Poor fish

My poor fish hasn't been doing well lately. She's been swimming at a 45-degree angle rather than horizontal. A previous fish did this prior to expiring. I noticed last night the following on her:



It looks like she was hurt somehow. At the front of the wound her scales are pulled away and kind of just hanging there.

Is it too late for her? Is there anything I can do? What could have caused this?

Thanks all.

i don't know excatly waht is wrong with her, but if you say she's not swimming horizonatally it coudl be swim bladder disease..mixed with something else. That looks like some kind of wound, i would isolate her if you can, just in case it's something contagious.

If you have a hopstial tank i would put her in that, give her some salt, as for swim bladder you could try giving her a pea or two for a few days and see if she can get it out of her system.

I'm not good with meds so i really don't know what to reocmmend for you there hopefully someone else more expierenced can help you good luck with the fishy, she sure is beatiful

A normal pea? A canned one (with the peel removed?), or a raw one (peeled?)?

How much salt? Swordtails aren't saltwater fish, so I wouldn't want to put too much.

Looks like internal parasites (see how her stomach is sucked in) does she eat any flake. Wot your water chemistry like? ammonia and nitrite like? That patch near her tail looks like a ulcer.

i'd really try to isolate her good luck tho

p.s. i also agree with what bigfish is saying

bigfish said:

Looks like internal parasites (see how her stomach is sucked in) does she eat any flake. Wot your water chemistry like? ammonia and nitrite like? That patch near her tail looks like a ulcer.

Click to expand...

She was eating flake before, but I haven't seen her eat in awhile. I don't know what the chemistry is, or how to check it. I'm a bit new at this.

She looks like she has some kind of body fungus on her side and she's pretty thin, which could be an internal parasite. Do you have a hospital tank?

For treatment, you'll need to get Jungle Parasite Clear and/or Pepso Food fro maximum results. For the fungus, you can get either Jungle Fungus Clear or Melafix (which you can use with Jungle Parasite Clear.)

I got a 1-gallon tank to put her in. I got the stuff that Sasha suggested, but I think I forgot the fungus clear. I got one of those pH strip to test the water in the main tank and it was way in the acidic side. I put in their pH balancer stuff, so hopefully that will help a little.

On a side note, why was my image removed in my original post? Just wondering if I did something wrong there. How do I post images?

I put her in the tank overnight. She seems to be doing okay, but not any better. I've attached a new image of her. The area is redder than it was before, but it was that color last night when I moved her. Should I add the salt? How much for a 1-gallon tank?

I also got a book on fish health that I'm going to go through. Does anyone have an idea on the specific name of what she's got, or is it just physical damage?

On a side note, since putting the pH balancer in the main tank, the other two fish seem happier.

Im a bit stumped here. Never seen a sore like that. It is good that you straightened the ph out, but you also need to test the water for ammonia and nitrite and nitrate. Did you test for those also? If those are high youll want do do a water change to bring them down.

Well, bad news. She didn't make it last night. She wasn't eating and was just sitting at the bottom. This morning she wasn't moving in a corner.



Okay. So here's what's going on. In both tanks, I put the following (all of them the fizzing tabs):

Jungle Labs Water Safe
Jungle Labs Ammonia Clear
Jungle Labs Correct pH

In the primary tank (5 gallons), I put half of a tab of each of the above. It turned cloudy overnight. Last night I put in another quarter of a tab of the Ammonia Clear and the water looks better this morning, but mildly cloudy.

In her tank (1 gallon) I put a quarter tab of each of the above along with a quarter tab of Jungle Labs Parasite Clear. The water was okay yesterday, but was cloudy this morning.

I got a water chemistry test kit this morning, so I'm going to test both tanks to see what's going on. I new to fish, so I think this water-chemistry thing is something that I should really figure out. Hopefully the remaining two will be healthy for awhile longer. (How long do swordtails live?)

Thanks for everyone's help.

So I tested the water in both tanks. The main tank came out to be the following:

pH = 7.0
Ammonia = 0.5 PPM
Nitrite = 5.0 PPM
GH = 10

Looking in the book that came with the tests, pH is a little low, and GH is right. The other two are high(!). Am I right?