Guppys, Bloated & Sitting On The Bottom

Are the scales sticking out on the guppies? It is easier to see if you look down on them.

Sticking out scales is dropsy, a symptom of several diseases rather than a disease itself. There is some underlying condition which causes the kidneys to fail, the fish can't get rid of water and it swells up with the swelling making the scales stick out like a pine cone. The problem with treating dropsy is knowing what the underlying cause is - it could be a bacterial, viral or even protozoan infection. And the bad news is that once a fish reaches this stage there is usually nothing that can be done. Kidney failure is virtually impossible to treat.

OK, that's the worse case scenario. If your guppies' scales are not sticking out like a pine cone, are there any other symptoms to consider? Are they eating or not? When they poo, is it normal? How long have they been like this? Could they have overeaten if it's not been long?

Good news on the scales.

Try feeding the fish either a few daphnia or peas then fasting - miss a day's feeding. Don't feed a whole bag/cube of frozen daphnia, just a few. Or cook two or three peas (or save some from your meal), pop the insides out of the skins and chop them till the bits are small enough for the fish to eat.
If you use peas, their poo will turn green!

It's daphnia that 'clears them out' rather than brine shrimp. If you don't have any daphnia, try peas. But if they've already been fed today, give them peas tomorrow (Monday) then nothing on Tuesday.

And on the subject of peas, guppies do like a bit of veg in their diet so maybe add one pea a week to the feeding regime. You can mix it with their usual food, just a bit less of that. And when fed routinely you don't need to fast afterwards, that's just to get rid of constipation if that's what the guppies have. It won't hurt the other fish to miss one day.

It's fine to use frozen live (or even alive) twice a week. But give the guppies peas as well - though the white clouds will also eat them.