something lurking in the water?

[snowie5253]

I had 5 guppies, 1 died because of dropsy. So the others seem fine. But then I notice one male was pooping out a white string ! Both of my female are rubbing against rocks and artficial plants ! And one female guppy is darting all over the place. I see no rotting fins, no white dots, no fuzzy puffs. No worms coming out of anything. The female gills look slightly pink. The water condition is fine. Their food is frozen bloodworms, flakes. The water temperature is atm 86 . Its a 10 gallon tank. I have an aerator running. And a filter going. I have one normal guppy. He seems fine. Just flirting. Showing off. But im really worried with my othr guppies. They are in a main tank. Because I do not have a quarantine tank. I don't know what to do.
So symptoms are
2 female guppies Rubbing against rocks and plants, darting, and 1 male guppy constantly pooping out white strings.

please help me. Thank you.
im trying to figure out how to solve this issue before its to late

i notice his white poop are floating on the edge of the water. well hopefully its poop and not worms ):

 

[justonemoretank]

Really, all of this points to water quality issues. When's the last time you tested the water? Ammonia, nitrite should be zero, and nitrate should be below twenty. If these aren't the readings you're getting, that's the problem. "Dropsy" isn't really a disease, or illness, it's merely the name of a group of symptoms that are caused by poor water quality. The flashing that your females are doing is almost definitely due to ammonia burn. Please give actual numbers on your water parameters; my guess is this is related to water quality, and the only way to fix it is to fix your water quality. Ten gallon tanks hold about eight gallons of water after displacement from gravel and decorations, and that's really very little volume for the number of fish you have. Your temp is a little high. I'd shoot for 78-82 here. Any higher, and you're wasting money on electricity, as well as increasing metabolism of the fish, causing them to eat and poop more, which spells trouble in such a small volume of water. What type of filtration are you using? The guy with the white strings could be suffering from a bacterial infection, which would be treated with Maracyn 1 or 2, but honestly, if the water quality is bad, he'll never get better anyway, no matter how many antibiotics you dump in the water. Water parameters are key for diagnosis here. Again, please provide actual numbers.

 

[justonemoretank]

Sorry to bombard you here, but I noticed that in your tank setup you list a pleco. Plecos really don't belong in ten gallon tanks. The most obvious issue is that they outgrow them. The less obvious issue is that they are, quite literally, poop machines. This adds to your water quality problems in such a small volume.