# older Female Guppy?



## Guppy-Frog-Girl (Sep 28, 2005)

*older Female Guppy. Please help!!!*

After my bad experience with my first female Guppy, I finally got the courage to get another.... She was pregnant when I bought her, so I put her in a breeding tank by herself. She has been in there for about a week now. But I have noticed that her back is curving downward.... I read somewhere that this is a sign of old age.....Is this true?..... She is very bloated and looks like she is gonna pop out the fry any minute... She seems very skidish...... that could be from the new environment though..... she only has a pregnant ghost shrimp to keep her company......What could be wrong with her.... I also read somewhere that they bend their bodies when they are in labor, is that bending downward or sideways? kinda confused. please help.


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## Guppy-Frog-Girl (Sep 28, 2005)

*Older Female Guppy? Omg!!!*

OMG!!!! When I got home from work I found her in a corner under , Well, when i took a better look at her she had pink blotches on her. At first I thought it was ick cause her tail is torn or eaten, but then I looked at her stomach and it looks like it has tiny pink beads or blotches on it. She is super bloated. On the top of her back there is a whitish area that is pulling up her scales... She just got like that today... Last night I saw her just fine, no marks or anything. Please help....will try to attach a photo.

http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=i1jjbo

http://tinypic.com/i1jjbo.jpg


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## Guppy-Frog-Girl (Sep 28, 2005)

*more pics.*

http://tinypic.com/i1jmn9.jpg

http://tinypic.com/i1jn1g.jpg

http://tinypic.com/i1jnkx.jpg


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

poor fish does look sick. Fin and tail rot. I do not know about the pink blotches but they are abnormal. You need to get them treated. If you go to the pet store and look at the mardel treatments there is usually a booklet inside that shows different diseases. Also look it up on the disease area of this site.
Older females do develop a curve in their back and will get quite curved near the end of thier lives. I find a lot of female guppies in the stores have been bred silly and when the breeder no longer wants them they send them to the pet stores. If you can get a few babies and raise yourself, they are best bred about 6 months of age.
I would rather have a few large babies than a bunch of little ones too, but it depends on the fish. My jumbo size guppies never have more than 12 babies but they are a good size when born. At least I can see them and the markings on them.
I hope you can save this fish!
mousey


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## Guppy-Frog-Girl (Sep 28, 2005)

Thanks for the post, but she died that night.... When I went to the pet store like you advised, I found a book with no pics of my poor victim's symtoms... But I also went back to the tank that she was bought out of and they were almost all sick like she was... I brought it to the customer service's attention, they just gave me a free fish and some snails... WOOOpeee!!! I guess (sarcastically saying) I mean, My fish was already dead and the other fish in the pet store tank were dying.... WHat did they want me to do?!!! Jump up and down for the free fish?!!!? I just told the guy.... "they may be just fish to you but to me...they are someone's pets". He just told me "not to worry", the fish would be taken care of. It was really disturbing to me, but I gues you can't save them all..... But I can try..... thanks for the posts.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Sorry about the guppy. It bugs me to see the callous nature of some of the pet store employees too. I guess I get too attached to my fish. I recognize them each as individuals ( except the black skirt tetras.). Currently i am agonizing over my old female swordtail who was doing well until she dropped some fry in the big tank. She has gone down steadily. She is now getting fin and tail rot, has some ich on her and her gills are inflammed. She is taking great gulps of air. Will not eat. this is week two for not eating. she looks awful-- just mostly a head now with a little body attached. I hate to euthanize her. Last fish I did had a great spurt of energy as i added the oil of cloves and jumped out of the container onto the floor, then it fought the oil and it was very traumatic watching her die.
I have an old glolight tetra that I keep in the breeding container as he can't compete for food and was slowly starving. Now he will only eat hand fed shrimp. there is a big difference in how the fish react to the end of thier lives.
Some fight to the end and others just go overnight.
Can you go to a different store for a guppy? Wish you were close-- i have way to many young guppies just now. i will have to cram them into a tank I guess as the lps don't care for them well enough and at the lfs they feed them to something else if they don't sell.
mousey
Ps there is a disease section on this web site.


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## Guppy-Frog-Girl (Sep 28, 2005)

Hey there Mousey,
I actually went to a neon Tetra site and found that my guppy's symtoms were very much like the Neon Tetra Disease... I also read that it can affect other fish than just neon tetras.. Obviously I bought her sick... also my first female that I got from the same store died of the same less severe symtoms.... at first it resembles Ick....... Well, thanks for the advice... I will find another pet store soon....-Guppy-Frog-Girl


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## Alisha (Aug 5, 2005)

I'm sorry to hear about the old girl. I know how you feel though. I get very attatched to my fish, and It angers me how the fish store employes could really care less. But the mother was just too sick and old to be pregnant. At least she had a better last few days, then being in the fish-store tank. Hope you get some better guppies soon. I have plenty fry (few months old) that you could tank, but dont think your too interested in paying for shipping, when you could easily go to a better fish store and get some healthy ones.


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## Guppy-Frog-Girl (Sep 28, 2005)

The only thing about getting them at pet stores is that , you never know how old they actually are... I think that has been my problem every time... I get the guppies that look the biggest and healthiest... Maybe I should look for smaller females... I don't know if there is even a strategy.... But for now I haven't bought any... I get very attached to my animals too... after we name them, they immediately become part of my family...

I've never bought fish , where they have to be shipped to me... how much would shipping be? thanks for the posts!!!


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## Alisha (Aug 5, 2005)

Me too. I bought a female maybe like 5 months ago, and she is getting a curved back. So I think she is getting right up there in age. And I don't know exactly how much it would cost, let me look into it. I haven't actually ever shipped fish either, but I will get back to you. Where are you located?


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## Guppy-Frog-Girl (Sep 28, 2005)

Actual zip code is 77433... a Suburb of Houston TX. thanks for the Info. Email me privately when you get the shipping rate. thanks


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