Ich and Pregnancy in guppies?

Question

I keep a 10 gallon tank with 4 guppies, 3 females and 1 male, 4 neon tetras and 2 black tetras. I recently noticed a problem with what appears to be ich, some of the fish have small white spots predominantly on their fins but some on their bodies aswell and some were thrashing their bodies off the gravel. I began dosing for this using Interpet Aquarium Treatment #6. I then began noticing some of the fish had become darkened around the body and mouth as if by ammonia burning. Having tested my water levels for Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite and pH and finding them ok I don't know what's causing this. Also 1 of the female guppies appears to be heavily pregnant and her spine has become curved towards the end of her body, is this natural in the latter stages of pregnancy or is it a broken back from thrashing off the bottom? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

According to my test kits my pH is neutral, and ammomia is nil-trace. Your help has been fantastic MM and is greatly appreciated. My next course of action if would seem would be to try and restore the water to good condition by a 50% change, replacement of the carbon filter and then treating the ick through salt and heat? Does this seem like a good move?, can the tetras survive in salt water? I'm not overly worried about losing the batch of fry as I have no where to keep them and intended on giving them to my local fish shop anyways. I also can't find any information on the medication which isn't good. Also given the poor state my water my be in, would it be wise to redose it with a filter-boosting formula to re-establish the possibly damaged bacteria after the water change?.
Again, many thanks.

Answer 1

Without knowing the ingredients in the treatment (which don't seem to be available online) the cause of the darkening and spotting can only be a few guesses. But the materials listed in your previous question are of some help. Dead material can be stained dark blue to near black by exposure to methylene Blue, so that's one possibility, also even a mild over dose of formalin can (rarely) cause burns similar to ammonia burns.

Hope that helps and hope you find the cause

MM

Could your ammonia test kit be giving a false reading? Maybe a double check by a local shop to confirm your kit is still good wouldn't hurt. I double check mine frequently and have been quite surprised by how quickly some lose their accuracy.

Without knowing what else may be in the medication, it's possible the meds have damaged the biofilter and if the pH is above 7.8-8.0 the ammonia would burn even more quickly than typical.

Again, these are just guesses, but based on all we have to go on at this point, I would suggest the possibilities for your consideration.

As for the female guppy, that's not common but not unheard of either for the female to bend like that during the latter stages of pregnancy. Often she will straighten some after delivery, but usually not back to the original straight spine from before. Many guppy breeders see this as a sign of old age and / or over breeding and stop breeding a female that shows this condition.

Answer 2

It could be a bad side effect from the medication. When my fish got ich I didn't use medication, so I can't help you with that. I used the salt treatment. I'm not sure if your fry will survive the treatments or the ich. If you want more info on what I did for the ich with the salt, you can e-mail me. Look up the medication and see if it is a side effect or not. That's really my only suggestion. With out a photo I can't tell how bad the spine is curved. My preg guppies didn't have a major curve though. If it's major, then it might be broken.