Sick guppy
 

I have a female guppy who is a few months old. The past 2 -3 days she has been basically on the bottom of the tank and looks to be breathing very heavy. I don't see any spots or anything, she acts like she is injured but I don't see anything. She will move around a little bit to eat. Any idea what might be wrong?

the water probably lacks oxygen if its heavily breathing and its gills are red. can you post youtr water parameters? it will help alot.

I have one of those 5 tests in 1 and just checked, everything is within normal limits - nitrates, hardness,alkalinity, and ph. I do have an air hose in the tank (it's a 10 gallon tank) and it's running properly. I don't notice anything physical with the fish, ie change in colors, just lethargic and gills are going very quickly. Thanks for your help.

The test strips aren't usually very accurate - the liquid tests are much better. The 3 main things you need to test for are amonia, nitrites and nitrates, and Ph is handy too but in emergencies not the first thing you need to check. I notice that your test doesn't check for all 3.

From the sounds of it she is stressed, possibly due to an amonia spike. IF you were able to check for this and let us know that would be helpful.

You should have:

amonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate < 40ppm

Hope your fish is alright.

hi
how many have you got in there?
are they all females,or do you have males as well?
is it possible she is pregnant,and getting
harassed(sp) by males wanting to breed with her.
mabe a water change would help.

Sick guppy passed away
 

Thanks for all the help and ideas. Unfortunately, she died. She was in the first group of babies born in my tank...so, it's a sad day. I was thinking perhaps she was pregnant also. I will check the ammonia level today and take a water sample in to my local pet store to be more thoroughly tested. Thanks again for all your help and good wishes for "Field Goal". She was one of 3 born to my male fish "Touchdown", so she along with her 2 brothers had football names as well. :cry:

I'm sorry to hear that.

Best check your water just in case - to save the same thing happening to any others if that was indeed what was wrong.

:(
I'm sorry to read that,that's such a shame.
i'd still do a water change though.
maybe it's just me,but after something like that,
i like to freshen up the water.
hope all the others are ok.

sorry for youre loss. hope it doesnt happen to the others.