# problems with guppy fry



## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

recently I posted about platy fry that all died. They had deformed tails and did not grow properly.
Well I just had a real close look at the guppy fry in the same tank. i have removed approximately 10 of them because they were getting excellent colors and were sexually differentiated.
The ones left- approx 30 have not really sexually differentiated , are not getting colors and the tail is the wrong shape - it comes to a point at the end. The body part that attaches to the tail also seems out of proportion to the body part that hold the organs. Top fins are aalso little slivers. They swim funny- doing a waggle in the water. theoccasional one lies on the bottom of the tank for a break before searching for food and I have seen the occasional one die. it spiral in the water and lays on the bottom of the tank puffing before it dies.
The mother is a fine big gold girl and the father was a blue black and unrelated. The mom was about a year and a half old and the dad died soon after he mated. He looked to be quite elderly. ( I inherited him with the tank a year ago.)
So this is my question- were the parents too old causing these health issues or there something else at work here? I basically have not had any issues with the fry I have raised over the last few years until the last batch of platies and guppies.
tank mate is one horsefaced loach and a bunch of snails.


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2009)

if the father was old then it is possible his fertilization wasnt up to the standard. like us, they detoriate with age. his last breeding might have been his last attempt at doin what he was meant to do but this time it didnt quite work.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Sound genetic, but other things can deform fry. Contaminates in the food or water or something lacking in mom's diet or even some diseases during pregnancy (remember 'german measles') . Did you get any melamine-laced chinese fish food? You might want to bleach this particular tank and start over clean, just in case.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

I was also wondering about chemicals in the tankLike Prime. I have been doing some reading on fish deformities in the wild and fry are sensitive to some forms of sulphur.
Prime wouldn't be dangerous would it?
Oh I went and checked on my nicely maturing guppies in my show tank. 2 were dead since breakfast and the other 2 look like they will go soon.
They are all hanging around the top of the tank. I had originally thought it was due to the thunderstorms and severe weather we have been having but it is actually the fish are ill.
The other types of fish in the tank are all doing normal fishy things like looking for food amongst the plants but these guys are just at the surface in the water flow.
The other thing about them is they never get nice and fat like the other fish. They eat but seem to be starving. The food is what I fed every body else. This particular lot of food is wardley but in the other tanks I am using Tetra.
See any problem there?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

> They eat but seem to be starving


 This could be a sign on internal parasite and it could cause a nutritional deficiency that could mess up the fry. You could try metronidazole if you can find it. 

I use Prime, even double dose it and I have tons of healthy guppies. 

I stopped buying Wardley food when feeding goldfish food turned my water blue. Not a well-controlled manufacturer, I decided. Just chuck it and get some spirulina flake

I've also heard rumors of some sort of wasting disease that kills female guppies.

Prime stinks like HS. I've never heard of a bottle going back, it usually stinks just as much when new. I started putting saran wrap over my Prime, but it doesn't really do the job since they got rid of the polyvinylidine chloride in the wrap. The key is really not to lose the thin white little circle that comes in the lid of the Prime bottle. Thats the only thing that seals it. 

I recommend prime for new tanks or when you ammonia/nitrite issues. Once the tank is established any dechlor will do.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Ah finally I can get back on the forum. For the past 2 days I kept getting a broken link message. Wonder what causes that?
Anyway I contacted 'Doug' at WWW.Deltaguppies.com. He lives within 50 miles of me and has been a help in the past. he was the one that told me about the guppy reovirus.
Anyway he says they have a disease called pintail or clamping. Exact same symptoms and it is caused by a a parasite. FRom what i read it is a fluke of some sort.He suggested that I use a product called LIVEBEARER plus Quick cure in the proportion of 1 drop per gallon and use them together.
Trouble is I have not seen quick cure for a long time. I have a very old bottle (5-6 years old) and I am thinking it is probably well past its expiry date
If I remember correctly LIVEBEARER is not to be used with loaches or fragile fish and I have loaches and cories everywhere.
So I used a dose of Prazipro and that seems to have made somewhat of a difference overnight.
The fry are now swimming at all levels of the tank for the most part. I think I will lose a few more as some still have clamped fins and are not swimming so well.
I am treating all my tanks too- don't know where this problem came from and I regularly move fish around.

Seems this parasite is a biggy in the game and food fish business and countries take great care not to get it.
It is a relief to know this is not genetic but it is a sorry thing too in the fact that I lost all my platy fry and about 1/2 my guppy fry.
Will treat twice to make sure.


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## andrew13511 (Nov 20, 2009)

I have been breeding guppies since the beginning of October my fry are starting to get full color and they seem to be doing fine. I hope your fish survive.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

ms:

This "Guppy breeding stuff" for a strain for us regular folks is Voodoo!

My goal is generate a strain of "glowing, rainbow yellow" which also contains males with large tails.

This has been a "real undertaking" (9th grade biology is out the windows here).

Several years of experience is necessary (or has been for me) in order to cull the females.

The males are obviously no problem.

This culling typically takes place at approximately 6 months now.

I have found it productive to induce "an off-breed male" (like a high end white snakeskin) every generation or so.

What you are experiencing is probably due to "inbreeding" (please refer to internet treatise on the "Crick/Watson Model").

TR


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Actually the problem was caused by a fluke and I have gotten it under control now.
The next hurdle is that the female fish that survived seem to be carrying the guppy virus. They get to 6-9 months and die. I have written of this problem elsewhere on the forum in the past. They get swollen livers etc, turn black inside and are gone within a matter of days. males are fine. I have 2 females left , and 5 males, 1 intersexed guppy out the batch that had flukes.2 females died last week.
All the fry I gave away before the flukes hit are doing well with the other owner-- she says.When I think back, she gave me some sword fry when I gave her the guppies. The sword fry all died here in about a month and after that I got flukes.
She says all 40 odd of her swords died so I am thinking I may have picked up flukes from her fry. Last year I got a very virulent type of ich from some fry I got from someone else. It took out everything in my tank except for the loach and betta. Goes to show that even fry need quarantining.
Hard lessons to learn.


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