Guppy flu?!?

[Elaine T]

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I had the oddest thing happen to my guppy tank. I goofed and exposed them
to water from a friend's guppy tank after a show last weekend.
Three days later, last Wednesday, every single adult and half-grown
guppy was shimmying at the water surface with clamped fins, refusing
food. The water tested fine - 0/0/5 pH 7.8 as usual and the Otocinclus
who share the tank were unaffected. I added some salt and formalin
and sat back to wait.

Yesterday, the fish were starting to eat again and swimming around
the tank with fins less clamped. Today most look fine and all are
eating. A few still have clamped fins. Happily, none have died.

What in the world happened? It seems like it must have been some
sort of virus since it affected every single fish. Maybe the guppy
equivalent of a human cold or flu?

The timing sucks because I had planned to sell a lot of these fish
tomorrow at the local aquarium society's semi-annual auction. I'm
pretty sure the healhy-looking fish would be offered for sale at
any reasonable LFS. What does everyone think of my selling recovered
ones at the auction? Will these fish will be OK in new homes?

- --
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com
PGP public key available at https://keyserver1.pgp.com/

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[Charles]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 03:45:07 GMT, Elaine T >
wrote:

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>Hash: SHA256
>
>I had the oddest thing happen to my guppy tank. I goofed and exposed them
>to water from a friend's guppy tank after a show last weekend.
>Three days later, last Wednesday, every single adult and half-grown
>guppy was shimmying at the water surface with clamped fins, refusing
>food. The water tested fine - 0/0/5 pH 7.8 as usual and the Otocinclus
>who share the tank were unaffected. I added some salt and formalin
>and sat back to wait.
>
>Yesterday, the fish were starting to eat again and swimming around
>the tank with fins less clamped. Today most look fine and all are
>eating. A few still have clamped fins. Happily, none have died.
>
>What in the world happened? It seems like it must have been some
>sort of virus since it affected every single fish. Maybe the guppy
>equivalent of a human cold or flu?
>
>The timing sucks because I had planned to sell a lot of these fish
>tomorrow at the local aquarium society's semi-annual auction. I'm
>pretty sure the healhy-looking fish would be offered for sale at
>any reasonable LFS. What does everyone think of my selling recovered
>ones at the auction? Will these fish will be OK in new homes?


They may be okay, but I wouldn't let them go so soon. If people got
them in a weakened state (Standard for guppies, it seems) and they
died it would do no good for your reputation or the buyer's morall.

I've had quite bad luck with guppies recently.

[Gill Passman]

Elaine T wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA256
>
> I had the oddest thing happen to my guppy tank. I goofed and exposed them
> to water from a friend's guppy tank after a show last weekend.
> Three days later, last Wednesday, every single adult and half-grown
> guppy was shimmying at the water surface with clamped fins, refusing
> food. The water tested fine - 0/0/5 pH 7.8 as usual and the Otocinclus
> who share the tank were unaffected. I added some salt and formalin
> and sat back to wait.
>
> Yesterday, the fish were starting to eat again and swimming around
> the tank with fins less clamped. Today most look fine and all are
> eating. A few still have clamped fins. Happily, none have died.
>
> What in the world happened? It seems like it must have been some
> sort of virus since it affected every single fish. Maybe the guppy
> equivalent of a human cold or flu?
>
> The timing sucks because I had planned to sell a lot of these fish
> tomorrow at the local aquarium society's semi-annual auction. I'm
> pretty sure the healhy-looking fish would be offered for sale at
> any reasonable LFS. What does everyone think of my selling recovered
> ones at the auction? Will these fish will be OK in new homes?
>
> - --
> Elaine T __
> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
> rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com
> PGP public key available at https://keyserver1.pgp.com/
>
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Hi Elaine,

Two questions spring to my mind:-

1. Are any of your friend's fish ill or showing similar symptoms? Do you
know what his/her water parameters test out at?

2. Did they get stressed at the show and are now recovering?

I probably wouldn't sell them this time just in case. You don't want to
get the reputation for selling sick fish

Gill

[Elaine T]

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Gill Passman wrote:
> Hi Elaine,
>
> Two questions spring to my mind:-
>
> 1. Are any of your friend's fish ill or showing similar symptoms? Do >
> you know what his/her water parameters test out at?

His fish were fine, and on local tapwater as are mine. BUT, my guppies
are a pure local strain known to be susceptible to the Singapore
iridovirus. His are a local strain crossed with Singapore fish so they
may be carrying the Singapore guppy viruses and not susceptible. I did
some more reading and learned that fish can carry the viruses for months
without any symptoms, and that it's waterborne. The incubation is only a
few days, so everything fits. The only thing that doesn't fit is that
it is usually more severe and often lethal. Perhaps I lucked out, or my
guppies are partly resistant.

BTW, all the problems folks have with gouramis now are from a new
iridovirus that has come out of the Asian fish farms. There's also a
related virus that's been isolated from the tissues of rams. The
well-known angel fish virus also belongs to the iridovirus family.

> 2. Did they get stressed at the show and are now recovering?

I only took 6 fish to the show. Those ended up a bit stressed, from
some ammonia in their little display containers. My friend offered some
of his conditioned tankwater from his 10 gallon display tank to carry my
fish home and I gratefully accepted it since I hadn't brought my Ammo
Lock. I dumped his water right into my tank without thinking because
his guppies were so obviously healthy. *duh*

> I probably wouldn't sell them this time just in case. You don't want
> to get the reputation for selling sick fish

Thanks. You're probably right. They sure do look fine today, though.
On the bright side, I found a store that will take at least the males
in trade.

- --
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com
PGP public key available at https://keyserver1.pgp.com/

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