help needed for a weird female guppy

[janesc2003]

Hi, there:

I'm new here and don't have much experience keeping guppies. However one female of mine seems to be paralized. At first she lost her balance but tried to swim around. Then she might be exhausted after struggling for about a week. For now she's unable to move her tail and barely keeps floating herself up like an arc. Since she could not swim much, she eats very little. But as far as I can see she's still fighting to stay alive. There's no visible weird spot on her body and everything should be fine with the whole tank as other guppies are pretty healthy and happy. Besides, this tank has been set up for about three months and I did a partial water change about 10 days ago and used water conditioner and buffer to increase the water KH .Does anyone here happen to know what is wrong and how I can help my fish? Thanks in advance.

[Athomedad]

I had a tetra like that and it was either swim bladder disease or constipation. I lost that one but started to feed my tetras & guppies blanched spinach a couple times a week. The veggies help with digestion & I never had any more cases like that.

If she gets a crooked spine you will want to be careful of fish TB & isolate her.

Hope your guppy pulls through.

[janesc2003]

The blanched spinach helps with constipation. Is there anything that can treat bladder problem? I guess I've been overfeeding my fish. I'll definitely try spinach first to see if it works for her. Thank you so much!!!

[fuzzysocks]

Do you think you could post your water parameters, especially nitrate, pH and KH? It could be helpful for seeing if there are any systematic issues in the tank.

[Luke78]

I was gonna ask you about water perimeters,but the last poster already asked you.Are there any other tankmates that may be harassing your guppy to the point it got hurt? Any objects in your aquarium that may have caused it to get stuck or hurt on? If you can isolate this female in a quarantine tank and watch her there as a precaution, thats something to think about.

[janesc2003]

I used to run a 27 g tank and upgraded to a 65 g last night. The female still behaves the same. She's now got a crooked spine and keeps floating herself here and there in the tank. She seemed to be pregnant before she got sick. However she manages to eat and producing waste (just a little). Nothing abnormal like strips or colored spots were found on her body. All other guppies (fries included) are doing well so far.

It's too bad that I've got a KH test kit only for now. And according to last night's test after upgrading, the water KH is about 6. I was told not to add too much new water when upgrading to a larger tank. But my filter won't work when there's not enough water. Thus I had no options but to fill up the new tank. I used some water conditioner and buffer. Do I need to get more test kits for PH/GH/or other parimeters? For now I'm still using the filter and heater of the smaller tank. Do I have to upgrade both of them as well? Thanks and merry christmas!!!

[tang daddy]

Depending on the size of filter you are using now, which it may be too small you should add another one. But make sure you keep the old filter running for atleast a month or 2 with the new one so it can seed the new filter. Alternatively. Take the media from the old filter and add it into the new filter to help it seed faster.

A 150w to 200w heater should be decent for the 65g.

I had a female guppy with a crooked back that lived for a long time as I didn't have the heart to cull it. I eventually gave it away when I got rid of most of my fish. They definitely have problems swimming with the crooked syndrome but otherwise should be fine, kinda like when we get older and walk with a limp or are hunched over, is the same for the fish!