# Guppies



## fishman13 (Jul 27, 2009)

My guppies are always at the surface for some reason. theres plenty of oxygen in the tank. there are live plants(wisteria). tank mates are lemon and cardinal tetras,3 real flying foxes, 2 brush mouth catfish, 2 leoperd cories, 1 skunk cory. Whats the problem?


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

fishman13 said:


> My guppies are always at the surface for some reason. Whats the problem?


Problem? They are a surface dwelling fish, that is where they should be.


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## fishman13 (Jul 27, 2009)

no. they usaly swim all around the water levels. for a couple of days now they have been staying at the surface. only the surface. some of there bodies are begining to upword. i dont know what is happining please help.


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## londonloco (Mar 31, 2011)

NO, they are surface dwelling fish, they belong at the top of the tank.


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## halffrozen (Sep 24, 2011)

Mine swim all around the tank as well, but usually hangs more towards the mid-upper parts of the tank with my 1 month old Molly's.


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

I think he means that they're gasping for breath at the surface...? What are your water parameters? And is your water well oxygenated? As mentioned, guppies are surface dwelling fish, but they do swim all over the tank. If they're at the top and won't leave at all, you may have a spike of some kind, or very oxygen-poor water.


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## Gino Santangelo (Nov 26, 2008)

No guppies don't ever just hang out on the surface, somethin's up. The characidaes you mention are nippers do you ever see them harassing the guppies? Are the guppies fancy or short finned. You say there is plenty of O2 can the fish respire? Any gill problems that you can see? When I see guppies hanging at the surface there usually being harassed.


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## fishman13 (Jul 27, 2009)

some of the guppies bidies are bent upward and some of the gills look like you can see the gills them selves


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## Nodalizer (Nov 7, 2011)

your tank levels are wrong, go buy a test kit.

gills are most likely ammonia, the curved spine is also stressed related so prob nitrates/nitrite or ammonia or a combination of the 3.

Once we can rule out your water conditions we might be able to work out what it is.


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

Curved spine could also be damage, genetic defect, or old age. The gills sound like they're flaring, which is probably an ammonia/nitrite problem. Buy a test kit (liquid style are best, and well worth the money; API sells a master test kit for around 40 dollars). Chances are, you had/still have a spike.


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## fishman13 (Jul 27, 2009)

all these guppies i have had have been inbred in a community. could it be a gene that kills them off quickly or was there jus to much inbreeding going on. I have had 100's of generations from wen i first got the F1 babies and ever since then they have all been inbreeding.


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## Nodalizer (Nov 7, 2011)

Post some water quality parameters, then maybe we can comment more. Until we know what your chemicals look like we are just guessing.

So your first goal is to get a test kit and tell us what the results are for atleast ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and ph.


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

What the above said 

Inbreeding weakens the fish, since it increases the likelihood of recessive traits from appearing, ie the physical defects. This is udually why te really fancy strains are so picky, and die off so rapidly.


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## fishman13 (Jul 27, 2009)

well then the guppies have a std :lol: .Ill jus have to buy new ones


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