Swordtail Sitting On Bottom, Not Eating

I had freshwater 10 gallon aquarium that was well established and has been going on for many years. There where six fish inside and one algae eating shrimp. The fish where: Two mollies, two swordtails, and two platies.

Out of nowhere, one platy which I had for at year stopped eating, he didn't eat for 3 days, he became listless and then died. The other fish where fine, the water tested fine, he never showed any symptoms. After he was gone for a day, I figured it was just because he was old.

But now, one of my swordtails has displayed a similar problem. He stopped eating, and is laying on the bottom of the tank. (laying strait, not on his side). He hasn't eaten now for two days and I don't know what to do. I tested my water at a local petclub. They said everything was fine but the nitrates where a little high. I did a 25% water change. Later I then added one dose of AmQuel to lower the nitrate.

The swordtail still has the problem.

Please help me diagnose this, is it a parasite? I saw parasite treatment at petclub so that would be easy to get. But I don't want this fish to die.

I'll attach a photo in a few moments.

nuva007 said:

I had freshwater 10 gallon aquarium that was well established and has been going on for many years. There where six fish inside and one algae eating shrimp. The fish where: Two mollies, two swordtails, and two platies.

Out of nowhere, one platy which I had for at year stopped eating, he didn't eat for 3 days, he became listless and then died. The other fish where fine, the water tested fine, he never showed any symptoms. After he was gone for a day, I figured it was just because he was old.

But now, one of my swordtails has displayed a similar problem. He stopped eating, and is laying on the bottom of the tank. (laying strait, not on his side). He hasn't eaten now for two days and I don't know what to do. I tested my water at a local petclub. They said everything was fine but the nitrates where a little high. I did a 25% water change. Later I then added one dose of AmQuel to lower the nitrate.

The swordtail still has the problem.

Please help me diagnose this, is it a parasite? I saw parasite treatment at petclub so that would be easy to get. But I don't want this fish to die.

I'll attach a photo in a few moments.

Click to expand...

You say the stats were 'fine' could you define that please, as that would help a lot.

Have you added anything recently? Plants/Fish/Ornaments?

Have you recently changed any of the filter media? If so, how much?

D.

I changed the filter two weeks ago. As far as stats, I don't know the exact specifications unfortunately. The person who tested it said that the water levels where fine except for the nitrates.

I had added fish recently. The aquarium was at 4 fish for a few weeks after I removed two fish and gave them to a friend. I later purchased two new fish. (One of which is the swordtail currently having this problem) Both the new fish have been here for a couple of weeks without any problems.

Here are some pics of the swordtail sitting on the bottom:

Is the swordtail thin and are any of the other fish thin? This happens to livebearers often. Too often. What happens is they get badly infected with parasites. The parasites use all the food before they can. They become extremely thin. This weakens them so that a bacterial infection takes hold. This is fatal without treatment.

I can't make an absolutely positive diagnosis but nitrate would not cause this, livebearers are among the least susceptible to nitrate.

What I did with this was treat with antibiotics (tetracycline) for two days. Total water change (moved to different hospital tank) then treated with antiparasitic (praziquantel) for two days. Then good food, a week later, another two days in prazi. I saved several doing this.

The other possibility is mycobacteriosis or fish TB. It's incurable. If the above fails, euthanise the fish as it's TB and there is no hope of recovery.

The swordtail is thin, as you can see in the pictures above. But that is mainly because he hasn't eaten in 3 days now.

Last night I put in an anti-bacterial tablet. When I put it in, the swordtail started swimming around the bottom. He hadn't moved in 2 days so that was a good sign. I left the filter out for about an hour during the treatment. I had to put it back in before I went to bed.

I don't have a hospital tank or anything, so here are my option I have come up with: Put the swordtail in a large bucket and treat with anti-bacterial tablet again (But this time there would be no filter to interfere) or go buy anti-parasite tablets form petclub and do the same thing.

Are either of these good ideas? He didn't eat last night, and the fish mentioned in the first post died after 3 days of not eating.

nuva007 said:

The swordtail is thin, as you can see in the pictures above. But that is mainly because he hasn't eaten in 3 days now.

Last night I put in an anti-bacterial tablet. When I put it in, the swordtail started swimming around the bottom. He hadn't moved in 2 days so that was a good sign. I left the filter out for about an hour during the treatment. I had to put it back in before I went to bed.

I don't have a hospital tank or anything, so here are my option I have come up with: Put the swordtail in a large bucket and treat with anti-bacterial tablet again (But this time there would be no filter to interfere) or go buy anti-parasite tablets form petclub and do the same thing.

Are either of these good ideas? He didn't eat last night, and the fish mentioned in the first post died after 3 days of not eating.

Click to expand...

Fish don't get that skinny from not eating for three days. I frequently leave fish without food for longer than this, either because I'm going away or because they need a cleanout. I think he's got the parasite and bacteria complex described in my previous post.

What was the bacteria tablet you put in the tank? If it was tetracycline or another antibiotic, put some carbon in the filter immediately and monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels, as antibiotics sometimes kill the good bacteria in the filter. (Carbon will get rid of the remaining antibiotics and stop any more damage from occurring.)

Putting the fish in a bucket to treat is fine. Siphon water (clean water from the top of the tank) into the bucket. If you can find a spare air pump, run an airstone in the bucket. Use the antibacterial med for two days. It's not likely to have any effect if it's not a true antibiotic. If he's still alive, change all the water and then treat for two days with the antiparasitic. If he lives he should start recovering and start eating again. Then treat again with the parasite med seven days after finishing the last treatment. If doing this has no effect, he has fish TB. So far we haven't worked out how to cure it.

It was made by Jungle, called "Fungus clear" designed to eliminate fungus and bacteria related disease. It's left over from when I treated the fish for tail rot a while back. Should I get a new treatment? It can't be too expensive.

I'm going out in an hour or so to get anti-parasitic treatment.

Edit: I've noticed the swordtail has a stringy white poo, which is strange because he hasn't eaten. Is this a symptom of something?

Yep, both parasites and TB will produce this, parasites especially.

What's in the fungus clear? Bacterial meds usually will not do anything unless they are true antibiotics, which are not available in some countries unless you go through a vet (which is very dear, personally I wouldn't bother for a swordtail). Kanamycin, streptomycin, erythromycin or anything else ending in 'mycin' is antibiotic and will work. So will tetracycline and oxytetracycline, and chloramphenicol.

Well I took advice from a person at petclub and put in another bacterial tab and took out the filter. After an entire day of the tank running, the swordtail finally got off the bottom. Seriously, one minute he looked dead as a door nail, then the next movement he was hiding at the top of the tank next to the filter. When I fed this fish, he attempted to eat. Most of the food he got he spit back out (What does this mean?) But I'm sure this is a good sign because previously he couldn't even move.

When you say you changed the filter, did you throw the media away and replace it with new?. Filter media only needs to be squeezed out in a bucket of tank water. If you throw the filter media away, you're basically going to be constantly cycling the tank. Filter media can be used until it's almost falling apart.

I need help! My male swordtail has been sitting on the bottom shaking and not eating. The female is real fat and i am not sure if she is pregnant because i cant see the little black spots and she wont eat a thing eather.. I have a 10 gallon freshwater tank i just got them on friday and everything else seems to work fine.. I have another fish i there but i dint remember th name.. Help