A little help with some Wild Guppies.

Shaun · Post by **Shaun** » 08 Aug 2007, 05:16

Purchased 10 wild guppies the other day, and a couple aren't doing too well. They sit on the bottom most of the time, and when they swim they "wobble" from side to side as though swimming is difficult.
Any suggestions?
Temp is 25, ph 7, conductivity 300.
All the others seem ok and are feeding well.
Thanks,
Shaun

Shaun · Post by **Shaun** » 08 Aug 2007, 09:15

Could this be a swim bladder problem?
Shaun

snowball · Post by **snowball** » 08 Aug 2007, 11:45

Possibly, at least that would be my first thought given that you don't say anything of obvious signs of disease (and I'd assume that you would have if there were any).

I recently was suggested to use a strong dose of salt to alleviate a swim bladder problem in rainbow fish that were swimming vertically immediately after shipment, so that might be worth a shot, it certainly can't hurt the guppies.

Shaun · Post by **Shaun** » 09 Aug 2007, 00:01

Thanks

Yeah, apart from swimming funny there's no other obvious signs of ill health. I've added a large dose of cooking salt to the tank already, thought I might as well try something. Haven't lost any yet, so I'll see how they go. I suspect ammonia poisoning, judging from the condition of the water in the bags when they arrived. I'm sure I've read somewhere that this can have an effect on the swim bladder...not to mention everything else

Shaun

Landlubber · Post by **Landlubber** » 09 Aug 2007, 00:07

Did you acclimatize them properly?
Changing from dirty water to clean water/ clean water to dirty water to fast can have the same effect as hmm,, "the bends"

Shaun · Post by **Shaun** » 09 Aug 2007, 09:12

It is possible they weren't acclamitized properly, they came from my work, but I didn't unpack them in the shop, just properly acclimatized them when I took them home.
Shaun