Lots of Sick and Dying Guppies

Question
Hi,
For the last month I have been losing at least 1 guppy a day.  On Valentine's Day I lost 11.  HELP.  I noticed that things started going wrong when I added 3 females and 3 fry from a pet store.  The first ones to die were the guppies I had bought from the pet store.  I've treated the water with all sorts of medications (but not all at once).  I added Melafix to the tank when the fish first arrived, as prescribed.  When that didn't stop the fish from dying I tried using a med called Liquid Fungus Cure.  I followed the instructions to the tee.  After that didn't work, and a water change as required, i tried other stuff thinking that maybe the ammonia levels were too high.  So I added some fizzing tabs called Ammonia Clear (Jungle).  Still didn't help.  So, I took all of my guppies and put them in a smaller tank, 10 gal.  I thought that maybe the meds weren't working very well because my tank was too big (44 gal).

Right now I might have 8 adult guppies, 15-20 young ones (born on New Year's Day), and 20-30 fry.

On Sunday Feb. 19 I took the healthy looking guppies, young and old, out of the small tank and returned them to the large tank.

The small tank with all the sick looking fish is still getting meds.  I tried the Fungus Eliminator again.  The symptoms are what it calls for on the label; cotton fungus-on 1 guppy, red sores-on 2-3 guppies, one dead guppy with popeye and fin rot - his scales appeared to be sticking out and going back in and his white belly had turned red.  I've also noticed on some of the pregnant females that have died, their gravid spots appeared to be turning red.  Several of the guppies that have died and are still alive have gills that appear red.  Some of the guppies backs have arched really bad.

I have no idead what is wrong, and i have no idea what to do.  HELP

Regards,
Clifford

Answer
Hi Clifford,
 The Fungus Eliminator basically kills external fungus, but external fungus is usually just a symptom of something else, e.g. a fish that has been attacked by another fish.   I assume that you don't have any other fish in the tank, other than guppies, right?

 The red sores sound like there is something rather serious inside these guppies (perhaps that came in with that last batch). Exactly what that is I can't say.

 The treatment for excess ammonia is to do regular water changes, not to add another chemical to the tank.  For any fish tank you should be changing 10-20% of the water once a week, every week.  

 The arched backs is something that guppies get when they get old.

 Red gills can be a result of a gill infection or a sign that there are too many chemicals in the water which are burning the sensitive gill tissue.

 Overall it sounds like there are a whole bunch of things going on here.  Your best bet is to do what you have done, namely isolate the sick ones.  Beyond that, I really can't say.  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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