Hello,
I am new and I am hoping that someone will be able to help me.
I have a 38 litre tank with 10 guppies - 6 females, 4 males. I have had this tank for around 8mths now so it is well established and my guppies have produced many fry over the months.
Just before Christmas, one of my large breeding females died. She had been pretty listless for a while but had no external causes for concern. When she died, I had a good look at her body and there seemed nothing untoward so I put it down to natural death as the rest of the tank were healthy and breeding well. Then another got ill and died so I had a good look at the fish.
I had had the same fish for around 6 months and not introduced any new fish before they started to die. I had however recently been to the local fish shop to buy some new live plants. While we were there (I only remembered this when pondering later about the fish) that one of the mollies in the shop had a worm coming out of it's side and I am worried that I brought some sort of parasite into the tank via one of the plants (as they use the same sump system for all of the tanks in the shop).
I noticed that the fish in my tank had started to flick against the rocks and one had a white stringy worm looking poo. The 'worm' if that's what it was, was dead and there were no little swimming ones in the water or on the sides of the glass. It seemed to have a round ball end, a thinner middle about 1.5cms long and then another ball on the end.
So I bought and treated the whole tank (minus carbon) with a bottle of Waterlife Sterazin Parasite treatment as this treats for gill and body flukes and intestinal worms. During the treatment a few more fish died and the others were very unhappy but I completed the treatment exactly as it said on the bottle.
At the end of the 10 day treatment, I put the carbon back into the filter and did a large water change. The fish really picked up and all seemed very happy again and were back breeding.
Since then I have got a new trio and pair of guppies (from a reputable breeder, not the lfs) and they have been fine up till this week when they are flicking again and all seem a bit lifeless. Another of my large female guppies died last week (once again, not a mark on her) but seemed to be gasping for breath (even though the water quality is very good, they have an air stone and regular water changes).
The water is fine as I regularly test it, but I just don't seem to be able to get them back to normal. I am worried about adding more treatment to the water as I know it isn't good for them, so was considering buying some parasite food for them from the USA.
Please can someone advise as to what they think this could be. It seems to affect the females moreso than the males (who are still trying to mate with everything in sight).
Thanks very much!
Jody x