FishProfiles.com Message Forums

In my quarantine tank I have a few fish waiting out their quaratine period before transferring to the planted tank. One of the fish in waiting is a guppy, who seems very sad. He basically just sits up in the top back corner behind the filter impellor. He doesn't swim much. Is he sad because he's the only guppy. There are 6 friends waiting for him in the main tank.

Should I move him across now. He's only been in quarantine since yesterday - so too soon to know if he's brought a disease with him. The other tank is quite heavily planted & if he dies in there, he'll be hard to find, so I'm reluctant to move him if his legarthy is due to sickness, but could it be because of loneliness. I didn't think guppys were schooling fish & he does have some other little fish in there with him (harlequin rasboras).

Can a guppy die from being lonely?

Cheers
TW

Your guppy will be fine in a QT tank. It is better to quarentine him than risk infecting the whole tank. Many of us have learned our lessons by introducing sick fish into our tanks.

___________________________________________

If at first you DO succeed, try not to look astonished.

Two choices leave him with all the other fish just in case there is a problem with his health. If you think he is being harrased by the others place him in a net fry pen naturally in the quaratine tank

The other choice is take him back but dont buy a replacement until all the fish have been transfered to your other tank.

The reason for not buying a replacement is that the LFS could have a bad batch and you could easly bring home another sick fish.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Thanks for the replies.

No he is not being chased or harrassed. Now my bolivian rams - that's another story. But back to the guppy, just very little movement. He did feed last night, but he doesn't play & dart around the tank like the guppys in the other tank do.

I think I will leave him - I just wondered if it was normal for a guppy to be sad or inactive if not with other guppys. Wondered if being sad or lonely could cause a guppy to die.

Cheers
TW

Robyn,

Generally speaking, fish that usually live in a shoal or school tend to be very shy when being the only one (or sometimes even two) of their kind in a tank with other fish. In the long run that for sure can cause a quicker death than normal as the fish is constantly under stress and looks for protection.

I would say that if the fish dies from "sigularities" in even a short time span then it was weak to begin with.

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Thanks LF,

He won't be in there too long, but to finish QT, he won't be able to join his guppy buddies until 25th March. He feeds and sometimes he does swim around the tank, but the majority of his time is spent in the back corner, near the top of the tank, just behind the filter motor. He just hovers there.

Ingo, I think what you're saying is that if I kept him on his own long term, it could shorten his life due to stress. But if he dies in a short time, then it is more likely he was a weak fish to begin with.

Would you consider 2 weeks a "long time" for him to be on his own. You might not remember, but in a previous thread you suggested 2 weeks as a good QT time span, so I'm assuming that it's a "short time", not a "long time" so it should be ok (unless he's just a weak fish, & if so, better the poor thing passes away in QT instead of community tank).

Cheers
TW

Mabey he's not swimming alot because he is sick...

10gallon: 8neons 5gallon: 1betta
1oto
2platys

Would you consider 2 weeks a "long time" for him to be on his own. You might not remember, but in a previous thread you suggested 2 weeks as a good QT time span, so I'm assuming that it's a "short time", not a "long time" so it should be ok (unless he's just a weak fish, & if so, better the poor thing passes away in QT instead of community tank).

Yup - that is what I what I mean

Of course it breaks my heart as well when I see a fish behaving in this fashion, I can see "natural" causes of why he does so (solitude). A long time ago (10 months) I decided to try my luck with Neon Tetras and that didn't go too well. In short, only one of the first 3 purchased batches survived and he was hiding behind a piece of driftwood all day and only came out durin feeding. Then I bought another batch and with my luck all but one from this batch died as well. So now, about 6 months after that event, I still have 2 Neons (don't suggest I should get more) and both are mostly (but not at all times) hiding in 2 spots behind the driftwood. Sad story, but I told it so you see that even with this behavior some survival time is given.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Sorry to hear about your neons, Ingo. No wonder you don't want to try them again. I remember you recommending me against them too, when I was deciding my stock. If my rasboras don't make it this time, I'll be scared to buy more of them - so I understand completely where you're coming from. But so far, my remaining 4 are fine & I have another 4 large ones on order.

If my guppy makes it to the end of QT, he won't be lonely anymore. He has 6 guppy buddies waiting to meet him. I'm feeling more confident about his survival now, as I think he is just lonely & sad & I know that is only a temporary situation. So fingers crossed for my guppy & I'm counting down the days till he's out of QT (25 March)

Thanks xlinkinparkx, that was my first thought too, but I'm starting to think it really is just that he's a bit stressed due to being the lone guppy, but in case he is sick - he's staying in QT for now. Fingers crossed he'll be OK.

Cheers
TW