VISITOR'S QUESTIONS
17... Guppies head up and tail down and wiggle
Not really sure about this one, I've never come across
females having swimming difficulties because they have given birth.
I've had a scout round my usual sources and no luck there either. However,
unnatural or uncontrolled swimming or floating at an angle can be caused
after a stress-related experience, and I suppose giving birth is quite
stressful. Also, the males you have in the tank could be chasing the
females around to the point of stress; the male guppy is very active
in that department.
The only other thing I can think of is that the disorder
is not associated with them giving birth but is a separate and coincidental
ailment, which makes me think it may be a swim bladder disorder. Fish
with a swim bladder disorder appear to swim in an abnormal fashion,
usually in a headstand position. They also appear to have difficulty
maintaining stability. They may even float upside down or appear to
be stuck at the surface of the water, being unable to swim down; they
may lie on the bottom unable to rise. Fish with a swim bladder disorder
will continue trying to feed and will show a normal appetite.
Causes of these disorders are largely unknown but the
most common cause of swim bladder disorder is improper diet. Improper
diet can lead to intestinal gas or intestinal blockages, intestinal
blockages can irritate the bowel, giving bacteria or other parasites
an entry point where they can then cause damage to the swim bladder.
Other causes may include: moving a fish from shallow to deep water too
suddenly or poor water quality, or a number of other things.
The Swim bladder is a gas-filled sac located inside
the fish’s body cavity just above most of the other internal organs.
This sac is what gives the fish its buoyancy, enabling its movement
and stability in the water. The amount of gas in this sac changes as
the fish rises and sinks in the water, enabling it to swim, hover and
move in all directions. Without its Swim bladder, a fish is unable to
control it's own movements.
Swim bladder inflammation (Aerocystitis), (although
this is unlikely) is a highly infectious virus and is much more serious.
In its early stages you may find the fish has stopped eating. As the
disease progresses pus-filled cysts form at the rear of the abdominal
cavity. This distends the body and causes the fish to do what appear
to be headstands.
As the cysts gets bigger so does the girth of the fish,
as the illness progresses it brings about degeneration of internal organs,
at the end it causes failure of organs such as the kidney and the liver,
although it may be slowed down by the use of antibiotics this is only
prolonging the agony and its best to put the fish to sleep.
There are a number of things that can be tried depending
on the symptoms found, although it's probably beyond the scope of the
average aquarist.
If the wall of the swim bladder is hardened raising
the temperature in the tank by 3 to 5 degrees for five days may help.
A bacterial infection, usually as a result of an inflammation,
can cause discharges of pus and may be treated with Quinine sulphate.
Another bacterial infection can cause the anterior
part of the air bladder, the part towards the abdomen, to become inflamed
these fish would be standing on their heads, or laying flat on the bottom,
and may be treated with TMP Sulfa -or- Sulfa 4 TMP.
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