Guppy has crooked Spine

[Magnus Jones]

Hello everyone, I have a 45 gallon pond out on my porch with 11 guppies, 4 platies, and a bristlenose pleco. The platies have been breeding like crazy so the water quality is surely fine but I have noticed that from the top, one of my female guppies has gotten thinner and has developed a “broken” looking back. Can anyone help me diagnose this and tell me what actions I should take in this situation?

Thanks, Magnus

 

[duanes]

Usually the crooked spine is not caused by any out side influence, but it is a common birth defect that wasn't noticed by the breeder and culled before being sold.
If you allow the individual to breed, the crooked spine gene could be passed on to some of its fry.
It may be you noticed it because you are looking from top down, and its obvious now that it larger, the breeder may have not seen it, if they were in tanks when young.

 

[Ozip]

Your guppy should be fine. I have a cory catfish that has the same birth defect. No one wanted the poor guy at the fish store so I picked him up. He is actually one of the more active Cory's I have and eats fine.

 

[Magnus Jones]

Thanks for the replies, the thing is that this seemed to happen overnight where she suddenly got super thin and the back became crooked. She has also started to act way more lethargic than usual although still eating. Should I just leave her in there?

 

[Ozip]

Thanks for the replies, the thing is that this seemed to happen overnight where she suddenly got super thin and the back became crooked. She has also started to act way more lethargic than usual although still eating. Should I just leave her in there?

If you want you could put her in isolation and that way you can observe her more in detail. Maybe will help her gain some weight back and then reintroduce her to tank once you feel comfortable.

 

[Magnus Jones]

I have later noticed another female guppy floating sideways while trying to swim still so I moved her to my 20 gallon because the other fish were nipping at her. The tank has a Betta too in it as I just thought that it was swim bladder disease which couldn’t affect the Betta. I had floated her in a net so she didn’t float all over the place and later found flakes of skin from her in the net. The crooked spine on the other guppy and swim bladder disease and flaking skin of this guppy has led me to believe that the culprit could be a bacteria that causes fish tuberculosis and I am now worried for my and my betta’s heath as this is a disease that humans are prone to as well. What should I do?

 

[Matteus]

I’ve spent the last 6-8 months with 100’s of guppies. It started out as breeding them for food, then inherited roughly 300 more when I picked up a 180 gal tank. I’m not an expert but what I find I have learned from the experience is a few things.

Guppies don’t seem to have a huge life span, watching them grow from fry to having numerous batches of their own fry, in my short time with them.

Often they get weird, random defects, that seem to pop up overnight, then just die, or even some times disappear. I think a lot of this is from inbreeding and overbreeding. I have even found this with them when I tried breeding from different sources.

Also I am not a doctor but I’m pretty sure we would not contract diseases from having a fish in a net. Unless you ate the fish raw I don’t think you would have anything to worry about in regards to getting tb.

Just my thoughts...

 

[Magnus Jones]

Thanks for the reassurance, man. I in no means try to be contrary but you can catch a bacterial infection from handling and putting your hands in the tank containing fish with that disease. This disease in Fish is called fish tuberculosis regarding the Symptoms of the infected fish. Anyways, thanks for sharing your experiences keeping guppies with me!

 

[Deadliestviper7]

I’ve spent the last 6-8 months with 100’s of guppies. It started out as breeding them for food, then inherited roughly 300 more when I picked up a 180 gal tank. I’m not an expert but what I find I have learned from the experience is a few things.

Guppies don’t seem to have a huge life span, watching them grow from fry to having numerous batches of their own fry, in my short time with them.

Often they get weird, random defects, that seem to pop up overnight, then just die, or even some times disappear. I think a lot of this is from inbreeding and overbreeding. I have even found this with them when I tried breeding from different sources.

Also I am not a doctor but I’m pretty sure we would not contract diseases from having a fish in a net. Unless you ate the fish raw I don’t think you would have anything to worry about in regards to getting tb.

Just my thoughts...

Appears to be a genetic defect, especially exacerbated by in breeding, most of my guppies seem to live only 3 years or so, some lived to five, I had one get a crooked back that got worse, lost muscle tone and then couldn't swim, I say put them down once you notice muscle loss and crooked backs.

 

[Magnus Jones]

I have just noticed that another one has gotten a crooked back as well. Should it happen this much?