# Guppy gulping at top of tank



## karl (Dec 6, 2005)

Hi

I'm new to all this CO2 stuff.

with 2 * DIY 2 litre CO2 containers on a 52 gallon tank with 120Watts of lighting, by the end of the day, one of the guppies keeps coming up to the surface and gulping at the surface a couple of times a minute.

Is this a sign that the Guppie is struggling to breath ? and should I reduce the CO2 levels ?

Not all the guppies do this and the other fish don't do it (hatchets, pentazona barbs, killifish, synodontis petricola).. although I realise that with the exception of the syn. petricola all the other fish are from softer / acid water environments in the wild.

I've got KH 13 and PH 7.1, which calculates out to about 35ppm CO2.

Thanks

Karl.


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## adamjh (Sep 2, 2005)

If only one fish is doing it and the other fish seem fine, then I would say it is probably not your CO2 levels that are causing problems. Only one guppy is doing it? All the others are fine? How many guppies do you have in total?


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

When I started CO2, I also had one guppy that did that - with virtually any level of CO2 in the water, and even though oxygen levels were great with the plants pearling.

All water parameters tested normal.

Guppies are a brackish water species and benefit from a bit of salt. So I added some aquarium salt - I can't remember how much now, but it was a tiny amount. It seemed to alleviate the symptoms.

But I found that guppy dead about a week later.

No other guppy has ever had a problem. Maybe some guppies just can't handle CO2.


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## karl (Dec 6, 2005)

It does seem to be mainly one Guppy. It is fine when the air stone gets going at the end of the lighting period and it's fine earlier in the day, but towards the end of the lighting period when the CO2 levels are probably at their highest, it struggles. There are loads of O2 bubbles coming off plants, so oxygen levels should be high enough and the temperature is 25C.

There are 4 guppies in total, one of the other guppies does it to some extent, but not as much.

I wonder if they are less tolerant of CO2 and/or PH swings, being natively alkaline / hard water fish.

They have some fin nip damage from a killifish that is attempting to spawn, but I don't think it's related, because the guppy was doing this before the fin nip damage.


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## turbosaurus (Nov 19, 2005)

The piping could be an indication of gill flukes or other parasite- especially the way it seems to be progressing. If O2 is low all the fish should be piping (breathing from the surface) but if it started as one, then another started that is more indicative of a contagion, likely a parasite but could be bacterial. Especially if your plants are pearling- that indicates a saturation of 02. It is likely that something else is making it hard for this fish to breath- it is probably worse late in the day because the fish has been active for a long period- it rests at night so it needs less O2 in the morning because it hasn't been exerting damaged gills. 

Salt will help with a parasitic infestation or bacterial infection- but watch out too much and your plants will start to die. I would add a little salt and start melafix daily- if there is not improvement after two days it is probably flukes- go with prazi- but the meds might be more expensive than the fish...


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## adamjh (Sep 2, 2005)

I think turbosaurus has made an excellent suggestion for a differential diagnosis! The whole picure for too much CO2 or too little O2 just doesn't seem to be there.


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## karl (Dec 6, 2005)

This could be actually. I had some white spot that got in with the hatchets. I dosed the tank with 'white spot plus' from interpet, which alleges it doesn't harm plants and it seems to have mostly cleared up, but not completely. I've not seen any spots on the guppies, but I guess it could have been unlucky enough to get on on it's gills ??


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