tailed guppy is now swimming around, his scales are still stuck out (so doesn't look good) but he seems to be moving around a lot more

One dead Guppy this morning , now go to heaven down the u-bend.

aww thats a pity...hows black tail?

Black tail is the one who passed away (my favorite guppy) even though he seemed to pick up a little yesterday (maybe it was a energy surege before he died), the other one with a few white spots seems to be ok, am hoping he will get better, the tetra's and plecco dont seem effected (fingers crossed).

opps, just looked over to the tank and theres another guppy at the top of the tank (ne of the ones that i thought was fine), hopfully he's just checking out the filter. I almst picked up another tank this morning, was thinking of putting Plecco in there until the tank was clear of white spot.