dropsy mum

[guppyguardian]

good and bad news today
we've had one of our female gups in the breeding tank for the last week and she hasn't been looking to good over the last few days. last night i noticed her taking on the pine cone look and got on here to see why cos i remembered reading about the pine cone look. thats when i thought oh maybe she isn't pregnant, maybe its dropsy. so i went and had another look at her, seems she does have dropsy and she was or is still pregnant as so far there are twelve fry in the bottom of the breeding tank.
i think the dropsy has been brought on by the breeding tank, one she doesn't like it in there so that has elevated her stress levels and two there isn't enough water flow in the breeding tank. the breeding tank she is in is a KIS floating breeding tank. well i guess there is a lesson although quiet obvious now clean and cycle water in breeding tank regularly while mums to be are in it. which i did do this morning because of my suspicions.
will start treatment tonight when hubby gets home hopefully she has had all her fry by then.

[Bumblebee]

if there at the 'pinecone' stage then there usually isnt that much hope sorry to say. the 'pinecone' look is from multiple organ failure, usually involving the kidneys which can no longer remove the water from the fishes system, so it stays inside and the fish swells up. Best to remove the sick fish to an isolation tank and do a few small water changes on the fry tank over the next few days. if you have a mautre tank then add a little gravel and a squeeze of the gunk from the filter, this will age your fry tank 'instantly'. This is usually a common problem in gup tanks under 4-5 months old. usually dropsy is a warning sign before columnaris takes out a lot of fish. make sure temp is at 24c, fish are fed only a tiny ammount once aday and that you keep up water changes regularly. even add a small handfull of shell-grit per 30lt to make sure KH is nice and high.

[guppyslayer]

fry tank is safe... as mother and babies were in main tank still.

mother may be ethinised? only one other male guppy in the tank and 3 goldies.
goldies have been moved to another tank as has the male guppy. going to give the tank a good scrup and do a 70 to 80 % water change hopefully this will not kill the young.
would mystry snails carry dropsy? as they are the other addition to the tank in the recent weeks.

b

[guppyslayer]

well she did us proud before passing, approx 30 fry.

i emptied the main tank into a bowl and put fry in to it, goldfish and male guppy in another smaller tank for time been (unheated no airstone) should not be there for more than 36 hours, hopefully less. main tank was scrubbed as i have had no help cleaning algae ( no snails/catfish). So now my 3 foot tank is my fry tank, fry tank is currently being repaired (had very small leak in a corner) it will be my quarrentine tank from now on.

hopefully next week will see my 4 foot tank fixed and made into my main tank ( had to replace a whole side 4 foot x 18 inches)

is there some where i could find out how thick glass has to be for fish tanks? (as in 4 foot high x4 foot long x 2 foot wide glass thickness of XXmm is required)

and one more question before i forget, tanks made from lexan, are they anygood ?

b