# Flaring Scales



## jmowbray (Jul 3, 2008)

My very pregnant guppy looks like she is having a problem with her scales. They seem to be flaring out instead of hugging her body. There only doingthis on one side though. If this normal for a prego. guppy?

I also forget to mention that the scales that are flared out are white and I also treated the tank with ICH med. along with Fungus eliminator just in case.


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## jmowbray (Jul 3, 2008)

Well I think I might have a diagnosis I think it might be Dropsy. But it's only on one side of her, does this matter. The side it's on does look like the pine-cone effect. That makes me mad, she's about 4 days short of dropping to.  !!!!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Well organ failure (like kidneys) can be a complication of pregnancy, so it could be related. Sometimes the problem will go away is she survives the birth. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.


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## jmowbray (Jul 3, 2008)

Ya that's what I thought, but now another guppy has is. My guess I that they all have it now which pisses me off. I don't know if I can say that on here, but that's how I feel. 

This is my first time having tropical fish and I think it's going to be the last. Before these fish I had 26 goldfish in the 25 gallon tank and never had a problem. Yes!!!! that's 26. Then I decided that they were getting to big so I put them in my aunts pond and got tropical fish. 

I cycled the tank, and got everything in check. Got 3 fish at a time and everything. I clean the glass, and gravel weekly. Have live plant, not fake plastic, and this happens. My ph is out of whack for the first time but every thing else I great, so I bought a $30 Brita pitcher to take care of the ph and have been acclimating them slowly, I also condition the water to just incase. Then I get a bacteria bloom of some sort, and now the water's cloudy white. 

It makes no since!!!! The bank in town has a 5 gallon tank with over 25 guppies in it the glass is covered with algae; so think that you can't see through it, and guess what NO PROBLEMS. There's this 25 gallon tank at work with 15 guppies, 2 mollies, and 5 platies, along with over 25 baby guppies, and guess what NO PROBLEMS. There this other 15 gallon tank at work with 5 Mollies, 5 platies, and 9 guppies; tank was not cycled, tank was filled with water and fish added the same day; guess what, you guessed it, NO PROBLEMS.

So what am I doing wrong, am I taking to good of care??? Sorry for this post, I just needed to vent my anger somewhere and I'm sure you guys/gals know how I feel. If anyone can help me please let me know!!!!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

We do know how you feel. Most of us went through this with our first tank.

Cloudy water/bacteria bloom indicates something not right with you filter biology (maybe not enough flow for the food you feed, need more time to cycle, you changed out the media and it needs time to regrow, filter got clogged) because the bacteria is eating stuff in your water (possibly ammonia or nitrite) that shouldn't be there. I think by changing the pH you could be making it worse as the filter bacteria you have are suited for current conditions and changing conditions means you need time for new bacteria to grow. And I don't know why you'd mess with pH & hardness when guppies will thrive in off the scale hard, alkaline water. 

That being said, assuming the dropsy wasn't caused by changing conditions too fast, you now have a disease to deal with. The only thing I can tell you is to check out http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/ . The have some useful diagnostic charts, and knowing what you have is the only way to treat it.


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## jmowbray (Jul 3, 2008)

The bloom was before I changed the Ph. And the tank was cycled for 2 months, and has now been running for ~6 months now. Also all of my water test results are in check. Ammonia-0ppm, Nitrate-0ppm, Nitrite-0ppm. And yes I know that it's almost impossible to have 0 nitrate or nitrite whichever one it is. I have a lot of live plants though. I only changed the water every day, and planed to do it over a course of a week and changed out 10% at a time. Which equates to about a 1ppm difference in ph each time the change occurs. 

The fishfarmacy website is how I diagnosed it. What's bad is that there's no cure or meds. to make it better. They said to use Epson salt 1/8 per 5 gallons to hopefully draw some of the fluid out of them, but it's still fatal.


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## jmowbray (Jul 3, 2008)

Also I think that they all may have it. I'm not sure how it starts out, but another one of my guppies has white scales developing where the fin meets her back. I don't know if this is safe or not but I'm going to ask. It seems that the only way to POSSIBLY cure it is with Epson salt. I don't have another tank to use as a hospital tank to treat individual fish, so should I treat the whole big tank in case they all have it? This would be the 3rd fish with it so I think it has to be contagious. If some of the fish in the tank aren't infected will the Epson salt hurt them since there's nothing wrong with them. 

I appreciate all of your help.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Adding anything to a tank can stress fish and cause them to become sick, but epsom salt is among the safest things. I don't think they would make anything worse.


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## jmowbray (Jul 3, 2008)

Should I remove all live plants when I treat the tank?

Edit: I took the two guppies that weren't going to make it back to Petsmart and the reimbursed me for them. But I was removing the live plant and putting fake in so they would have something. So I stirred up the gravel a bit and a fry swam up. I really hope that she wasn't overly pregnant and I just sealed her fait.


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