Guppies are the most common fish every aquarist prefers to add to their home aquarium. They are hardy fish and can live in a wide range of water parameters.
However, guppies can become prone to various diseases and parasites if kept in bad water conditions and can become weak. Many aquarists face problems like guppy fish getting thin in their guppy-keeping journey. So, Why is my guppy getting thin? Let us find out.
The internal parasite is the primary reason behind guppy fish getting thin. Other reason includes underfeeding, old age, sickness, and feeding low-grade food. Feed high-quality nutritional food appropriately and ensure good living conditions for your guppy fish to prevent such issues.
This article will discuss why guppy fish is getting thin and how we can prevent our guppies from such issues. So, let us get into it.
Contents
Why Is my guppy getting skinny?
There can be various reasons behind your guppy fish getting skinny, of which the internal parasites are the primary reasons.
Other reasons are old age, sickness, underfeeding, and feeding low-grade food to your guppy fish.
You must know that poor water conditions can also make your guppy fish skinny by making them come under stress and prone to various diseases and parasites like camallanus worms.
Guppies are hardy fish that can live in a wide range of water parameters, but guppies can get easily prone to various diseases and parasites if kept in bad water conditions.
Underfeeding your guppy fish or feeding them with low-quality expired food will make them skinny and weak.
Also read: Why Is My Guppy Not Eating?
Is It normal for a guppy to get thin?
If age is the factor behind your guppy fish getting thin, it is normal, and you cannot do anything to treat it.
Any other reasons behind such issues are not normal and immediate action is required.
Internal parasites, sickness, underfeeding, and low-grade food are the other reasons behind your guppy fish getting skinny.
If not treated early, your guppy fish can pass away or suffer from a critical condition.
What are the reasons behind my guppy fish getting thin?
These all can be the reason behind your guppy fish getting thin:
- Internal parasites
- Old age
- Sickness
- Lack of high-quality nutritional food
- Underfeeding
- Poor water conditions
Internal parasite
Internal parasites like camallanus worms can be the reason behind your guppy fish getting thin.
Parasites like camallanus worms are not easy to detect. However, you will notice red, thread-like worms attached to the anus of your guppies in the advanced stages of such parasites.
There are other symptoms like intestinal bloating, refusing to eat, and the presence of waste and leftovers in the aquarium.
If your guppy fish carry these symptoms, they are infected with camallanus worms.
Antihelminthic medications are essential for treating camallanus worms.
Make sure to clean the substrate of your guppies aquarium after 24 hours of treating the aquarium with medications to remove all the dead worms.
Also, these medications are toxic for invertebrates like snails and shrimps, so remove them from the aquarium before performing the treatment.
These internal parasites are contagious and can spread all over the aquarium, infecting all the fishes present in the aquarium.
So, we recommend treating all the fish rather than separating the sick guppy in a hospital tank and treating them separately.
Old age
Guppy fish’s old age can also be the reason behind getting thin.
If you have the sick guppy fish for more than 1-2 years in your aquarium, the age is the reason behind the guppy fish getting skinny.
This is natural, and you cannot do anything to cure your sick guppy fish.
Sickness
Sickness is another common reason behind your guppy fish getting thin.
There can be various causes behind your guppy fish getting sick such as stress, poor water condition, bacteria and parasites, and feeding on expired foods.
A sick guppy will get skinny because of the disease and high-stress levels.
Also, a sick guppy will not get able to eat much, making them weak and skinny.
Lack of high-quality nutritional food
Feeding low-grade food to your guppy fish can also make them thin.
Food plays a major role in keeping your guppy fish healthy and ensuring their longer lifespan.
If you are feeding expired food or food that doesn’t contain high nutritional value, it will affect your guppy fish, and they can become skinny.
Guppy fish require various meat and plant matter food to ensure their ideal dietary requirements.
Feeding them one type of food and a low-grade food will affect their health, and they can become skinny.
Underfeeding
Usually, every aquarist tries not to overfeed their guppies.
Guppies are always hungry, which means that whenever you serve food to them, they will feed on them whether they are hungry or not.
Such eating behavior of guppies confuses us, and we overfeed our guppies.
But, this same behavior can also make us underfeed our guppies.
Underfeeding guppy fish can also make them look thin.
Also read: How Often Should You Feed Guppies?
Poor water conditions
Poor water conditions can also be the reason behind your guppy fish getting thin.
Bad water quality will make your guppy fish come under stress.
Guppy fish under stress for a long time will become prone to various diseases and parasites like camallanus worms.
Also, your guppy fish will lose its appetite and will become weak.
All these will result in your guppy fish getting skinny.
Also read: Can Guppy Survive In Muddy Water?
How to prevent my guppy fish from getting thin and weak?
Ensure these things to prevent your guppy fish from getting thin and weak:
- Feed your guppy fish high-quality nutritional food.
- Make sure not to underfeed your guppy fish.
- Detect and treat the issues at the early stages if your guppy fish is suffering from any disease or infections.
- Isolate the new fish before adding it to your home aquarium.
Feed high-quality nutritional food
Food plays a major role in keeping your guppy fish healthy and ensuring their longer lifespan.
If you feed low-grade food to your guppy fish, they will become weak and prone to various diseases and parasites.
Consider feeding high-quality nutritional food to your guppy fish to avoid such issues.
Feed your guppy fish flake food, veggie pellets, daphnia, and other live foods.
Also, feed your guppy fish blanched vegetables like zucchini and cucumber to fulfill their plant-based nutritional requirement.
Also read: Best Food For Guppy Fish.
Make sure not to underfeed guppy fish.
Guppy fish are always hungry and will eat every time you serve food to them, whether they are hungry or not.
With such eating behaviors, owners get confused and end up overfeeding their guppies.
Overfeeding your guppies can make them suffer from issues like constipation and bloating.
But, underfeeding can also do worse to your guppy fish by making them weak and skinny.
So, to ensure that you are not underfeeding or overfeeding your guppy fish, provide them food in a quantity that they can finish eating in one to two minutes.
If your guppy fish is eating the food in seconds, you are underfeeding them and increase the quantity next time.
Also read: How To Know If Guppy Is Hungry?
Treat the issues at the early stages.
There are lots of problems from which your guppy fish can suffer.
Guppies are hardy fish and can live in a wide range of water parameters, but there are many bacterias and diseases which can affect your guppy fish health.
So, whenever you notice any unusual behavior change in your guppy fish, take immediate action by finding the reason behind it and treating the issue.
Isolate the new fish before adding it to your home aquarium.
A new fish and invertebrates can carry internal parasites like camallanus worms and infect the whole aquarium.
Also, many contagious bacteria and parasites can transfer from one fish to the whole aquarium.
So, to ensure that the new fish is healthy and doesn’t contain any bacteria and parasites, you should isolate them first.
Isolating the new livestock for one to two weeks will help you detect if any issues are going with them.
If you find any problems, treat them with proper medication.
You can introduce them to your home aquarium when you are sure that the new batch of fish and invertebrates are now healthy and don’t contain any bacteria and parasites.
Conclusion:
There are various reasons behind your guppy fish getting thin, of which the internal parasites are the primary reason.
Internal parasites like camallanus worms can make your guppy fish weak and skinny.
Other reasons include sickness, underfeeding, age, and feeding low-grade food to your guppy fish.
Proper medication is required for treating internal parasites.
Feed your guppy fish high-quality food, feeding them appropriately, and providing good water condition is essential to prevent such issues.
Reference: ScienceDirect, NCBI, CABI